A proposal to add a birth date requirement to referendum petitions gave some House lawmakers heartburn during floor debate Thursday.

Rep. Neal B. Hendrickson, D-West Valley City, has proposed legislation that attempts to better identify and validate signatures on referendum petitions. Such petitions are designed to bring a vote to repeal a law, and suspend that law until a vote is taken. For example, Draper residents have submitted a referendum petition to move a proposed TRAX line there.

According to Hendrickson, it is currently very difficult to show that a person who has signed a petition is a registered voter -- making it a valid on the petition.

Hendrickson's bill, HB 63 would require that birth dates be gathered on petitions and used by county clerks to determine the validity of the signature.

Several representatives spoke on their concern that allowing persons to collect birth dates of individuals along with other vital information could open the door for identity theft.

Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, expressed his concern about the birth date provisions. "You do not know who the signature collectors are, and you don't know what they will do with it. I am concerned about having a birth date along with everything else on a public document. It is just rife for abuse," Harper said.

HB 63 would also allow for names that are substantially similar to be acceptable on petitions. Hendrickson believes that these changes will help to ensure that deadlines for petition filings are met without last minute verification problems.

Joe Demma, chief of staff and spokesman to the Lt. Governor said that this was simply a clean up bill, which sought to make a few technical changes.

The bill was circled by a motion, and will be brought back up after Harper has the opportunity to address the concerns of other members before bringing it back before the House's whole body.

HB 63 Rep. Neal B. Hendrickson, D-West Valley City. This bill establishes standards for determining whether a signer's signature on a referendum petition is valid or not; and provides for the placement of birth date information on referendum petitions.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A3.