Secretary of State Al Jaeger says a initiative petition to create a new natural resources fund is the first to reflect new state laws regarding petitions.
Jaeger says the changes were approved by the 2013 Legislature. One requires a person signing the petition to print his or her name next to that signature.
"One of the requirements under the state Constitution and under state law is that the Secretary of State determines the sufficiency of the signatures when they come in," said Jaeger. "That requires us to be able to determine who the person is that signed the petition. Over the years, one of our biggest challenges has been to figure out whose signature it is."
Another of the new laws concerns stiffer penalties for falsifying signatures on the petitions. Two initiatives were turned down for the ballot in 2012 because some of the signatures were false. The penalty used to be a misdemeanor. But the new law says if a circulator falsifies two or more signatures, it becomes a felony offense.
"I think the Legislature recognized, and I think people in general recognize that it protects the integrity of the petition process," said Jaeger. "We want it to be done in a legal manner. And if you're going to falsify sigantures, the penalty needs to be significant."
Jaeger says falsifying sigantures is forgery.
"That's very serious," said Jaeger.
