How petition circulators can avoid common errors in Los Angeles filings
Summary
The City Clerk Election Division highlighted frequent circulator mistakes — affidavit errors, incorrect addresses, PO boxes and unsigned lines — and recommended training circulators, keeping logs and checking jurisdiction boundaries to preserve signatures.
The City Clerk Election Division advised prospective candidates and campaign teams on common petition circulator mistakes and practical steps to reduce invalid signatures.
"As some of the most common petition errors are found on the affidavit, please ensure that the circulator has signed and dated this affidavit after all of the signatures on that petition form has been collected," said Speaker 1, a City Clerk Election Division staff member. The presentation warned that an improperly executed affidavit can invalidate an entire petition section and urged using an ink pen, including unit or apartment numbers, and writing the signer’s date of signing.
Circulators must be 18 or older and only one circulator may circulate each petition section; a circulator who stops collecting signatures for a section may not hand it to another circulator to complete. Speaker 2 narrated an illustrative vignette of a circulator verifying registration, checking each field and striking invalid lines with a thick marker rather than using whiteout.
The division recommended maintaining a circulator log with name, address, phone number and petition section assignments so the office can contact circulators if issues arise during verification. It also advised consulting the county street index (available at LAVote.gov) to identify likely registered-voter households and to focus door-to-door canvassing within the appropriate jurisdiction to avoid invalid out-of-jurisdiction signatures.
The presentation concluded by advising candidates to train circulators, double-check affidavits and plan a strategy to gather valid signatures well before the March 4 filing deadline.
