American River College students walking to class recently may have been asked to sign many petitions on campus. Many of these people collecting signatures are getting paid to ask you to sign your name on the dotted line.

Zach Church could recently be seen gathering signatures for a ballot measure to have all doctors and surgeons submit to mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

As he yells out to students to sign, he explains what a great idea it is to have any doctor or surgeon who is going to operate on someone be tested for drugs on a regular basis.

Discovery Petition Management employs Church, a first time student at American River College, to collect student signatures on campus about various political and social topics.

Church is allowed to pick the topics he pitches to students but also understands that he gets paid for signatures, so he will usually pitch anything that he is given.

Church gets paid to collect signatures because it equates to a full time job, whereas in the past most signature collectors were volunteers.

With the number of signatures needed for a petition to be placed on a ballot growing, the need for paid signature collectors has grown.

Even after asking for signatures, Church will then ask if people signing the petition are registered to vote.

If not, he can take care of that as well by having students fill out a voter registration form and turning the completed form into the registrar’s office for them.

Next time you walk by a signature gatherer, remember that the person asking for your autograph might not really have a personal interest in the topic other than a paycheck in mind.