Comments about ‘ACLU of Utah sues state over e-signature ban’

Why should someone who "lives out of state" have the right to participate in Utah politics? Is not residence a requirement for participation?

How exactly do e-signatures work? How do you determine if they are forged? Beyond this, what was the Utah supreme Court decision based on? If it was based on interpretation of current law, than the legislature has every right to alter the current law. Only if the Supreme Court drew its decision from either the state or national constitution or from the application of a federal law would the ACLU claims have any merit.

We also need to remember that the question here is not whether e-signatures are good. the question is to what extent can the state legislature regulate the types of signatures allowed for petition drives. My response is that they should be able to regulate them as they see fit, especially considering how much complaining there is about some states making it to easy to run petition drives. This often comes from the ACLU itself, which constantly seeks to deprive voters of the right to defend measures they pass into law.

The moment a Utah state legislature used an email...

e-signitures should have been allowed.

I will agree with JCS that you must be a resident to participate...

but almost EVERY other form of legislation can be, and probably has been, done electronically.

Just like HB477, this is just another way to make it HARDER for average joe six pack to get involved with his/her own goverment.

i.e. Do you REMEMBER the last time you physically signed a petition?

HAVE you ever?

How can you defend measures...
if you don't know where to go to do so?

Electronic information has been, and continues to be used by our legislators...

*'E-mail raises new questions about influence of Herbert campaign contributions' - By John Daley and Lisa Riley Roche - Deseret News - 09/28/10

To try to claim that the general public suddenly 'shouldn't' use those very SAME methods is self-defeating.

Want transparent goverment?

Then say something.

The denial of e-signitures only makes that harder for you to do.

Sure, why not allow voting on line too. After all, people with strong agendas would never engage in any fraud, and we know that the internet is absolutely secure.

Some people will probably think I am serious, so I better point out that is sarcasm and I strongly oppose on line ballot initiatives, petitions, voter registration or voting.

It is possible to live out of state and still be a resident - military members and students come to mind.

I have an account to listen to Pandora radio - it is tied to my computer. They know when I have reached my limit of free minutes and I cannot create a new account to get more free minutes.

There are many ways to verify who someone is when they are doing things online and to make sure there is no fraud involved.

To do a change of address, the post office charges $1 to your debit card.

Are you really telling me the only way to prevent fraud is to not allow e-signatures?
And by the way, how do you verify pen and paper signatures? What is to prevent me from signing those forms multiple times with fake names and addresses?