It looks like a sweeping campaign finance reform initiative may fall short of the number of verified signatures needed to make the November ballot – even though backers collected roughly 79,000 signatures, when just 47,623 valid ones were required. We likely won’t have the final word until tomorrow. But the Idaho Secretary of State’s office says as of this morning, just 42,352 signatures on the petitions had been verified as Idaho electors, which requires that both the signatures and the addresses match the signer’s current voter registration records. The number needed to make the ballot: 47,623.

County clerks have until 5 p.m. today to complete verification of the signatures, which were gathered around the state this spring. “Most of ‘em have already checked them,” said Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst. “It looks like they’re about 5,000 short, but I can’t tell you for sure until tomorrow. But it doesn’t look like they’ve got it.”

Typically, in the past, about 40 percent of signatures gathered on initiative petitions have been disqualified, largely because the signer either wasn’t registered to vote, or had moved since they last registered, meaning their current address listed on the petition didn’t match current voter registration records. If the current numbers hold, it looks like the percentage disqualified for this initiative drive was even higher – around 46 percent.

Hurst said his office called all the larger counties yesterday, and all – Kootenai, Ada, Bonneville, Canyon and Bannock – reported that they’d already checked all the signatures from their counties and entered the results into the state’s computerized voter-registration system. Some smaller counties may have checked and verified signatures, but not entered them, Hurst said. “So we wouldn’t be able to check that.”

Holli Woodings, chair of the initiative campaign, didn’t immediately return calls from a reporter. The initiative sought to make extensive changes in the role of money in Idaho politics, from strict restrictions on campaign contributions from those holding or seeking big state contracts, to banning pricey lobbyist gifts to lawmakers, cutting contribution limits and doubling penalties for violations. If passed, it would have given Idaho its first “revolving door” law banning paid lobbying within one year after leaving public office; forbidden all lobbyist gifts to state lawmakers of more than $50 in a year, including meals, entertainment and lodging; and required all campaign finance reports to be submitted electronically and posted online immediately in machine-readable, searchable form; among other changes.

In addition to hitting the required number of signatures, to qualify for the ballot, initiative organizers also must have valid signatures from at least 6 percent of the registered voters in each of at least 18 legislative districts. Hurst said, “We didn’t get that far, because you have to have the total number of signatures first. Then we break down the legislative districts to see if it matches.”

Hurst said he heard from counties that wrong addresses were the top reason for disqualifying signatures on the petitions, “and the main reason for that was that people have moved and not re-registered. The problem we have in Idaho, with election day registration, is that many people know that they can re-register on election day, so they don’t go in beforehand to make the change.”

But if their signature on a petition doesn’t match their current voter registration record, they’re not qualified electors – and their signatures don’t count. “They’re technically not a qualified elector and not a registered voter, if they move from one address to another address,” without updating their voter registration, Hurst said. That’s even if the voter has just moved within the same voting district. “Even the same apartment complex, just move two apartments down – it’s a different address,” he said.

The initiative to strengthen Idaho’s Sunshine Law, which voters first enacted in 1974, was the only one that came close to qualifying for the ballot this year. In fact, no initiative has qualified for the Idaho ballot since state lawmakers in 2013 imposed the requirement to get 6 percent of registered voters’ signatures from each of at least 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts. Gov. Butch Otter signed that bill into law just five months after Idaho voters overwhelmingly supported three referendum measures to overturn the “Students Come First” school reform laws championed by Otter and then-state schools Superintendent Tom Luna; the 18-legislative-districts rule applies to both initiatives and referenda. The historic referenda votes marked the first time Idaho voters had overturned laws passed by the Legislature since the 1930s.

Proposed initiatives this year to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize marijuana possession; reduce the sales tax rate while broadening the base; limit campaign contributions to only constituents of the office sought; and raise the cigarette tax to fund cuts in college tuition; all stopped circulating after falling well short of the required number of signatures.

Woodings’ group, “Keep Idaho Elections Accountable,” raised $229,543 in contributions, spent $188,468 on its signature-gathering drive, and had $41,075 on hand at the close of the post-primary election reporting period with $6,211 in debt. Its biggest contributions came from a half-dozen out-of-state individuals who each gave at least $20,000; the campaign also received $25,000 from End Citizens United-Federal, a political action committee in Washington, D.C. Its biggest in-state donation was $5,000 from a Sandpoint couple.

Woodings said earlier that the initiative was one of five being run in states around the nation, in coordination with Every Voice, a Washington, D.C. organization founded about 20 years ago that focuses on campaign finance reform, and works, according to its website, to “give everyday people a bigger voice in politics.”

Woodings is a former Democratic state representative from Boise and ran unsuccessfully in 2014 for Idaho Secretary of State.

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