petition blocking

Today I will be presenting the following testimony before the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee in support of House Bill 101.

BlockersEarly this morning I made the short drive to Annapolis, Maryland, to meet with Delegate Samuel Rosenberg (D-Baltimore) to ask what Citizens in Charge could do to support his bill aimed at preventing petition blocking and voter intimidation bill and help make it law in the Old Line State. Luckily, Del. Rosenberg asked us to do what we do best in the case: show that this reform will benefit all citizens no matter what their political leanings on any given issue.

Basically, Del. Rosenberg’s bill prevents democracy from being blocked and tackled.

After blogging yesterday about some of the petty ways initiative opponents try to block people from excercising their voting rights by throwing out their signatures on a petition, I started thinking about the wider struggle to protect those rights. Special interests and many politicians simply don’t like the initiative process because it threatens their hold on power. The last thing they want is for you, the voter, to have a say in how their government is run.