Organizers of a citizen-led initiative that would ban corporate contributions to D.C. campaigns are hoping to gather up to 10,000 signatures today, moving them closer to the 23,000 they need by July to get the measure on the November ballot.

Some 200 volunteers for the D.C. Public Trust have fanned out to polling places across the city today with petitions in hand, aiming to use election day as a means to gather the majority of the signatures needed to get “The Prohibition on Corporate Campaign Contributions Initiative of 2012” (also known as Initiative 70) on the ballot.

If it gets to the ballot and is approved, Initiative 70 would forbid a practice that has only gotten more pronounced over the years—corporate contributions to campaigns, constituent services funds and inaugural and transition funds. Last month the D.C. Council similarly introduced legislation banning the practice, along with a bill severely limiting the use of money orders for campaign contributions.

The initiative became something of an issue in this year’s At-Large race, with incumbent Councilmember Vincent Orange refusing to support it while challengers Sekou Biddle, Peter Shapiro and E. Gail Anderson Holness did. Orange has accepted tens of thousands in bundled corporate contributions, as well as $26,000 in money orders for his 2010 campaign. In other races, Ward 4 challenger Max Skolnik has helped gather signatures for the initiative.

Bryan Weaver, one of the initiative’s organizers, told us this morning that volunteers had been asked to complete two petition sheets. Each petition sheet can take 20 signatures. He said that the campaign also plans on gathering signatures on May 15, when a special election for Ward 5 is scheduled to take place.

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