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Smoking ban backers contest petition's validity
Jump to full article: Sioux Falls (SD) Argus-Leader, 2009-07-03
Author: Jonathan Ellis
Intro: A coalition of health advocates on Thursday claimed that almost 10,000 signatures collected by opponents of a statewide smoking ban are invalid.
They filed a formal protest with the secretary of state's office, asking the office to invalidate 9,891 signatures.
. . .
The coalition of anti-smoking groups, which had five days to challenge the petition drive, claims that more than 4,000 signatures are from people not registered to vote. Another 3,800 were signed on petitions that were not properly notarized.
Other problems included duplicate signatures, incomplete information and invalid circulators, the challenge says.
"These are black and white issues not necessarily open to interpretation, so we feel very good about the prospects for our challenge," said Darrin Smith, senior director for the American Heart Association and a steering committee member for the South Dakota Tobacco Free Kids Network.
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