Petition signature revocation

Voter signing a petition

Petition signature revocation is the process in which a voter who has signed an initiative petition can officially have his or her signature removed from the petition, so that the signature no longer counts when calculating whether the initiative's proponents collected enough signatures to qualify their measure for the ballot.

Florida

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Florida

Up until June 17, 2009, Florida voters who signed initiative petitions had the option of revoking the signature within 150 days of signing a petition. Election officials were required to make revocation forms available at all election offices. Voters who wanted to revoke their signature had to file a petition-revocation form and pay 10-cents (the signature verification fee in Florida) or the actual cost of verification.

However, in June 2009, in the case of Florida Hometown Democracy v. Browning, the Florida Supreme Court said that the state's signature revocation law was unconstitutional.

Utah

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Utah

In March 2010, Gov. Gary Herbert signed Senate Bill 275. SB 275 allows for Utahns to remove their names from statewide initiative and referendum petitions. According to the filed legislation, signees would no longer to have to provide a notarized letter in order to remove their name. All that would be required is a letter with personal identification attached. Removal of a signature can happen up to a month before petitions are due or become public.