Initiatives

The Arizona Daily Star offers up a long editorial on the need to fix the state's initiative process. It's timely. Three measures were knocked off the ballot because of invalid signatures and two others made the ballot despite questions about their signatures. What to do?

The Star offers two ideas, one bad and one good. The first involves getting rid of paid signature gatherers. The problem: volunteer drives are less efficient and more expensive, on a per-signature basis. That's why there hasn't been a successful volunteer petition drive for a statewide measure in California since 1982. True professional petition circulators are a safeguard against fraud. Eliminating them would create more problems than it solves.

The second idea is a better one: loosening the deadline. Arizona has a fairly tight deadline for getting signatures and qualifying for the ballot -- four months. That makes signature gathering more expensive and creates an incentive for fraud. If you want true grass roots signature gathering, the deadline should be lifted entirely. (On this second point, the Tuscon Citizen agrees).

I'd also like to see Internet signature gathering with security measures that allow for independent verification.

Today's LA Times story by my longtime colleague Evan Halper makes one thing painfully clear. California's Republican legislative leaders, for all their championing of direct democracy and the rule of the people when it comes to subjects such as Prop 13 (property taxes) and Prop 22 (same-sex marriage ban), are prepared to violate all sorts of voter-approved initiatives to get a budget deal and avoid a tax increase.

Halper got his hands on a memo that details what Republicans are talking about. As Halper recounts the memo's contents, the Republican proposals involve "diverting money specifically set aside by voters for local governments, road and other transportation projects, mental health programs and early childhood education." To give a little history, voters set aside money for transportation via ballot initiative with Prop 42 (2002), for local government with Prop 1A (2004), mental health programs with Prop 63 (2004), and early childhood with Prop 10 (1998). For Republicans to want to raid such funds is hypocrisy. To borrow against such funds in the name of opposing tax increases is dishonest. The act of raiding such funds creates a debt for the state that must be paid back. The very act of raiding the funds is thus a tax increase in disguise.

Proponents of two Missouri initiatives to restrict the state's use of eminent domain failed to gather enough signatures to qualify the measures for the ballot, the Secretary of State ruled. But the proponents say valid signatures were ruled invalid, and are asking a court to put the initiatives on the ballot. The proponents say that the state tossed out signatures because officials wrongly believed the gatherer was not registered to vote.

The Aug. 26 state elections in Alaska are approaching. The political world is watching to see if indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens can survive the Republican primary. This blog is watching  Ballot Measure 2, the Alaska initiative to bar the shooting of wolves from the air. (Aerial population control of grizzlies and wolverines also would be covered by the ban). But there are three other measures, one on gaming, one establishing public finance for campaigns, and a third, Prop 4, that would put new regulations on mines in the name of cleaning water. The Homer paper provides a rundown of the measures here.

USC's Initiative & Referendum Institute has released their excellent and thorough review of ballot measures across the country. The headline is the number of measures involving social issues. The file is a PDF attachment to this post.

The above ad is running in Colorado. It attacks the well-known Amendment 47 (the Right to Work measure) and two other ballot initiatives supported by business and opposed by labor. Denver's ABC station does a fact-check of the ad here.

The ad is interesting for students of direct democracy because it criticizes the measures not for their content but for how signatures were gathered. For those who know the blockbuster democracy business, the most interesting part is the claim that people with criminal records  helped gather signatures. No kidding!

Capitol Weekly examines how the use of the Internet by the proponents of Prop 2, the Humane Society's California ballot initiative to change the rules of farm animal confinement, show the way to the future of initiative politics. Joe Trippi is in the middle of this campaign.

The "top two" open primary and a measure dedicating 15 percent of lottery revenues to public safety. Details are here.

THE GROWING BALLOT: Friend of the blog Robert Greene has this excellent update on the rapidly expanding California ballot. The voters have done their part through signature gathering; now the legislature adds its own measure to the ballot.

HIGH SPEED RAIL: The much delayed bond measure establishing a high-speed rail system in California will finally appear on this November's ballot. But the legislature can't reach a compromise on oversight for the funding.

Possibly yes. A Jersey City councilman and potential mayoral candidate has submitted signatures on a pair of local ballot measures that would give Jersey City some of the strict ethical standards in the Garden State, Politicker reports. One initiative would ban city council members from accepting more than one public salary or pension. The other would ban no-bid contracts to campaign donors.