Anti-Affirmative Action Petition has Enough Signatures for Court Review

Petitions seeking a ballot initiative to do away with affirmative action programs have been signed by enough Floridians -- 43,000 -- to warrant review by the state Supreme Court, the leader of the effort confirmed Tuesday.

``We are on the threshold of turning in the signatures to the court,'' Ward Connerly said from Sacramento, Calif.

Connerly, who led a successful drive to ban affirmative action in California, is spearheading a similar campaign in Florida.

To put a constitutional amendment on the Florida ballot, petition drives must collect 435,329 signatures. They must also win approval from the state's high court, which decides if the measure can be clearly understood by voters and deals with just one issue.

To be eligible for court review, citizen initiatives must collect 10 percent of the total signatures needed. That's 43,532.

Connerly is pushing four amendments in Florida. One would end affirmative action programs in public education, employment and contracting. The other three are backup measures that deal individually with the three areas in case the Supreme Court bars the first amendment, ruling it deals with more than one subject.

The state Division of Elections reports that nearly 21,000 signatures have been verified for each of the four initiatives. But a spokesman for Connerly, Kevin Nguyen, said the group has about 50,000 signatures for each measure and is simply waiting for verification.

``I'm hoping 10 days to two weeks,'' Connerly said.

Gov. Jeb Bush has said he's reviewing Florida's policies to see what changes he can make as governor to wipe out quotas -- and that an initiative isn't needed.

Connerly said he would drop his campaign if state leaders solve the problem -- but he said Tuesday that he doesn't believe Bush can do it unilaterally. Rather, Connerly said, the solution would have to be accomplished by the Legislature enacting changes to state law.

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Carl Gutiérrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
e-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu