Reasonable standards for public access to copying petitions.
It is critical for any opposition campaign to have access to petitions submitted by proponents in order to conduct an independent analysis of the validity of the signatures. In some states, the petitions are considered the exclusive property of the Secretary of State after turn-in; in other states the public is afforded reasonable access to the petitions. At the very least, campaigns should be able to file a sunshine request and acquire a list of both petitioners and copies of the petitions in a timely fashion. This becomes the cornerstone of any program attempting to analyze the validity of the signatures.
Campaigns should be prepared to pay the cost of copying and staff time required to fulfill the request. If this is specified in statute, and the party making the request can comply, there should be no question that a person or organization should have access to that information.
