For two decades in Maryland, opponents of statewide measures as diverse as speed cameras and early voting have been mounting petition drives to repeal the laws. Those efforts have all failed.
Until now.
Web software helped keep immigrant-tuition foes’ petitions valid
Last week, Del. Neil C. Parrott and others won a key victory in their campaign to repeal a new law allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges. Elections officials announced that the opponents had enough signatures to suspend the law and put it to a statewide vote next year.
Parrott’s effort relied, in part, on something his predecessors didn’t use: Internet software that ensured precision and allowed him to avoid the chance of signatures being rejected on legal technicalities.
Of course, Parrott (R-Washington) spent time at swim meets, carnivals and parades to help gather the tens of thousands of signatures that were needed. But about a third of the total number came from people who logged on to his Web site and clicked on a widget that made it easy for them to fill in their information correctly.
The system is simple. Thousands of voters, egged on by a media blitz on talk radio and Web sites and through targeted e-mail, found their way to mdpetitions.com. They typed their names, birth dates, Zip codes and e-mail addresses into a basic form, just as if they were buying a sweater online. The software then tapped into voter-registration data to fill out the petition sheet in the precise format the law requires. The voters then printed out the form, signed it and mailed it to Parrott.
The e-mail list generated by that process is now itself an organizing tool for other causes. Parrott won’t say how many people signed up, but many voters agreed to be notified when future petition drives are launched.
“This petition drive really sets new ground rules,” he said of the use of the Web and software.
Parrott and some other Republicans are hopeful that the petition’s success could change how voters in the liberal-leaning state weigh in on the laws passed by their elected representatives.
Daniel Zubairi, a Republican from Montgomery County who led a failed effort to force a statewide referendum on speed cameras in 2009, said what Parrott accomplished is a model for what’s to come.
“The technology is pretty awesome,” said Zubairi, who signed the petition against the tuition break on Parrott’s Web page. “I looked at it and said, ‘This is really cool how they got this to work.’ ”
Voters in Virginia can’t initiate a referendum to overturn a statewide law. Those in the District can if they get 5 percent of registered voters to sign up before the end of a 30-day congressional review period for city laws. (The standard in Maryland is 3 percent of the number of voters who took part in the previous election for governor.)
Maryland’s tuition bill is intended to encourage more immigrants to pursue higher education and to make a statement in the broader fight over immigration. The law allows undocumented immigrants who have been in high school in Maryland for three years and whose parents have filed tax returns to attend community college and, later, a four-year institution while paying the same tuition rates that legal residents do.
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