Term limits petition circulator admits to payment based on number of signatures collected
MINOT, N.D. — According to the organizers of a term limits amendment recently kept off the statewide ballot by Secretary of State Al Jaeger, they’ve been done an injustice.
They’re hatching conspiracy theories about politicians who contrived an excuse to keep the issue away from the voters. “I find it very hard to believe there were actually 29,000 signatures that were not certifiable,” said state Rep. Jeff Hoverson , a Republican from Minot who is on the sponsoring committee for the measure. “From what I know so far, this is going to come out looking bad for the secretary of state. Something is just not right. We will find out the truth.”
Scott Tillman, a spokesman for U.S. Term Limits, the out-of-state political organization that, per public disclosures , has reported hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to signature collectors, was less circumspect in his criticism.
“Here we have a 30-year secretary of state and state attorney general conspiring to bully, harass and threaten ordinary people who want nothing more than to increase accountability in government,” Tillman said . “This attempt to avoid certification of the petition is a politically motivated crusade and totally without merit.”
