Joplin, Missouri decrim petitions shy 1,000 signatures

The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO – Pot petitions shy 1,000 signatures
Organizers said the grass-roots campaign to place a marijuana-decriminalization initiative before Joplin voters is not over, after their first attempt at a petition drive fell about 1,000 signatures short.

Maddy and a handful of volunteers collected more than 5,600 signatures since September 2007 in an effort to get the decriminalization initiative on the November ballot. The petitions were submitted to City Hall on July 10. The group collected 3,623 signatures from registered Joplin voters, but it still needs an additional 1,033 valid signatures to meet the necessary number to put a proposal before voters.

City Attorney Brian Head said most of the invalid signatures came from unregistered voters.

“The primary issue is there was a large number of people who signed the petition who weren’t registered voters or who weren’t registered Joplin voters,” he said.

City Clerk Barbara Hogelin is expected to present the results of her petition review to the City Council at its regular meeting on Aug. 4. Hogelin was out of the office Thursday.

After the council meeting, Maddy and his organization will have 10 days — until Aug. 15 — to amass the needed signatures. The city clerk then will have five days to review the petitions.

Maddy said that in addition to canvassers taking up their normal stations at the Joplin Public Library and other places, they will be going door-to-door with voter lists to obtain the signatures. He said the group also has planned a “Signature Surge Day” starting at noon Saturday, Aug. 9, at Par Hill Park.

The magic number of signatures is 4,656, or roughly 15 percent of the total number of registered voters in Joplin at the time of the most recent city election, which was in April.

If the group obtains the required number of signatures, the City Council on its own could make the proposal law, but Mayor Gary Shaw has said the panel most likely would defer to the voters on the issue.

This is what can be accomplished by a handful of dedicated volunteers, and Kelly Maddy is a fine example of what NORML is all about – grassroots organizing.  Check the laws of your city and state and see if you can place citizen initiatives on the ballot.  Some of the most unlikely of places, like Missoula, Montana and Hailey, Idaho, have recently placed and passed pro-pot initiatives on the ballot.  There’s no reason you can’t do the same in your state.  Even when an initiative fails at the ballot box or fails to get on the ballot, we’ve at least forced the public to recognize and debate our marijuana policies.  Only ignorance and fear can keep prohibition in place.