Blitz Canvassing

Petition Companies

Blitz Canvassing is a company that offers signature gathering services to ballot initiative campaigns.

About

Blitz Canvassing is headquartered in Colorado. On its website, Blitz Canvassing said, "Blitz Canvassing has become the preeminent, center-right door-to-door voter contact firm in the United States. In the last 4 election cycles, the firm has run large-scale signature collection, persuasion and GOTV programs with powerful effects across the country. In addition to working major signature collection programs in Indiana, Arkansas, Nevada, Michigan and Maine, Blitz Canvassing currently holds the record for most signatures collected for a ballot initiative in Colorado."

Petition drives

Since 2016, the following ballot measures appeared on the ballot after the sponsoring campaign committee hired Blitz Canvassing to collect signatures. An average of $1,422,448.38 was spent to collect signatures per ballot measure.

Ballot measures (2016-2022)

Year	Measure	Measure description	Total cost	Signatures required	CPRS	Outcome
2022	Colorado Proposition 123	Creates the State Affordable Housing Fund and dedicating one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of state income tax revenue to fund housing programs	$2,195,000.00	124,632	$17.61	a
2022	Colorado Proposition 124	Incrementally increases the number of retail liquor store licenses an individual may own or hold a share in	$2,135,233.70	124,632	$17.13	d
2022	Colorado Proposition 121	Decreases the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.40% (including for domestic and foreign C corporations) for tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2022	$543,717.49	124,632	$4.36	a
2021	Colorado Amendment 78	Transfers the power to appropriate custodial funds (state revenue not generated through taxes) from the state treasurer to the state legislature	$1,230,369.55	124,632	$9.87	d
2021	Colorado Proposition 119	Creates an out-of-school education program and a board to govern it and increases the marijuana retail sales tax by 5% to partially fund the program	$1,230,369.55	124,632	$9.87	d
2020	Colorado Amendment 77	Allows voters in Central, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek Cities — the only towns where gaming is legal in Colorado — to (1) approve a maximum single bet limit of any amount and (2) expand allowable game types in addition to slot machines, blackjack, poker, roulette, and craps.	$1,200,000.00	124,632	$9.63	a
2016	Colorado Amendment 71	Requires initiative petitioners to spread out signature gathering efforts across all of the state's 35 senate districts and imposing a 55% supermajority requirement for proposed constitutional amendments	$383,518.81	98,492	$3.89	a

Ballot initiative signature costs

See also: Laws governing the initiative process and Analysis of signature costs in past years

The cost of getting an initiative before voters varies widely by state and by initiative proposal. The requirements and restrictions imposed by state law form a major factor in the expense of an initiative signature petition effort.

Higher signature requirements are a straightforward example of a reason an initiative petition campaign might be more expensive in one state than in another. Other restrictions that can make a difference in the cost of a petition campaign include:

• Distribution requirements - It is easier and less expensive to collect a lot of signatures in one very populous area than a small number of signatures from lots of smaller, less-populated areas.
• Pay-per-signature bans - Paying signature gatherers by signature is one of the most cost-efficient ways to fund signature gathering efforts.
• Restrictions on circulators - Restricting who can collect signatures limits competition between petition companies and professional signature gatherers.
• Initiative petition circulation periods - If proponents have less time to collect signatures, the process can be more expensive.

Measuring the cost

See also: Analysis of signature costs in past years

Ballotpedia uses two ways to measure the cost of an initiative or veto referendum petition drive.

1. According to the total cost of gathering the required signatures to put the initiative or veto referendum on the ballot
2. According to the total cost divided by the number of signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot or Cost Per Required Signature (CPRS)

Total cost: The total cost depends on all of the factors that can make a petition effort more or less expensive, including the population of the state and the state's signature requirements. This measurement does not necessarily indicate how difficult it is to run a signature petition campaign in a state relative to other states or how hard and expensive it is to collect a given valid signature. It takes into consideration the population and signature requirements for a state. For example, the average total cost of a successful initiative petition drive in California in 2016 was just over $2.9 million, while in Oklahoma the average total cost was about $870,000. Initiatives in California, however, require over four times as many signatures and affect 10 times as many people.

Cost Per Required Signature (CPRS): The cost per required signature cuts out the variable of a state's signature requirements and shows the cost for each signature needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. This second measurement is a better indication of how difficult it is to run a signature petition campaign in a given state relative to other states. For example, the average CPRS in California in 2016 was $6.20 while the average CPRS in Oklahoma was $9.59, but the average total petition cost was $2.9 million in California and about $870,000 in Oklahoma.

From the perspective of a national organization or proponents of a national agenda, this means that a lower CPRS generally means that a campaign could potentially affect more people and achieve more political influence per dollar spent, while the total petition cost might dictate in which states the campaign could actually afford to launch a successful petition drive.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Blitz Canvassing. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Blitz Canvassing - Google News

See also

• Ballot initiative
• Ballot measures cost per required signatures analysis
• Petition drive management companies
• Signature requirements for ballot measures
• Initiative petition signature validity rates
• Initiative petition circulation periods

External links

• Blitz Canvassing website
• Blitz Canvassing Facebook page