April 29, 2013 12:25 PM UTC

Sex Offender Petition Gatherers: Seriously, Bad Idea

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• by: Colorado Pols

As news broke over the weekend that paid petition gathering company Kennedy Enterprises has joined the recall effort against at least one Colorado legislator, Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs, there have been several aspects of this story worthy of attention. Yesterday, we released video footage of a training session last week at Kennedy Enterprises, outlining the money gatherers can make and the possibility of a lucrative career traveling "from city to city, state to state" collecting signatures "for basically anybody who has money."

If the presence of buy-an-election paid circulators in Morse's recall doesn't trouble you, and it indeed might not trouble the more politically cynical among us, there is another issue–the longstanding employment practices of petition gathering company Kennedy Enterprises. In 2008, Kennedy conducted the petition campaign for three GOP-backed ballot measures, including Amendment 47, the so-called "right to work" initiative. 9NEWS reported on an investigation into petition gatherers for that campaign (article no longer online):

Some people gathering signatures for ballot initiatives who approach Coloradans have criminal records, according to court record searches conducted by 9Wants to Know. [Pols emphasis] 9NEWS found signature gatherers convicted of sexual assault on a child, theft, harassment, trespassing and drug possession. Most signature gatherers are hired by private companies and paid for each signature they receive…

"It's a little frightening," said House Majority Leader Alice Madden (D-Boulder)…

Court records show signature gatherer Ferrell Griffin was sentenced in 2007 for drug possession. Police had already busted him twice before in 2002 and 1992. He's on parole and gathering signatures for ballot issues in Denver this year. Secretary of State records show John Bizzell gathered signatures in Pueblo this year too. He's a registered sex offender who is back in prison on drug charges.

John Respondek has a criminal record that dates back to 1996. He's been convicted of theft five times since 1996. His record also includes trespassing and harassment. 9Wants to Know caught up with Respondek while he was gathering signatures in Denver.

Folks, when we noted the lack of background checks for this latest drive, this is what we were getting at. 

In the aftermath of the 2008 brouhaha over petition gatherers with criminal records, most commercial outfits that run these petition campaigns started performing standard criminal background checks. CBS4's Raj Chohan, now a deputy Weld County prosecutor, had this to say in his Reality Check of the ad above:

The group behind this ad makes an excellent point in one respect. Groups that hire companies to gather signatures certainly have the power to do something about the lack of background checks. They can insist that companies screen their subcontractors for past criminal conduct and bar felons from collecting signatures…

Jess Knox of Protect Colorado's Future said his group requires its signature-gathering company to conduct criminal background checks on all of its petition circulators. Knox acknowledged his group decided to pursue this route after seeing some of the problems emerge with signature gatherers connected to the Amendment 47 petition drive.

Now that his group has made background checks a political issue, perhaps other groups will require them if for no other reason than to head off the next attack ad. Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute said his organization may consider background checks in future petition drives. [Pols emphasis]

Let the record show: if there are any petition gathering companies in Colorado, Democratic or Republican, who are not conducting minimal criminal background screening for workers assigned to approach members of the public requesting personal information, we believe they should be run out of town. Inquiries we've made suggest that this is indeed standard practice for most such companies after 2008's experience. We're willing to assert as strict policy that criminals should never be engaged in gathering of private information from members of the public.

And that brings us back to the unscreened petition gatherers being sent by Kennedy Enterprises into Colorado Springs neighborhoods right now…