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At a Dollar Per Signature, Recall Effort Is a Living His second-floor office, a dingy-white affair with a view of the Orange County airport, was stacked with shipping boxes. In the next room, 10 employees were hunched at computer terminals, spot-checking signatures against voter rolls. Lee, 38, was hunkered in a closet-sized warren down the hall, cutting checks for signature gatherers who filed in with armloads of petitions. "This stuff is bad, dude," he said to a local gatherer who had turned in a petition riddled with names of unregistered voters. No dollars for them. In Hollywood, Larry Laws had a similar problem. He flipped through 50 pages of an anti-recall petition that was filled with forged signatures — the handwriting and pen pressure identical from line to line. "People try to hand in this garbage all the time," said Laws, 46, a petition coordinator who has labored in more states than he can remember. "It's my job to catch them. If I don't, it comes out of my pocket." * Hustling Life Laws and his single-name girlfriend, Cairo, live in Hollywood, but will journey to Massachusetts, Florida, Texas — just about any state where they can make at least $1,000 a week each. They also sell spatulas and wrinkle creams at fairs and do a little credit card marketing. "It's all about whether you can hustle or not," said Cairo, an actress who has had bit parts on television. She balks at revealing her age. "I'm in the entertainment industry, so I know how to hustle." She and Laws swapped war stories with Byrd, one of 60 circulators they hired for the anti-recall campaign. The three sat outside a Starbucks, across from the Ralphs where Byrd was preparing to work, his cardboard-backed petitions at the ready. "I was registered in five states but voted in none," said Laws, who was dressed in baggy clothes and sneakers, the occupation's uniform. Byrd, an African American, told of being taunted with racial slurs while working on a Mississippi initiative. "I walked home crying," he said. "That's the last time I ever took anything personally." Cairo recounted her trespassing arrest in Ohio for gathering signatures at a street festival. "I was on the sidewalk!" she said, eyes wide with outrage. The conversation never strayed far from money. "We're making a difference," Laws said of signature gatherers' contribution to the political process. "We'll watch the newspaper and follow whether or not our initiative has passed." He paused, then snickered: "Of course, it's partly because if it doesn't pass, we'll be back to do it again Easy money." |
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