Citizens in Charge

A proposed state constitutional amendment would create a fund to hold monies from a recent tobacco settlement. A ballot measure that provides more state support for tobacco prevention will be trumped by this amendment if it passes.

Read the story from the Dickinson Press

The Unites States Supreme Court denied Arizona’s request for an appeal in the case Nader v. Brewer. Last year the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona’s law requiring petition circulators to be state residents. Thirteen other states had asked the high court to overturn the decistion. Similar laws in Ohio and Oklahoma were invalidated last year in the 6th and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Date Initiative language can be submitted: Anytime.

Signatures are tied to vote of which office: Resident population at the last
federal decennial census

Net number of signatures required: For statutes, 2% of the population.
(12,829) and for amendments, 4% of the population. (25,659)

Distribution Requirement: None.

Circulation period: 1 year.

Do circulators have to be residents: Yes.

You have full Initiative & Referendum rights. Citizens can pass laws they write or suspend a statute passed by the Legislature by collecting enough petition signatures to place the statute on the statewide ballot for a decision by the voters. Voters can also initiate constitutional amendments by Initiative.

Poll:

See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.

The father of the North Dakota initiative process was L. A. Ueland of
Edgeley, a state legislator who served on the executive committee of the
National Direct Legislation League from its founding in 1896. If Ueland was
the father of the process, however, Katherine King of McKenzie was the
mother. Mrs. King, married to Royal V. King, in 1902 organized a state
chapter of the League. Mrs. King’s League won passage of Ueland’s I&R
bill through both houses of the legislature in 1907, despite opposition from

Proponents must file their petition with the Secretary of
State for approval before they can circulate. The request for approval
must be presented over the names and signatures of twenty-five or more
electors as sponsors, one of whom must be designated as chairman of the
sponsoring committee. The Secretary of State will approve the petition for
circulation if it is in proper form and contains the names and addresses of
the sponsors and the full text of the measure.

Critics of embryonic stem cell research have accused three top Missouri officials of conspiring to prepare an unfair ballot summary for a proposal to bar use of public funds for abortion and human cloning.

The claim is asserted in a lawsuit by Missouri Roundtable for Life seeking a new ballot summary and cost estimate for a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution that proponents hope to put on the 2010 ballot.

A South Dakota House committee has endorsed a measure intended to make more organizations report where they get the money they use to influence the outcome of public votes on ballot measures.

The State Affairs Committee voted unanimously to approve HB1233, which says any organization that spends more than half its annual revenue to influence a ballot measure must file a campaign finance report disclosing where it got the money…. (READ MORE)

Recently, Measure 2 officially was certified for the Nov. 4 ballot. Voters will have a historic opportunity to vote on guaranteed tax relief, thanks to the work of 65 North Dakotans who helped put Measure 2 on the ballot.

Every month, we hear new estimates of just how big the surplus will be. The latest number by the Office of Management and Budget pegs the projected surplus just less than $1.3 billion, with more than $450 million of that excess revenue occurring outside of the oil-tax windfall the state has enjoyed.

North Dakota’s fall lineup of ballot initiatives may include proposals to discourage smoking, cut income taxes, ban fenced hunting and revamp the administration of North Dakota’s workers compensation agency.

Supporters of the workers compensation and hunting measures turned in their petitions Tuesday, hours before a midnight deadline arrived. The measures had to be submitted before the deadline to have a chance for a spot on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

North Dakota is spending roughly a third of the money that it should to discourage tobacco use, say advocates of a ballot initiative that voters are likely to decide in November.

The proposal’s supporters turned in petitions to Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office on Monday that they said included the signatures of 15,667 North Dakota voters, or 22 percent more than the minimum of 12,844 needed to qualify for a vote.

They collected the names in three months.

Game preserve owners are campaigning against a proposed North Dakota ballot measure that would eliminate so-called high-fence hunting, saying a ban would violate their property rights.

“The bottom line is that preserve hunting is not for everyone,” said Wayne Laaveg, who owns an elk farm near Edinburg. “But citizens should have the right to choose where they want to hunt.”

Supporters of the initiative say it’s unethical to shoot a fenced-in animal.

Governor Hoeven says he`s supporting a proposed ballot measure to give the governor power to appoint North Dakota`s workers compensation director. The governor, however, isn`t saying whether he`ll campaign for the measure if it makes it onto the ballot.