Update March 2021: The material below is archived from our effort to make the Nov 2020 ballot. See the blog for updates as we regroup for Nov 2024!

Archived from 2020

Update Aug 23: Signatures from voters outside of SLC will now be worth double! (Details: In addition to the original 50-cents-per signature deal for Emissionaries described below, we’re adding an additional 50 cents per signature for certain signatures! If you’re based far enough out of SLC (in or north of Ogden or in or south of Orem/Provo) you’ll get that bonus for every signature you gather. If you’re based closer to SLC and we can get sufficient data from the Lt Governor’s office, we will base the bonus on the number of valid signatures gathered outside of senate districts 2, 3, and 4, and if we can’t get that data then we’ll figure out another fair way to do it (e.g,. tallying signatures from addresses outside of SLC, Millcreek, and Holladay). Email info@DarnAir.org with questions or suggestions!

Update Aug 10: Many thanks to our Emissionary Sponsors: Dave Carrier and Colleen Farmer, Yuval Bauman, Warren Kunz, Bryan Dixon & Jean Lown, David Ibarra, Charles Ashurst, and Betty Tanzey. And if you know any young people (18+ in age) who want to earn some cash as Emissionaries, please have them contact us at info@DarnAir.org.

We need to gather 116,000 signatures to qualify for the 2020 ballot. The sooner we can do this the better—early signatures are worth more than late signatures—so here’s a simple three-part plan for getting most of the way there this summer and fall:

  1. Find 100 Clean The Darn Air volunteers who are willing to put in a solid 40 hours of work gathering signatures. A reasonable target for signature gathering at public places is 25 signatures an hour, so 40 hours translates to 1,000 signatures. These volunteers must be age 18+ and must be residents of Utah (preferably registered voters, which covers both of those bases) and they can participate as individuals or as small groups of friends or colleagues who are committed to putting in the hours to hit the 1,000 signature target.
  2. Find 100 Clean The Darn Air “emissionaries” who are willing to do the same in exchange for $500. As noted above, they must be age 18+ and residents of Utah; since a reasonable target is 25 signatures an hour, 40 hours translates to 1,000 signatures and works out to $12.50 an hour. That should be appealing to (for example) recent high school graduates and college students who are looking to pick up some extra cash over the summer while also helping the environment and adding a line to their resumes.
  3. Find 100 Clean The Darn Air “emissionary sponsors” to donate $500 each.

That’s it. Each $500 sponsors one emissionary, each emissionary gathers 1,000 signatures, and 100 of each gets us 100,000 signatures for $50,000. Another 100,000 signatures comes from volunteers, for a total of 200,000 signatures.

Not all of those signatures will be valid: some signers write illegibly, aren’t registered voters in Utah, or accidentally sign multiple times. But if we conservatively assume that 60% of them are valid then that’s a total of 120,000 signatures. That will get us to our statewide target of 116,000 signatures and allow us to focus the rest of our energies on hitting our geographic targets. (The 116,000 is 8% of active voters statewide, but we need that same 8% target in 26 of the 29 state Senate districts.)

If you want to be an emissionary sponsor, please donate here. As an added bonus your $500 donation gets you stickers and a yard sign, plus signed copies of Yoram’s Cartoon Economics and Cartoon Climate Change books!

If you want to be an emissionary, please contact us with your name and zip code, tell us a bit about yourself, and please confirm that you’re age 18+ and a resident of Utah. (If you’re a registered voter in Utah then please tell us that, too, because that covers both of those bases.)

If you want to be a volunteer signature gatherer, please make sure you’re on our email list (you can sign up at CleanTheDarnAir.org) and please contact us and/or the chapter leader in your area. And of course volunteers also get a yard sign, stickers, and cartoon books, plus a signboard to use while signature-gathering!