Archives for April 2010
Several years ago while myself and several other Wisconsin activists were working on the recall of a City of Milwaukee Alderman, the recall effort was going on during a regularly scheduled election so we told the group collecting signatures to stand just outside of the polling locations and approach the voters as they were going in to vote. This seemed like a simple and easy way to gather signatures because all of those going in to vote were residents of the district of the alderman that we were attempting to recall.
Richard Winger gives a great rundown at Ballot Access News of the many amicus briefs submitted in Doe v. Reed. The United States Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether signatures on initiative and referendum petitions are private or a matter of public record.
Last November we awarded California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the John Lilburne Award for vetoing a series of bills that would have restricted petitioning rights in the state. Included among those bills was AB 436, sponsored by Assemblywoman Saldaña, that would have raised the filing fee for an initiative tenfold from $200 to $2000 over seven years.
While around the United States legislators and special interests seek to restrict citizens’ initiative & referendum petitioning rights, the European Union is expanding them. Joe Matthews of the New America Foundation notes:
The news here are the choices the Europeans appear to be making about how to structure the new signature gathering process. In almost every way, their process represents a vast improvement on what we have in California.
The Saginaw News has a piece in which Saginaw Valley State University political science professor Robert W. Lane and several Saginaw-area officials claim Michiganders’ ability to recall elected officials is too powerful and should be weakened.
Four years after winning independence from Britain, 55 delegates from the new American states completed the awesome task of drafting a new constitution. On September 18, 1787, one Mrs. Powel asked delegate Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”  Dr. Franklin’s reply was both a warning and a commission to us, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
So, we’re supposed to have a “republic,” but what, exactly, does that mean? We better find out if we are to live up to Franklin’s charge to “keep it.”
One great thing about citizens being able to initiate their own proposed laws is the variety of topics that people take to the ballot box. On that note, an initiative circulating petitions in Columbia, MO is the first ever proposed to ban police use of Tasers. Supporters of the petition announced to chants of “We won’t be fooled again. Tasers have to go” that they will try to place the measure on the city’s November 2nd ballot.
Over the past few weeks we have been telling you about two Utah bills aimed at weakening the initiative petitioning rights of Utahans, and unfortunately Gov. Gary Herbert has decided to put his rubber stamp on both bills.