Signatures

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court blunted yesterday the effort of states to cut back on voter initiatives -- particularly those promoted by out-of-state groups -- by striking down controls on people who solicit signatures for ballot measures.States, the court made clear by a 6-3 vote, act unconstitutionally when they adopt measures that significantly reduce the number of people who can be recruited to gather signatures, thus reducing the number of voters contacted and cutting down chances that a proposal will get onto the ballot.

Down-under luxury trainThe Orient Express just added an Aussie accent. The luxurious Great South Pacific Express began limited service along Australia's eastern coast last month. The cooperative effort between the Venice Simplon-Orient Express (which operates the famous Paris to Istanbul train) and Queensland Rail plans to launch its complete schedule in April. The train travels from Sydney to Brisbane and on to Cairns in northern Queensland. While the full Sydney-to-Brisbane-to-Cairns trip takes four nights, the Brisbane-to-Sydney leg is a considerably shorter 18 hours.

The brother-sister political team of Del. Clarence M. Mitchell IV and Lisa Mitchell opened their campaign office in downtown Baltimore last night. There was only one problem: Lisa Mitchell may not be on the ballot in her race for state delegate.Clarence Mitchell, 36, a Democrat from the 44th District, is seeking to move from the House of Delegates to the state Senate seat vacated in January by expelled state Sen. Larry Young.Lisa Mitchell, 35, is one of several candidates vying for three House of Delegates seats from the same district.

The petition drive aimed at forcing the appointment of a panel to write a county charter has passed the validation process with signatures to spare.The Board of County Commissioners has until April 25 to appoint a board to write a charter. If the charter is approved in a referendum vote -- as soon as the November 1998 ballot -- Carroll's government would change from three commissioners to a county executive and council.The local board of elections took about eight days to review the 4,858 signatures collected during the six months that began in late September.

The petition drive aimed at forcing the appointment of a panel to write a Carroll County charter has passed the validation process with signatures to spare.The Board of County Commissioners has until April 25 to appoint a board to write a charter. If the charter is approved in referendum vote -- as soon as the November 1998 ballot -- Carroll's government would change from three commissioners to a county executive and council.The local board of elections took about eight days to review the 4,858 signatures collected during the six months that began in late September.

Carroll County Citizens for Charter Government is concentrating its petition drive in the Westminster area as it makes one final effort to gather signatures this weekend.With 3,890 signatures collected since September, the group has the required minimum -- 5 percent of the 76,001 voters registered in Carroll County -- to force the County Commissioners to appoint a charter-writing board."This is the beginning," said Hampstead Mayor Jonathan S. Herman. "Now we can take off."The group, which has collected more than 1,000 signatures during the past few weeks, wants a 10 percent margin against duplicates or errors.

Opponents of comprehensive rezoning in Harford County -- which was to have gone into effect today -- have stalled the process until next year, gathering enough signatures in a petition drive to put the issue on the 1998 ballot.Robert D. Dillon, an organizer of the petition drive, said yesterday that his group has collected 9,008 signatures from residents frustrated with the fast pace of development in Harford.The group needed to get signatures of 5,392 residents -- 5 percent of the county's 107,839 registered voters -- for the issue to be placed on the primary ballot in September.

The charter movement is caught in the winter doldrums.Carroll County Citizens for Charter Government has found few indoor sites for collecting the signatures needed to force the County Commissioners to appoint a charter-writing board."

Carroll County Citizens for Charter Government will collect signatures this weekend in Eldersburg and Westminster.The group, which has gathered about 3,000 signatures, needs 1,000 more to reach its goal.Signatures from 5 percent of the county's registered voters would force the County Commissioners to appoint a charter-writing board. The issue could then appear on the 1998 ballot.If approved, county government would change from three commissioners to one executive with a county council."We are cautiously optimistic about the success of the drive," said Dan Hughes, volunteer coordinator.

As supporters of a drive to incorporate Edgewood gather signatures for a referendum, a group of residents has organized to fight making the Harford County community a municipality.Howard J. Latham, who heads Fiscal Responsibility in Edgewood's Economy (FREE), said the group of more than a dozen residents is worried that making the 15-square-mile area a city would mean much higher taxes."Becoming a city means having a mayor, a city council and more," Latham said. "All of these things involve equipment, salaries and buildings, and one of the ways they want to pay for this is by raising property taxes."

Howard County residents fighting development of a proposed hotel and golf club said in court on Friday that they should be allowed to revive a petition to block the project, an argument that, if successful, could have broad implications on voter efforts to overturn government actions. The suit challenges an interpretation of Maryland's rules for signatures on petitions that the residents say make it almost impossible to organize a referendum to place any issue before the voters. The case centers on zoning approval granted by the Howard County Council last year for a full-size supermarket at western Ellicott City's Turf Valley, an 809-acre golf and hotel resort being redeveloped.

The failure of those who oppose Maryland's new speed camera law to collect enough signatures to bring the matter before voters may be a victory for traffic safety, but it also raises troubling questions about the challenge of taking any new law to referendum. Speed camera opponents had until Sunday night to collect more than one-third of the necessary 53,000 signatures to put the matter on the ballot next year, but they came up an estimated 1,600 short. And that's assuming the state would have considered the signatures valid; new requirements on what constitutes a legal signature might have caused many of those collected in recent weeks to be disqualified anyway.

With hours to go before a crucial first deadline for activists seeking to overturn Maryland's new speed-camera law, volunteers are mounting a last-minute drive for signatures at supermarkets, Metro stations and community parades. On Saturday morning, Albert Nalley and five others fanned out through Arbutus and found what they said is an "undercurrent" of anger among residents who view the new law as a "money grab" by a state government with a "spending problem." "They fully understand the meaning of this legislation," said Nalley, a 58-year-old Catonsville resident.

For more than 90 years, Maryland voters have had the right to petition to voter referendum most of the laws passed by the General Assembly. But this happens infrequently. Why? In large measure, it's because the state makes it exceedingly difficult to do so. Opponents of the bill to allow automated speed enforcement cameras in work zones and near schools are learning this firsthand. Their first challenge has been to create a one-page summary of the legislation that "fairly and accurately" describes what it does and must appear on each page of signatures.

Both sides in the heated debate over the size of a grocery store in Turf Valley can agree on one thing these days: The battle looks to be on hold until another, more far-reaching question gets answered. And coming to a resolution on that issue - what constitutes a legal signature on a referendum petition in Howard County - is generating a discussion among public officials that has expanded to include consideration of voter rights. "The biggest problem associated with all of this is that it is not just a Howard County issue, it is a statewide issue," said Del. Guy Guzzone, a Democrat who presided over a meeting with members of the county's State House delegation Wednesday.

If getting a new development approved and built is a battle, the skirmishes are escalating in and around Turf Valley. After the recent launch of a petition drive challenging a law that that affects the size of grocery stores, the Howard County Chamber of Commerce has issued a call to increase the number of signatures required on such a petition. "The ... County Charter requirement for 5,000 signatures to petition the ... action of elected bodies to referendum is low and antiquated," read an "advocacy alert" the chamber e-mailed to 1,600 people at 850 businesses last week.

Baltimore's inspector general confirmed yesterday that he has launched a probe into allegations that city parking enforcement officers wrote numerous phony tickets to undeserving car owners. The investigation centers on reports that city residents received citations in the mail for alleged parking offenses on streets where their cars had not been parked. Investigators are looking into the activities of at least two Transportation Department employees whose signatures appear on some of the tickets.

Autographs are part of induction weekend, and yesterday so was gridlock a block away from the museum. A group of 39 former players -- including 32 Hall of Famers -- was scheduled to sign autographs inside the Tunnicliff Inn throughout the weekend. If yesterday was any indication, it will be bedlam until tomorrow morning. Late yesterday afternoon, fans were 10 deep outside the inn's quaint restaurant, and another group was crammed across Pioneer Street while police were sternly requesting that passers-by get off the road.

SIGNATURES CHARLES VILLAGE 3201 St. Paul St. / 410-235-7860 Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, or by appointment After years in the custom stationery business, Lisa Belman has mastered the fine art of the invitation. An authority on paper stock, inks and type styles, she's sensitive as well to the touchy task of acknowledging moms and stepmoms and other blended-family members in auspicious announcements. Milestones and their celebrations are "not a time to divide your family," says Belman, who keeps Crane's Wedding Blue Book, an etiquette guide, at the ready.

A grassroots effort to get more say in selecting Anne Arundel County's school board has failed after a petition drive to put the issue on the Nov. 6 general election ballot came up 275 names short. Citizens for an Elected School Board in Anne Arundel County and freshman state Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire collected 6,726 signatures between the end of the legislative session April 9 and May 30, said Mary Cramer Wagner, director of voter registration for the Maryland Board of Elections. The group was required to submit 6,264 -- a third of the total required -- by the deadline.