Oregon
Under a bill being considered by the Oregon Senate Oregon’s ballot initiative system would become an indirect initiative, rather than the current direct system. Ballot initiatives would first go to the legislature, which would hold hearings and be able to put their own competing initiative on the ballot.
We recently ran across this video from Oregon. Do you think a Citizens’ Inistiatve Review board is a good or bad idea?
Secretary of State Kim Brown is pushing for legislation that would impose new requirements on petition circulators. Brown says she is aiming to insure a clean process while critics note that the proposed regulations would largely cripple the process…
OKLAHOMA CITY ””
A pair of Oklahoma lawmakers have received an award from a national voter rights group focused on the initiative and referendum process.
The Virginia-based Citizens in Charge Foundation on Tuesday named state Sen. Randy Brogdon and Rep. Randy Terrill as the March 2009 recipients of the John Lilburne Award….
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.
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.
Oregon holds the records for the most statewide initiatives (there were
318 between 1904 and 2000), the highest average initiative use (6.6 per
general election), and the most statewide initiatives on the ballot in a
single year - 27 in 1912.
When the proponent files the initiative and application
with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State immediately sends a
copy to the Attorney General. The Attorney General has 5 days to write
the ballot title and summary. The Attorney General then sends the title
and summary to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State sends
copies of the full text, title and summary to the Legislature, proponents
and other interested parties (like journalists and activists who are on the
Secretary of State’s e-mail list.)
Date initiative language can be submitted: Anytime
Signatures are tied to vote of which office: Governor
Next Gubernatorial election: 2010
Votes cast for governor in last election: 1,375,995
Net number of signatures required: 8% of votes cast for Governor for a
constitutional amendment (110,358) and 6% for a statute (82,769)
Distribution requirement: None
Circulation Period: About two years
Arizona voters could have the chance next year to change how ballot measures make it into the polling place.
A bipartisan group of state legislators has drafted an overhaul package it wants to put before Arizonans in 2010. The package, introduced in the state House, was spurred by problems with several proposed 2008 ballot measures, including allegations of misleading titles, fraudulent signatures and bogus legal language.
Legislators like State Senator Frank Morse (R – Albany) and State Representative Larry Galizio (D – Tigard) Larry are talking about reforming the initiative process. For one thing, both want to give the Legislature a chance to review and react to any proposed initiative before it goes to the ballot; once signatures were gathered, the measure would not go directly to the voters, but would go to the Legislature first.
In addition, according to the Register-Guard:
Some of Oregon’s newly elected leaders are making noises about cracking down on ballot initiative fraud and vowing to return control of the initiative and referendum system to the people. While these are high-sounding goals, there is a simpler reform that would help voters and avoid a pitched legal battle.
Oregon Secretary of State-elect Kate Brown and Attorney General-elect John Kroger, both Democrats, say they will vigorously prosecute fraud in signature gathering — as they should. But proven incidents of fraud have been rare.
It’s a cherished Oregon tradition — citizens banding together to gather signatures to place proposed laws on the ballot. Assisted suicide, vote-by-mail elections and property tax limits are just a few of the laws enacted directly by voters over the years.
The century-old initiative and referendum system has been used more widely in Oregon than most other states, but it will be the target of increased scrutiny and possible new constraints in the coming year.
Bill Sizemore was released from the Multnomah County jail early Tuesday afternoon after he complied with a judge’s order to file state and federal tax forms for a Nevada charitable foundation that he controls.
Smiling broadly, the 57-year-old ballot initiative activist embraced his wife, Cindy, and two of their daughters as he emerged from a hallway leading to the jail portion of the Multnomah County Justice Center.