OKLAHOMA CITY -- Attorneys for supporters and opponents of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights petition met Friday with an Oklahoma Supreme Court referee to discuss a schedule for what could be a lengthy challenge of many of the almost 300,000 signatures filed for the ballot proposal.
"We are not in it to delay it beyond the November general election," said Oklahoma City attorney Kent Meyers, who represents the civic and business leaders and others who filed the protest.
The petition was backed by Oklahomans in Action, chaired by Tulsan Rick Carpenter.
Court referee Greg Albert said proponents of the TABOR government spending-limit measure filed petitions carrying 299,029 signatures.
He pointed out that it takes 219,564 valid voter signatures to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Albert said this means Meyers and other attorneys for the protestants must successfully challenge at least 79,466 signatures.
Meyers said he has participated in protests of proposed statutory measures, which require far fewer signatures, that have taken three to four months to resolve.
Meyers said he expects the challenge to focus on three overall issues: voters, circulators and notaries.
Possible sub-issues could include whether voters are registered, illegal signatures, whether people signed the petition more than once, whether circulators were not eligible to gather signatures and whether notaries were not properly certified, among others, he said.
There were several reports during the signature drive that some circulators were from out of state. In Oklahoma, petition circulators must be state residents. There were also some acknowledged problems with notarizations that petition drive officials said were resolved
Meyers said the issue of voter registration will be the most time-consuming to address. He said opponents plan to employ 34 people working in two shifts five days a week to review the petitions.
This could take 120 days, or roughly from April through July, he said.
"That is a very tight schedule, but we're looking at a huge number of signatures," Meyers said.
Meyers said later that Carpenter's group has a couple weeks to respond to requests for documents regarding circulators and notaries, so an April start time may be a bit optimistic.
Under state law, the challenge must be wrapped up at least 60 days before the general election if the TABOR proposal is to be placed on that ballot.
Meyers, Albert and Jack Dawson, attorney for Carpenter, discussed conducting the signature challenge hearing in "waves," reviewing a certain number of signatures at a time, then moving to the next batch. Albert said he has never conducted a hearing in that manner but is willing to consider it.
Albert told protestant Fannie Bates that whether signers thought they were misled into signing a petition isn't part of the challenge.
"I don't know that there's any law on that one way or the other," Albert said.
If an individual regrets signing the petition, he said, he or she can vote against it.
Albert asked attorneys for both sides to submit a proposed timetable and scheduling order for the hearing by next Friday.
TABOR, which is currently law only in Colorado, limits growth in government spending to the combined growth rates of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, and population. A portion of any savings is rebated to taxpayers. Coloradoans have not received any rebates since 2001. In November, Colorado suspended its spending cap for the next five years.
