Senate committee advances constitutional amendment changing initiative signature distribution after hours of testimony

The Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday voted 5-3 to send Senate Joint Resolution 101 to the Senate floor with a “due pass” recommendation after a multi-hour hearing that drew dozens of public comments and sustained debate among senators.

SJR 101 would keep the existing statewide total number of signatures required to place an initiative or referendum on the ballot (approximately 6% of legal voters statewide) but change how those signatures are gathered: rather than allowing petitioners to collect most signatures from a subset of districts, the proposal would require petitioners to collect 6% of registered voters in each of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. Sponsor Senator Doug O'Connellitz (R., Legislative District 3) told the committee the measure is intended to ensure initiatives reflect statewide participation and to limit what he described as outside “big money special interests” focusing signature drives in limited areas.

“We're simply putting the question on the ballot so that the people can decide if this is the way they'd like to address these big money special interests,” O'Connellitz said during his remarks.

Supporters of the resolution argued it…