Utahns for Ethical Government to continue collecting petition signatures in quest to get initiative on 2012 ballot

SALT LAKE CITY — Oh, those sly initiative organizers.

On Friday, leaders of Utahns for Ethical Government said they will continue gathering signatures for their legislative ethics petition — as a little-known state law allows — until Aug. 12.

And if they can top the 95,000 signature requirement by then, their initiative will be on the ballot in 2012, instead of this November.

UEG leaders Kim Burningham and Dave Irvine admitted in a noon press conference that they were well aware of the one-year signature gathering provision in state law.

But they and other UEG organizers kept quiet about it during the 2010 Legislature because they feared GOP legislators would "move the goal posts" midgame to further harm their effort.

The law is a bit confusing. But Irvine, the UEG's attorney, said it is clear to him that any petition organizer has 12 months from the time the initiative is filed with the lieutenant governor's office to gather the required number of signatures.

A spokesman for Lt. Gov. Greg Bell, state elections officer, confirmed that interpretation to the Deseret News.

Glenn Wright of Fair Boundaries, which failed to get 95,000 signatures by Thursday, said it is unlikely his group will continue gathering signatures. Fair Boundaries, which wants an independent redistricting commission, filed its petition May 28, 2009, leaving only a month to get more signatures. And the group had gathered only 50,000 signatures — well short of the 95,000 it needed.

"But more importantly," said Wright, "if we don't make the 2010 ballot, what's the point" in having a 2012 vote? In 2011, the Legislature will redraw U.S. House, legislative and State School Board districts, and Fair Boundaries wanted its independent commission to make recommendations on that redistricting — otherwise the commission wouldn't operate until after the 2020 Census.

If a petition drive fails to get the required signatures by April 15 in a general election year, that initiative can't appear on that year's ballot, the law says.

But you have whatever remaining months, up to a year from when you filed your petition, to gather signatures. If you make the legal mark, your petition just goes on the next general election ballot. In this case, that would be November 2012.