The Montana Secretary of State has been sued by a group that is trying to legalize recreational marijuana in the state for permission to collect signatures electronically.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the ability of the group called New Approach Montana, to carry out the traditional process for gathering signatures.

The group has filed its request for an injunction on April 6 in Lewis and Clark County District Court to temporarily halt the enforcement of in-person signature gathering requirements so that the group can use a third party called DocuSign to facilitate the process.

Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, is listed as a defendant in the filing along with the State of Montana.

“I think what we’re asking for is prudent and reasonable, and if we didn’t think that we wouldn’t be asking for it,” Pepper Petersen, political director of New Approach, said this week.

Petersen believes New Approach should be afforded the same leeway. “I think it would be hypocritical for any agency in the state to say they don’t like the idea.”

According to Petersen, if the group is successful in court, the new signature roundup methods would not mean less manpower is needed to reach the required totals. New Approach may end up spending the same amount on the effort, or more, Petersen said, if the group has to pay up for TV ads to grab attention, rather than reaching people in person.

“There’s still going to be an army of people working on this,” Petersen said.


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