Can W. Devin Resides escape the fate of the Oklahoma Three? In a recent piece at National Review Online about a new petition drive in Oklahoma, Stephen Spruiell observes that the state’s “initiative and referendum process is among the most onerous in the United States.” Why? Well—

If a citizen or group wants to put a measure on the ballot, they only have 90 days to gather over 165,000 signatures (only Massachusetts limits petitioners to a shorter time frame). In addition, only residents of Oklahoma can circulate petitions, so out-of-state groups are limited to an advisory and/or fundraising role. Other states have similar residency requirements, but Oklahoma is unique in that a recent Oklahoma court decision interpreted the law to mean that only people who intend to be “permanent” residents of the state can gather signatures. Anyone who moves to Oklahoma temporarily to help put an initiative on the ballot does so at his peril.

W. Devin Resides, an Oklahoma City lawyer who is spearheading local efforts to put the Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative [a measure abolishing racial preferences in government institutions] on the ballot in 2008, explains to National Review Online: “It’s so onerous because you can never ask for help from any other sister state, or any other person who’s out of state, in gathering the signatures, without subjecting yourself possibly to jail.”

With that remark, Resides is referring to Paul Jacob, the libertarian activist who was indicted in October with two colleagues for violating Oklahoma’s residency requirement….

This ruling disqualified thousands of signatures, and Oklahomans were denied a vote on the measure. But Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a Democrat, decided that wasn’t enough. He moved to indict Jacob and his colleagues, and now the “Oklahoma Three” face up to ten years in prison for their efforts.

If you’re just clicking in to our site, Paul Jacob elaborates the stark and dreary story in a detailed statement (easy to find by clicking on The Story tab on the menu bar at the top of the screen).

Short version: 1. Enough signatures are gathered to put a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (spending cap) initiative on the Oklahoma ballot. 2. Because some petition circulators are deemed to be too irremediably “out of state” in provenance, the signatures they gathered are arbitrarily thrown out by an arbitrary court. 3. Because the Oklahoma Three involved in managing the petition drive failed to anticipate the arbitrary ruling of the arbitrary court on a residency requirement about which they had been otherwise informed by the very state government now prosecuting them—and because they also failed to anticipate the penalty for such failure of anticipation—Paul Jacob, Susan Johnson and Rick Carpenter have been indicted by Oklahoma Attorney Journal Drew Edmondson for the crime of…what was the crime again? And are facing up to ten years in prison for this non-crime.

Ten years in prison.

The goal is obviously to thwart petitions that the Powers That Be regard as anathema. Nothing to do with “insuring the integrity of the process.”

Still, Mr. Resides hopes he can avoid the fate of the Oklahoma Three if he is sufficiently scrupulous.

“My father always told me to measure twice and cut once,” he says. “I believe that’s what we’ve done here and that Mr. Edmondson will approve of this initiative process. I’ve used every resource at my disposal to ensure that Mr. Edmondson would be pleased with how careful we were to ensure that we did nothing to jeopardize this process.”

We hope the resources at Resides’s disposal include clairvoyance. Because it wasn’t any failure to dot i’s or cross t’s that jeopardized the liberty of Paul Jacob, Susan Johnson, and Rick Carpenter. It was being on the wrong side of the track, politically. As is Mr. Resides. Edmondson and his ilk are not eager to be “pleased by” how scrupulously promoters of an unwelcome citizen initiative navigate the hoops and hurdles installed precisely for the purpose of slowing them down and tripping them up.

Obviously there’s a double standard at work in Oklahoma’s regulatory oversight of the citizen initiative process. Spruiell notes one manifestation of it:

Complicating matters further are the blockers—people, often paid, who show up wherever signature gatherers are and attempt to prevent citizens from signing petitions. (This video offers a vivid illustration of the lunatic lengths to which blockers will go to intimidate potential signers.)

Ironically, there’s no residency requirement for blockers, meaning out-of-state groups who favor racial preferences can put as many bodies on the ground to block petitioners as they can recruit, in-state or out.

Watch the video. Because it’s the same kind of thing that was happening with the TABOR initiative.