Newswire
The clock is running out for a pension-altering ballot initiative written by Paul McCauley. The Southern California accountant has until Oct. 15 to turn in 433,971 signatures supporting a statewide vote on his McCauley Pension Recovery Act.
By now, each side could make the other’s point. Question 2 on the November referendum ballot would reduce Maine’s automobile excise tax on newer vehicles and offer an estimated $80 million in tax relief. To the initiative’s supporters, it’s that simple. “Vote yes, pay less,” Chris Cinquemani, chairman of the Yes on 2 campaign, repeated at a forum Wednesday in Brewer.
Tonganoxie residents now will be able to purchase retail liquor on Sundays and select holidays. In a special election conducted Tuesday, voters, by about a 2-1 margin, approved a ballot question asking whether retail liquor sales should be allowed on those days. The “yes” vote prevailed, 250-132.
Next week the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce whether it will hear a First Amendment challenge to a Colorado law that requires groups to register with the government and reveal their donors if they take positions on ballot measures. The law applies not just to groups that are established to support or oppose initiatives but also to any organization that has “a major purpose” of doing so.
On September 22, the Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of the city of Phoenix, in Jones v Paniagua. The issue is how many signatures are needed for a city referendum. The law says the number of signatures must be 10% of the vote cast in the last city election. But the uncertainty involved knowing which was the last city election, the 2007 first round (which had a high turnout and included the Mayor’s race), or the 2007 second round (which just had contests in some city council districts, plus a citywide ballot measure), which had a far lower turnout.
Two prominent East Bay marijuana advocates got clearance from the state today to try to put a pot-legalization initiative on the November 2010 California ballot. Richard Lee, executive director of the medical marijuana dispensary known as Oaksterdam, and Jeff Jones, former director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, are the sponsors of a measure that would allow anyone over 21 to possess or grow marijuana for personal use. It would allow each local government to decide whether to tax and regulate marijuana sales.
An election that would allow Mississippi voters to decide whether they should show identification at the polls appears unlikely for at least another two years. It may not happen at all, depending on whether supporters can navigate the complicated process of getting an initiative on a ballot.
Growth, crime and punishment have caught up with Pasco and Franklin County, say officials who want voters to approve a 0.3 percent sales tax increase on the Nov. 3 ballot. Proposition 1 would bring in about $3 million a year, most of which would go to pay off 30-year bonds to construct a new police station and more than double the size of the county jail. The measure needs a simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote to pass.
The state election coordinator has ruled that Knox County has to limit a recall ballot initiative to a single question ”” should school board member Bill Phillips be recalled? The ballot cannot contain two questions, election administrator Mark Goins wrote in a four-page opinion released today. The second question would have been whether a special election should be held to choose a successor.
An initiative to ban trapping on public land in Montana has cleared its first hurdle toward appearing on the November 2010 ballot. The Montana Secretary of State’s office has concluded that the initiative proposed by Florence-based Footloose Montana can appear on the ballot if backers can get enough signatures to qualify the measure.