Spartan Daily

Petitioners persistently gather signatures from students

Nick Rivelli, Spartan Daily

Petitioner Greg Wright helps freshman economics major Simone Saslow register to vote and sign petitions outside of the Student Union. Wright said his main job is hosting the National Health Call and he petitions on campus and around San Jose in his free time. Wright said that he sees a low turnout of students sign petitions, about 10 percent, which he said is a good example of the apathy of college students in regards to political discourse. Photo by Nick Rivelli / Spartan Daily

"Students are always in a rush and it's hard to get them to sign but I think it's the best place to obtain signatures since it's one of the most crowded places," said Andrew Chacon, signature gatherer and San Jose resident.

Chacon said since college students are open minded about a lot of issues that need to be approved for the betterment of the environment, it's easier to get them to sign the petition.

Chacon was gathering signatures for a company called Progression and was carrying four clipboards for different issues.

"One of my petitions is to stop gerrymandering, politicians that re-district to guarantee a re-election, another on auto Insurance which is to try to change it so they base it on driving history instead of demographics, one on supporting the merger with AT&T and T-Mobile which says to merge them together in one company," Chacon said.

According to Chacon, petitions can be started by any company and it all comes down to the amount of signatures gathered at the end of the day.

Micky Hostler, a SJSU Alumnus from 1964, gathering signatures right outside Hugh Gillis Hall said the amount of valid signatures depends on what area he obtains the signatures from.

"Some areas have more registered voters than others," he said.

He said a college campus is a rare place for valid signatures since the students tend to not participate in voting and it depends on the issue.

"College campuses are the lowest validity but it still feels good to try and get college students involved in the political side of life," Hostler said.

He said he was gathering signatures to encourage students to enter the political process and use it for their benefit.

Hostler was carrying one of the clipboard for the marijuana dispensary issue.

He said he is doing it because he is a supporter of war and people who have lost limbs because of war and benefit from a number of pain-reducing substances such as marijuana.

“I don’t smoke and never will because there is no need for it for me,” he said.

Hostler was also getting signatures for an initiative towards changing the law to allow auto insurance companies to set prices based on a driver's history of insurance coverage.

According to California Secretary of State website, this changes current law to permit insurance companies to set prices based on whether the driver previously carried auto insurance with any insurance company and treats drivers with lapse as continuously covered if lapse is due to military service or loss of employment, or if lapse is less than 90 days.

"This ensures that your insurance rates won't change and will remain the same even if you left to a war or moved from another state,”  Hostler said.

Hostler said both petitions require 30,000 signatures each and the total has to be "valid" — from people who are registered as voters.

Hostler gets paid a dollar per valid signature, but for non-valid signatures, he must pay the company back after the signatures are processed.

“It’s a pretty expensive process to get us out here to do this,” he said.

Stephan Richardson came from Oakland to gather signatures in San Jose to stop dispensaries from being closed down.

“I'm just doing this as volunteer work,” he said.

He said these petitions are given through many companies and recruiters who want to get an issue placed on the ballot.

Richardson said he worked for Sanctuary, a marijuana dispensary in San Jose, and the owner of the dispensary asked a number of people, including him, to get signatures for this petition.

“As you know, the San Jose City Council voted that the number of dispensaries in the city should limit to 10 and limit no more than two per district,” he said. “Right now the city has about 140 dispensaries so I don’t know how it would help people if we rid the dispensaries,”

Travis Barrow from Oakland and Jason Dominguez from Los Angeles said they're just doing this to make extra money.

“I mean, if I can get money for it — a dollar per valid signature — sure, why not?”  Barrow said.

Dominguez said he travels a lot from city to city, depending on which places need petitions signed.

“I saw one of my friends in front of the grocery store a few years back and that’s how I got into it,” he said.

According to Dominguez, there are many companies that have an issue that needs to be put on a ballot.

He said he gets paid through those companies and contractors in order to get valid signatures.

“There are so many contractors, but some of the ones that I went through are JSM, Inc., and John Burkett Petition Management,” Dominguez said.

Dominquez said there are several ballots circulating for different issues and students are an easy target since they don't take their time to read what the ballot is about.

"They are usually pretty quick and nice about signing the ballots," he said.

The reason the signature gatherers are seen at this time of the year is because signatures get gathered for issues to be approved to be put on next year's ballot and each petition has a circulation deadline around the same time as the elections.