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Fresno County team races to gather signatures for recall election For the second time in an hour Sunday, he feigns surprise when a 14-year-old tells him she's too young to vote. "Mom, lock this girl in a room till she's 30!" he jests as the teen's mother signs. Paul Olson, organizing people locally to collect signatures on the petition to recall Gov. Davis, says Porter is one of his best, turning in 1,000 valid autographs a week. Olson pays $1 a signature to the 20 people who work the tables in Fresno County. Porter, 54, who has been at this kind of grass-roots political work for 22 years, says this is one of the easiest petition drives he's done. "What I do most of the day is hand out pens." According to the latest numbers from the Secretary of State's Office, only Kern, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino and San Diego counties beat Fresno County's 12,533 signatures. Tulare, Kings, Madera and Mariposa counties have yet to turn in any. As of June 16, the state reported that 376,008 unverified signatures had been collected for the recall attempt. But Porter and Olson were telling signers Sunday that they were among a million registered voters hoping to oust the governor. "We need about 200,000 more, and we'll get that by the 4th of July," Porter boasts. Olson tells another signer, "We're going to finish two months ahead of our deadline." Olson and a helper, set up near the fountain outside River Park shopping center's Edwards movie theater, collect John Hancocks at a pace of about one every two minutes. But down the sidewalk in front of Target department store, Porter is registering three people at once to vote and signing up a fourth on the recall petition. A silver-haired guy in a silver Honda slows to yell out, "You're doing good work!" "I love this stuff," Porter says as he jumps up from his swivel chair to entice another signer or stop traffic for a mom with a stroller. "You know, it's 'We the people ... ' " A retired couple approaches and grabs pens. Porter switches to his fast-paced spiel: "Have you moved since the last time you voted? Have you changed names since the last time you voted? Have you changed hair color?" The woman looks up and grins. "Yes," she says. Porter grins back. "OK. Now I know you're listening." Lots of people approach before Porter can ask. Most of those who don't stop yell back that they've already signed. And two out of three of those joke that they'd like to put their names down again. When people try to get away, mumbling that they don't vote, Porter calls after them, "Please vote. This apathy has got to stop." Of Sunday's lunchtime shoppers, only a handful tell Porter they won't sign because they don't agree. "Oh, heavens no. I want to keep him," a man says as he rushes past. Ken Katz of Clovis tells Porter, "It's too costly. I don't think it will accomplish anything."
Down the sidewalk a bit from those gung-ho on the idea, Katz explains: "There's really not a significant amount of time left in Davis' term. This is just going to distract us from what we need to do in the state. We have a huge budget deficit, but we're
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