Parrott: Maryland petition drive on target for May 31 deadline

The Hagerstown Herald Mail is reporting this morning that petition organizer Del. Neil Parrott is happy with where the petitioners are in gathering signatures to get the controversial in-state tuition for illegal aliens bill on the ballot for 2012.

From the Herald Mail:

A Maryland delegate hoping to overturn a new law granting in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants said Tuesday his group has collected more than the minimum number of signatures for an early deadline.

Del. Neil C. Parrott, R-Washington, said more than 25,000 signatures have been collected statewide, more than the required minimum of 18,579.

However, the group is pressing on toward its goal of 35,000 signatures by May 31 as a safeguard against signatures being rejected as invalid or procedurally incorrect, Parrott said.

“We’re very happy with where we are in the numbers,” he said.

The group, led by Parrott and Del. Patrick L. McDonough, R-Baltimore/Harford, is relying heavily on its website, www.mdpetitions.com, to gather signatures, tapping into voter registration records to ensure that the petitions are filled out accurately.

The group’s goal is to get a referendum on the 2012 general election ballot, giving voters a chance to defeat the measure, which the Maryland General Assembly passed last month. Gov. Martin O’Malley signed it into law, but a referendum would put the measure on hold until voters decide.

The group’s second and final deadline is June 30, when organizers must have submitted a total of at least 55,736 valid signatures. The group’s goal is to get 100,000 as a buffer against signatures being rejected.

A news story that MarylandReporter.com posted Tuesday quoted Kari Snyder, a legislative aide for Parrott, saying: “There are 10,000 to 15,000 signatures that aren’t valid.”

But Parrott later said Snyder misspoke, and there was no way to know how many signatures were invalid so far.

He said Snyder thought she was talking off the record to MarylandReporter.com reporter Glynis Kazanjian.

[….]

Last week, Parrott declined to give a specific update on the number of signatures collected, but said he changed his mind after more people, including volunteers working on the drive, asked the same question.

Read the whole Herald Mail story, there is an especially interesting section of the article which explains what some people are doing wrong when filling out the petition forms.  So, for those of you still out collecting signatures you might want to check out the prominent errors reported in this story.

This is a big weekend for public events, so everyone should grab some forms and head out to your local parade, picnic, or fair!

New readers!  Go here to follow this important story from the beginning.