Fabec V. Beck

This case presents the issues of whether an initiative petition in support of a constitutional amendment authorizing limited gaming in Trinidad contains sufficient valid petition signatures to qualify for inclusion of the initiative on a statewide ballot, and whether the initiative proponents and initiative protestors complied with the statutory and administrative procedures that govern the petition and initiative process. After the Secretary of State (Secretary) issued an initial determination of insufficiency, the proponents submitted additional signatures in a supplemental petition, and the Secretary issued a formal letter of sufficiency. Both the proponents and the protestors sought judicial review of the Secretary's ruling. The district court reviewed the Secretary's signature count and determined that the Secretary erred as to 364 of the signatures by determining that they were valid. The district court held that without the invalidated signatures, the ballot initiative fell fifty-four signatures short of the constitutionally requisite number for inclusion on a statewide ballot. We affirm in part and reverse in part, reversing the district court's determination of invalidity as to ninety-two of the signatures. Accordingly, the initiative petition contains thirty-eight signatures more than the number of signatures necessary for inclusion on the statewide ballot, and we remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.