The time to act is now.
 (from Ann Miller, Baltimore County Republican Examiner, 6/4/11)
Every Marylander can help with the petition drive against the Dream Act
The petition to referendum against the Dream Act, being organized in a grassroots effort under Delegate Neil Parrott of Washington County, is truly a historic initiative in the state.
Petitions to referendum, which allow citizens to petition to have a bill put to a vote on the ballot, have historically low success rates in Maryland. Very strict rules are stacked against the citizens.
But through a very effective website, voters are able to download the petition and mail it in, as well as get important information on the issue. By downloading right from the website, the system pulls the voter’s information from Board of Elections data and fills the information right into the petition form. All the voter must do is print it out, sign and date it, and mail it in.
The petition drive has been overwhelmingly successful in just the first six weeks of the campaign. On Tuesday, petition organizers blew away the May 31st deadline requirement of 18,500 signatures by submitting nearly 60,000 signatures collected statewide.
Baltimore County was far and away the top signature collecting jurisdiction, submitting 14,000 signatures, which represent 22% of the total submitted.
The success of the petition drive is due to the overwhelming opposition, across party and demographic lines, to benefits for illegal immigrants paid for by legal taxpaying citizens. In addition, the combination of a viral campaign and boots on the ground by many dedicated volunteers has resulted in a favorable chance of validation of the petition.
The Board of Elections is in the verification process and is posting daily tallies online here. Right now, the average validation rate is an unheard of 88%. Typical petitions result in a 50-70% validation rate. The current 88% validation rate may be due to the process, if BOE officials are validating the easy signatures first and moving into the more questionable entries later.
Any Marylander can help with this effort. Detailed instructions on getting the petition form off the website and filling out the petition form correctly can be found here.
Please consider making a donation to the cause through the website here. The next step will be fighting court battles, and then the extensive PR campaign that CASA de Maryland, the ACLU, and the Maryland Catholic Conference will launch to trick voters into voting for tax funded tuition for illegal immigrants. If you can spare a small donation of even $10, it all will help.
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If you can spare a few hours to help with this effort (every bit helps), please e-mail Michelle Stanton at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Opportunities for collecting signatures at post offices, events, and the MVA are plentiful, but volunteers are needed. Together we will get this bad bill to referendum!
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