Petitioning in front of stores, do you sign?

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) If you have been running those errands, you may have come across someone asking you to sign a petition for a measure, but may have hesitated to provide your information to a stranger. Currently, there are a handful of state petitions circulating in Monterey County. 

"I've only been doing petitioning for three years, but I've noticed a change and I've helped pass a lot of ballot measures. So, I believe in it and I see it making a difference,” said Ariel Smith, a partitioner who was setup at a local grocery store.  

And it's not surprising to find several different petitions to sign at a single location. "Especially with the state petitions, they have several petitions that they're circulating throughout the state. I think currently we have maybe between six and a dozen state petitions circulating in Monterey County," mentioned Gina Martinez, Monterey County Elections Registrar of Voters.  

The deadline for many of these petitions is fast approaching to qualify for the November election, which means you might stumble upon more petitioners outside stores collecting signatures. 

"A lot of them will start with volunteers. Sometimes certain petitions might need more signatures, so it will require help. And that's when they'll hire paid circulators to basically get the measure out so people know and then they can decide if they want to sign to vote on it," added Smith.

But before you put that pen to paper, it's important to know for sure what you're signing. As a voter you have many rights and one of those rights is having access to the full measure text so you can read more about the petition before you sign it. You also have the right to ask who is funding it.

"What is it that the petition is really trying to accomplish? When you look at a petition, you're going to see text at the top of it that states that this is a petition. It will state what type of petition. It will provide a title and summary that oftentimes is created by either the state, the state office, the secretary of state's office, or if it's a county petition by the county council that should appear on that text," continued Martinez.

If you get in a situation where you've already signed a petition and now are second-guessing it because it may not have been what you thought, "You can reach out to your local election official and submit in writing a request to remove your signature from the petition. And as long as we receive that request before the petition is submitted to our office, will be able to do that for you," Martinez.

The petitions out now wouldn’t qualify for the June primary election, but rather the November election. You visit the Secretary of State website. There you can take the time to read more about the different measures and petitions.