Oh, the outrage! Opponents of ballot initiatives love to complain about underhanded tactis in the collection of the signatures. Credulous newspaper reporters (I once was one) often fall for it. The outrages seem so immense: The petitions have duplicate signatures! There are signatures from people who aren't registered to vote! In the youtube era, the newest thing is to post video of signature gatherers, in some dismal supermarket parking lot, misrepresenting -- or, gasp, lying about -- the initiative's intent as they attempt to get signatures. Unbelievable!

Better to take a deep breath and challenge the lousy initiative on the merits. Every petition ever collected has signatures with problems. That's why proponents typically secure about 50 percent more signatures than is legally necessary. If 70 percent of the signatures collected on an initiative or referendum petition turn out to be valid, that's an excellent, honest petition.

And when it comes to complaints about signature gatherers lying about ballot initiatives, well, guess what: such talk is political speech, and despite the best efforts of the current administration, the courts and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald (your blogger has an irrational hatred for prosecutors who go after journalists' sources, no matter the circumstances), we still have a First Amendment. One hard-bitten Los Angeles County signature gatherer -- he started 30 years ago, with Prop. 13 -- likes to say that trying to stop him from lying about ballot initiatives when he's collecting sigs is like trying to stop him from lying to women he wants to date. "It's nature, man," he says.

 All that said, there is one reason for raising such challenges: public relations. "No" campaigns have to spread the idea that there's something illegitimate about the ballot measure they're opposing. And raising questions about signatures can be one way to do that. But the public should not take objections like this seriously.