Houston barred from enforcing petition drive rule

A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order on Houston's requirement that people who circulate referendum and initiative petitions be residents and registered voters in the city, barring enforcement of the rule.

District Judge Vanessa Gilmore issued the ruling Monday in a lawsuit filed by Accelevate 2020 LLC, a consulting firm focused on ballot access and petitions.

Houston’s charter bars people from circulating petitions to put items on the ballot if they live outside the city, or if they live in the city but are not registered to vote there.

In a statement, plaintiff Trey Pool, the CEO of Accelevate, said prior Supreme Court rulings have "made it very clear that restrictions like the one we are challenging in Houston are unconstitutional."

"We look forward to ultimately prevailing in this suit and applaud Judge Gilmore for granting the TRO upholding our First Amendment rights to petition and redress grievances," he added.

In her ruling, Gilmore wrote “there is a substantial likelihood” Accelevate will prevail on the merits of the case. She also ordered signature collectors to note on their petitions if they live outside the city or are not registered to vote there.

In a court filing last month, City Attorney Ron Lewis wrote the city would have agreed not to reject petition signatures “solely because they were attested to by a non-resident, non-registered voter” if the plaintiffs had made that request before filing suit.

Still, the city contended that lifting the residency and registration requirement altogether would leave it without a way to protect against fraudulent petition signatures.

Gilmore rebuffed that argument in her Monday ruling and disagreed with the city’s contention that a temporary restraining order would “leave the city at the mercy of foreign influences.”

“While the court acknowledges that fraud is a legitimate concern, defendants have not shown how an order enjoining defendants from enforcing the circulator voter registration requirement would lead to petitions with fraudulent signatures,” Gilmore wrote.

In its initial court filing June 21, Accelevate cited an ongoing petition drive launched by a political action committee seeking to limit how much city contractors and vendors can contribute to municipal candidates. The petition was authored by a group of lawyers, including Houston mayoral challenger Bill King.

"This city has a history of not counting petitions and making it as difficult as possible for Houstonians to weigh in on these kinds of issues,” King said in a statement. “This is a step in the right direction, but what we really need is reform of our city charter to make government more accessible to average citizens."

The PAC, called “End Pay to Play,” is nearing the end of a 30day window to collect roughly 40,000 petition signatures to put the measure on the November ballot. The petition drive kicked off June 9.

Mary Benton, a spokesperson for Mayor Sylvester Turner, said the petition requirement has existed “for many years” and was not challenged until last month.

“This order is temporary and not a final judgment, and the city intends to comply,” Benton said in a statement. “Thereafter, the matter will continue to be litigated in Judge Gilmore’s court.”

Benton also noted Gilmore’s TRO applies only to the petition drive named in the suit, though the drive appears to be the only one ongoing in Houston. Gilmore extended the TRO until July 9, the deadline for the PAC to collect enough valid signatures.

If the PAC gathers enough signatures, and the city secretary verifies the petitions, city council would be required to adopt the measure as written on the petition or vote to hold an election, likely coinciding with the November municipal elections.

The council has until Aug. 19 to call for elections on petition measures, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.

The petition is seeking to amend the city’s campaign finance ordinance by preventing people who do business with the city from contributing more than $500 to candidates for municipal office.

Houston's campaign finance law allows individual donors to give candidates up to $5,000 every two years. Committees can contribute a maximum of $10,000 during the same span.

The amendment also prohibit city board and commission members, as well as sexually-oriented business owners, from giving candidates any campaign money.