SACRAMENTO — The campaign committee fighting the proposed recall of Gov. Gray Davis plans to file a lawsuit today, alleging illegal conduct in the gathering of signatures on the petition for a special election.
Lawyers for the committee, Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall, said the suit to be filed in Los Angeles Superior Court would charge that recall supporters illegally employed out-of-state residents to gather signatures. By law, circulators of petitions for statewide ballot measures must be registered California voters.
The class-action lawsuit would seek an injunction to force county election officers to confirm that legally qualified petition circulators had collected the signatures properly, committee lawyers said.
One of the lawyers, Wylie Aitken of Santa Ana, said recall supporters had hauled out-of-state "bounty hunters" into California by the busload to circulate petitions at a rate of $1 per signature. He called them "paid mercenaries" and "petition vigilantes" who were not California residents. Some, he said, listed motels as their local residences.
"We have every reason to believe that this assault on the integrity of the process is clearly only the tip of the iceberg," Aitken said.
He said at least two petition circulators had signed declarations acknowledging that they were convicted felons.
But according to the secretary of state's office, the only requirement for recall petition circulators is that they be registered California voters, and convicted felons can register to vote as long as they are not on probation or parole.
It could be difficult to enforce the requirement that circulators be registered to vote in California. The United States Supreme Court struck down a similar requirement by Colorado; California's provision has never been challenged and remains on the books.
Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California, a pro-recall group founded and financed by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), called the lawsuit "a slap in the face" to the voters who signed the petition.
"Gray Davis can't explain or defend his dismal record, so he has resorted to a cynical, frivolous lawsuit to try to thwart the will of the people," he said.
Rescue California spokesman Chris Wysocki said the group had gone "strictly by the book" in hiring petition circulators. It has become common practice in California to pay professional petition circulators to gather signatures for statewide ballot measures. Issa has put more than $1.5 million into the Davis recall drive.
