The genesis of three election reform bills, currently at the legislature, was actually right here in Fountain Hills. Remember the two recall elections we suffered through?

Research into these types of campaigns revealed some disturbing facts. First, about 70 percent of citizens who sign petition sheets are solicited by “paid circulators.” Many citizens are unaware of this fact, especially since “paid circulators” do not have to identify themselves during recall petition drives.

A review of other petition-based campaigns also confirmed that they were corrupted by similar fraudulent election practices, including the use of felons as “paid circulators.” In other cases untrained paid petition circulators, perhaps motivated to reach a signature quota, did such a sloppy job that signatures of honest citizens were not counted at all.

Shockingly, statistics from the Secretary of State’s office shows that 40 percent of all petition signatures are tossed, usually because of “paid circulator” or notary error. That, folks, is a big deal.

Alarmed by these problems, I requested that Senator Michele Reagan look into the 100-year-old legislation that governs the petition driven issues of recall, referendum and initiative.

With the bi-partisan blessing of the Senate, Senator Reagan set up a number of working groups. These groups, in addition to modernizing century-old petition laws, also focused on protecting voters from petition companies that have learned to game the system for private gain and political advantage.

Out of these hearings have come three bills that have passed the Senate and are on their way to the House. I wanted to thank Senator Reagan for taking on the special interests that benefit from unwanted petition offenses.

I urge Representatives Michelle Ugenti and John Kavanagh to support these citizen-driven efforts. Passing these laws will go a long way towards fixing a system that disenfranchises 40 percent of our fellow voters.