BOSTON -- Petition signature collectors are often the first and last people who greet customers at the grocery store during the political season.

But Team 5 Investigates has discovered some of the people hired to get your personal information might have some of their own information to hide.

Alvin Anders, a paid petitioner from Wayland, has a 1996 conviction in Arkansas for possessing ten pounds of marijuana. Now a warrant is out for his arrest because he violated his probation and failed to pay his fine.

Team 5 spoke to Anders outside a local grocery store about his criminal past.

"I'm a conscientious objector to the war on drugs," Anders said, declining further comment.

Earl Sholley is a paid petitioner also running for Congress.

He did time behind bars for threatening to commit a crime against an assistant district attorney.

Before that, Sholley was convicted of assault and battery on his 14-year-old daughter. He also went to jail for violating his probation.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sholley said. "I disciplined my daughter."

Sholley insists voters shouldn't worry about giving him personal information. "As long as I have it, that information is as secure as it could be with anyone."

There's no evidence that either Anders or Sholley have done anything wrong in their petitioning activities.

A Washington D.C. group called the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center wrote a report about petition fraud. It gives Massachusetts a failing grade for keeping voters safe and the election process free from fraud.

"The laws are inadequate and they've got people who will gravitate to Massachusetts because of that," said Joel Foster from Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Critics say part of the problem is that signature gatherers are not required to register with the state and are usually paid for each signature they collect.

"It creates an incentive for signature gatherers to copy things out of the phone book, to lie to voters to do whatever they can to submit signatures," Foster said.

Carla Howell, who heads the Center for Small Government, disagrees. She says the process is too restrictive. That's why she pays professional petitioners like Anders and Sholley thousands of dollars to get the job done.

"Let's talk about a guy like Anders. He currently has an arrest warrant out for him, isn't that a problem?" reporter Sean Kelly asked Howell.

"A current one?" Howell asked.

"Out of Arkansas," Kelly said.

"Ok, well you'll have to ask him," said Howell.

"How about Earl Sholley? Do you really think that voters are going to want to give their signatures to someone like that?" Kelly asked.

"Well, you're asking me to talk about a bunch of people," Howell said.

"I'm asking you because you paid them," Kelly interrupted.

"And they are generally great people," Howell said. "And overall, very law abiding, much more so than the Massachusetts legislature."

"Why don't you do background checks on the people being hired?" Kelly asked.

"Do you do background checks on everybody you encounter?" said Howell "It's just plain silly."

But Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin told Team 5 he doesn't think it's silly.

"Any kind of criminal background would probably not be a good thing," Galvin said.

"Why isn't there more oversight?" Kelly asked Galvin.

"You cannot restrict the right of people to go out on the street and solicit people to sign petitions," Galvin said. "It's a protected constitutional right."

Galvin says there is no evidence of widespread fraud in Massachusetts. But critics say lawmakers allow us to be an easy target.

Other states have passed laws that would address these issues. On Beacon Hill, they are in no hurry to do the same.