Anti-abortion ordinance petition drive stalls

A petition drive to put Clovis' anti-abortion clinic ordinance before city voters has been derailed by the disqualification of about 48% of the petition's signers.

The drive's organizers, Eastern New Mexico Rising, will have until the middle of next week to get those whose signatures weren't certified to go to the city clerk's office to clear up whatever matter invalidated their signature on the petition.

The group's goal was the signatures of 269 registered voters in the city to be successful, meaning the anti-abortion clinic matter would go before city voters.

The Clovis city charter requires the petition include signatures of 20% of the voters who cast ballots in the last municipal election. The last municipal election attracted 1,346 voters, meaning the group had to secure at least 269 valid signatures from registered voters.

The group submitted 55 petition pages with 449 signatures.

Tuesday, City Clerk Leighann Melancon completed the petition's certification, disqualifying 216 signers leaving 233 certified signatures, 36 less than the required 269.

The next day, Eastern New Mexico Rising co-founder Laura Wight received an email from Melancon stating five signers had been moved to "certified."

Melancon said there are any number of reasons a signature could be "not certified;" a common one is a person signing their nickname, not their birth name.

"Other reasons include not being registered, not registered within municipal boundaries, not eligible, missing/incorrect information," Melancon said.

Melancon said petition drives aren't that common in Clovis so she doesn't know if 48% of the signers being "not certified" is a high, low or average percentage.

"There has not been a petition in many years," Melancon said. "[There's] nothing to compare to."

What has to be done if the originators of the petition want to continue with the matter?

Individuals whose signature was purged may present evidence to show that the person's signatures has been wrongfully purged.

State law has provisions for people to take action if they believe they've been wrongfully purged from the petition. There's the 10 days to come to the clerk's office to present evidence. If that fails there is an option to proceed through District Court.

The statute regarding petitions also requires the clerk publish the name, address and signature of every signer on all the pages of the petition in the area newspaper. This is only the case of a "non-certified" petition.

"This is so people who signed the petition may look over the petition and see if they were 'certified' or 'non-certified,'" Melancon said.

That list is scheduled to be published in The Eastern New Mexico News on Wednesday.

Wight said the group is moving forward with the petition drive.

"We are actively working within our 10-day window to 'flip' signatures that were declared invalid," Wight said last week. "We are contacting individuals whose signatures are marked as invalid and letting them know their rights and the process for going in and disputing that with the city clerk."

Wight said she was surprised at the large number of invalidated signatures.

"We are making every effort possible to rectify that and get enough validated so our petition will be certified and the vote will proceed," Wight said.