196
Opinion of the Court
Hawkins). A lead plaintiff in this case, long active in ballot-initiative support—a party no doubt " 'able and willing' to convey a political message," cf. post, at 219 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part)—testified that his refusal to register is a "form of . . . private and public protest." 1 Tr. 223 (testimony of William Orr, executive director of ACLF). Another initiative proponent similarly stated that some circulators refuse to register because "they don't believe that the political process is responsive to their needs." Id., at 58 (testimony of Jon Baraga). For these voter-eligible circulators, the ease of registration misses the point.17
The State's dominant justification appears to be its strong interest in policing lawbreakers among petition circulators. Colorado seeks to ensure that circulators will be amenable to the Secretary of State's subpoena power, which in these matters does not extend beyond the State's borders. See Brief for Petitioner 32. The interest in reaching law violators, however, is served by the requirement, upheld below, that each circulator submit an affidavit setting out, among several particulars, the "address at which he or she resides, including the street name and number, the city or town, [and] the county." Colo. Rev. Stat. § 1-40-111(2) (1998); see supra, at 189, n. 7. This address attestation, we note, has an immediacy, and corresponding reliability, that a voter's registration may lack. The attestation is made at the time a petition section is submitted; a voter's registration may lack that currency.
17 Justice OTMConnor correctly observes that registration requirements for primary election voters and candidates for political office are "classic" examples of permissible regulation. See post, at 217 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part). But the hired signature collector, as this Court recognized in Meyer, is in a notably different category. When the Court unanimously struck down a ban on paying persons to circulate petitions, it surely did not imply that the State must therefore tolerate a private sponsor's hourly or piecework payment of persons in exchange for their vote or political candidacy.
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