Citizens in Charge

Oklahomans are celebrating the passage of a major reform to the state’s stringent ballot initiative process.  Senate Joint Resolution 13 (SJR-13) passed the legislature and will now be on the 2010 ballot for the voters of Oklahoma.

Advocates of initiative, referendum and recall provisions in Nacogdoches have an event to watch next week.

Paul Jacob, president of the Citizens in Charge Foundation, did jail time in the 1980s for refusing to register for the draft. Since then he’s been working to curb politicians’ power via term limits. Last year he was indicted for allegedly violating Oklahoma rules barring nonresidents from circulating ballot petitions. A federal appeals court struck down those rules in December. In February reason asked Jacob to list three barriers to citizen participation in politics.

1.) Initiatives, referenda, and recalls ar…

Earlier this week Paul Jacob in his daily commentary on ThisIsCommonSense.com discussed Colorado’s Referendum O.

The measure, created by the state legislature, aims at restricting the citizen petition initiative. Even though the measure was defeated by Colorado voters, members of the legislature are pushing through a fast tracked bill in hopes at curtailing the process.

Read more at ThisIsCommonSense.com

Students are learning the power of initiative and referendum.

At the University of Berkley student Rachel Barge co-created the Green Initiative Fund, a student fee referendum put on the university ballot asking students to pay $5 a semester for a sustainability fund.

Advocates of initiative, referendum and recall provisions in Nacogdoches have an event to watch next week.

The Oklahoman’s for Responsible Government blog reports that a bill which would significantly open up the initiative process sailed through the state’s Senate Rules Committee. As I’ve talked about before, Oklahoma currently has some of the most restrictive initiative laws in the country.