New initiative may not appear on November 6 ballot | News

The grassroots efforts of the Open Government Committee may have failed to get their ‘Top two’ initiative (C-03-2012) on the November 6 General Election Ballot. 

County Recorder’s have just completed the signature validation on the Open Government petitions and the group came up short. 

According to officials at the Secretary of State’s office, over 5,200 signatures were invalidated in a random sampling of 17,932 signatures; these numbers resulted in a 29.51 percent failure rate.  This means the remaining valid signatures on the petitions (249,068 signed) do not meet the minimum requirement (259,213 signatures) to have the initiative placed on the ballot, County Recorder’s officials said.

The breakdown to figure valid signatures is as follows:

##Determination of Random Sample and Invalidity Rate:

Total number of signatures eligible for verification: 358,629

5% of the total number of signatures eligible for verification: 17,932

Counties removed: 5,291

Divided by total number of signatures eligible for verification = 29.51% invalidity rate

##Determination of Total Valid Signatures

Total number of signatures eligible for verification: 358,629

Less number of signatures removed by County: 5,291

Subtotal of valid signatures: 353,338

Multiplied by Invalidity Rate: 29.51%

Total number of invalid signatures = 104,270

Total Valid Signatures: 249,068