In which petitions are valid and invalid

I didn't really point it out, because I don't think it really means anything, but even though Carole Strayhorn turned in many more signatures, it turns out that Kinky Friedman had more valid signatures. There was a huge disparity in the validation rate.

Clay Robison speculates:

This is just speculation, but perhaps Strayhorn collected signatures from many Republicans who had voted in the GOP primary and weren't eligible to sign. Although she began political life as a Democrat, she has been a Republican officeholder for several years now. Strayhorn also contended that her own campaign had verified thousands of more signatures that Williams did. But Williams had the last official word.

It more likely had to do with the fact that Friedman's signatures were gathered by volunteers, whereas Strayhorn's were mostly gathered by paid canvassers.

Paid canvassers have an incentive to get everyone to sign. It can't hurt, besides the lost opportunity cost while someone signs (which is very small). Volunteers are much more likely to carefully screen potential petition signers.

Posted by Evan @ 06/24/06 06:13 PM

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