Amendment 26 would lower initiative signature thresholds and allow randomized sampling for verification

Commissioner Patrick Adegame read the pro statement for amendment 26, which would reduce the signature requirement for initiative and referendum petitions from 10% to 8% of voters in the previous gubernatorial election and allow unsuccessful initiatives to be converted to "mini initiatives" if they reach a 3% threshold. The proposal also authorizes the county auditor to use randomized statistical sampling to verify petition signatures, with an explicit sampling-minimum of 3,000 signatures.