Monthly Archive for Initiative and Referendum
Initiative and Referendum Stories Posted in July 2008
Hot summer for Colorado initiatives
Category: Affirmative Action · State: Colorado · Source: The Hill
California’s crown as the king of the initiative is about to be snatched by Colorado. The Colorado secretary of State’s office is besieged by truckload after truckload of baled petitions being submitted by various groups seeking a spot on November’s ballot. It’s a crowded house these days. Seven initiatives have already been certified for the ballot (or their petitions await certification). Another eight to 10 measures are widely expected to submit petitions in coming days. And four referred measures are already on the statewide ballot. At the least, there will be 15 significant ballot measures before voters when they look at their ballots in a few months. What do I mean by significant? For starters, many of these initiatives are seriously moneyed measures. Several of the proposals will inspire campaigns that spend more on TV and other electioneering than either candidate for the U.S. Senate — Republican Bob Schaffer or Democrat Mark Udall — can possibly bring to his top-tier contest. Some initiative campaigns have already pre-paid for their entire multimillion-dollar TV budgets before their petitions are even certified. So much will be spent on these measures that it is feared that if you don’t buy your TV now, you’ll be frozen out at the end. There won’t be a minute of broadcast time available for initiative advertisers. But it’s more than money that makes this year special in Colorado.
State loves to change the law of the land
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: California · Source: San Francisco Chronicle
The U.S. Constitution has 27 amendments. California's has more than 500. In the past 10 years, Californians have voted on 55 constitutional amendments, and four more are on the November ballot this year. With a state Constitution that can be changed at the ballot box by a simple majority vote, amending the document is often more a political question than a legal one. "We have one of the most unruly constitutions in the world," said Joel Fox, a former aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and member of the 1996 California Constitution Revision Commission. "So we make a habit of amending it more often." When backers of Proposition 8, which would bar same-sex marriage, put their measure on the November ballot as a constitutional amendment, opponents complained that such a ban had no place in a document like the state Constitution. Besides Prop. 8, state voters also will decide this fall whether measures on parental notification of abortions (Prop. 4), victims' rights (Prop. 9) and legislative redistricting (Prop. 11) will become part of the voluminous document. But it's hard to say exactly what doesn't belong there, given that the Constitution already contains such minutiae as the unalienable right of Californians to fish on public lands (Article 1, Section 25).
Only One Citizen Initiative Qualifies for November Ballot
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Montana · Source: The Missoulian
Only one citizen initiative qualified for the November ballot in Montana - I-155, identified in its short title as the Healthy Montana Kids Plan Act. In addition to I-155, there will be two ballot issues referred by the Legislature on the ballot. They are LR-118, identified in its first section as a tax levy for the university system, and C-44, a constitutional amendment affecting the way in which certain public funds are invested.
Court Rejects Challenge to Dog-Racing Initiative
Category: Massachusetts · State: Massachusetts · Source: Boston Herald
The state’s highest court has rejected a challenge by dog track owners who wanted to eliminate a November ballot question that asks voters whether to ban dog racing in Massachusetts. The track owners argued the proposed ban could not be put to a statewide ballot vote because it is aimed exclusively at the two places where dog racing currently exists: Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere and the Raynham-Taunton Dog Track in Raynham. But the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that racing amounts to a matter of statewide concern. The court said the Legislature and the people have the power - through the initiative process - to abolish animal racing that involves betting.
Petitions Slide Through Legal Loophole
Category: Bill Sizemore · State: Oregon · Source: The Oregonian
A coalition of labor groups says it has found evidence of widespread use of illegal practices to gather signatures for several conservative initiatives aimed for the November general election ballot. But the practices in question, including the use of carbon paper to duplicate printed names and addresses on multiple signature sheets for different initiatives, were not illegal until Jan. 1, when a new law governing Oregon's initiative system went into effect. The signature sheets examined by the labor coalition were all dated before Jan. 1. As a result, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who has scheduled a news conference on the subject today, has concluded that no action can be taken against the petition sponsors.
Payday Lenders Sue To Get OK To Start Petition Drive
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Ohio · Source: Columbus Dispatch
Frustrated by delays in getting the approval needed to begin collecting signatures for a ballot referendum, the payday-lending industry filed suit yesterday to cut Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers out of the petition process. Ohio law gives Rogers up to 10 business days to review and certify as truthful a petition summary that the Reject HB 545 Committee will use to collect the 241,365 valid signatures it needs to get a referendum on the ballot. The committee wants to overturn all or part of a new law that would lower the interest rate charged by payday lenders from an annualized 391 percent ($15 per $100 on a two-week loan) to 28 percent.
Under Charter, Citizens Take 'initiative'
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Lancaster Online
But the arguments for "initiative and referendum" changed his mind. Based on citizen input, Miller, a member of the Lancaster County Government Study Commission, and seven others on the 11-person GSC voted in May to amend the draft charter to not only allow people to force the board of county commissioners to consider an issue — but to take that issue to the electorate. "What I failed to see in the beginning was that the power to require consideration without the power for enactment would prove to be a paper tiger and diminish the real intent of initiative, namely government responsiveness to citizen desires," Miller said. Article VI, on initiative and referendum, includes one of the biggest philosophical changes to county government in the home-rule charter. Under the County Code, the state law that now controls the structure of county government, referendum is only allowed under limited conditions.
Group Seeks to Win Right to Petition
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Connecticut · Source: Connecticut Post
Connecticut's form of government should be changed to allow direct referendum and initiative similar to California, according to a new group that's pushing for the first constitutional convention since 1965. The Constitution Convention Campaign, during a news conference Thursday attended by several members of the General Assembly, wants Connecticut to vote "yes" this fall to the statewide ballot question "Shall the state Constitution be revised or amended?" It would be a first step toward possibly persuading lawmakers to adopt referendum and initiative, to allow voters to petition for new laws on everything from capping local property tax rates to prohibiting gay marriage, or even legalizing the medical use of marijuana. In reaction to the announcement, a leading Democratic lawmaker said Thursday that the agenda for a convention would be dictated by the General Assembly, and he doesn't believe Connecticut needs a complete rewriting of its constitution.
One Citizen Initiative In Running for November Ballot
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Montana · Source: Montana's News Station
There were ten, but now it looks like only one citizen's initiative remains in the running for a spot on the November election ballot. Of three constitutional amendments proposed by citizens, none will be on the ballot. Those measures would have addressed property tax increases, the rights of the unborn, and citizen hunting and fishing rights. Meanwhile, statutory initiatives dealing with specialized lotteries for wildlife, hunting and fish access rights, and home health care, all have been withdrawn.
Opinion: Why Voters Shouldn't Pass Laws
Category: Opinion · State: Connecticut · Source: Hartford Courant
Ardent special-interest groups are pushing to have the right of initiative written into the Connecticut Constitution — a formula for ill-conceived lawmaking that would wrest important policy considerations away from elected officials. The right of initiative is the right of citizens to propose laws or constitutional amendments that, if approved by a majority vote, have the force of law. Pressure for such a change in our constitution is rising because, in November, Connecticut citizens will vote on the question, "Shall there be a Constitution Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the State?" The constitution requires such a vote every 20 years. A number of groups, The Connecticut Taxpayers Association among them, are seeking an affirmative vote on the question, which would open the constitution up for a right of initiative amendment.
Other Monthly Archives for Initiative and Referendum
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