Citizens in Charge

Voters around the country are increasingly demanding that politicians be held accountable for their actions and campaign promises. Compared to initiative & referendum, recall efforts are rarely used, but over the last year or so they have been increasingly used to get rid of unresponsive politicians:

It’s safe to say that pretty much everyone anywhere hates red-light cameras. So when government officials decide to put them up, how do citizens get them taken down? The initiative & referendum process:

Last fall our partner organization, Citizens in Charge Foundation, co-sponsored five regional events put on by the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD). The events brought together activists, concerned citizens, and policymakers with professionals in the dialogue and deliberation community to exchange best practices ideas on how to fix the discrepancies between what citizens see happening in public policy and their communities and what they think should be happening.

The citizens of Manly, Iowa have apparently had enough of their city clerk. Earlier this week they collected signatures and presented them to the town council urging them not to reappoint the official:

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our new video about what Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge Foundation have accomplished along with the rest of the citizen rights movement.

There’s a great piece supporting initiative and referendum in today’s Post & Courier out of Charleston, South Carolina. It comes on the heels of Jim Gordon’s letter to the editor that was in the paper a few weeks ago:

The Legislature is the dominant force in South Carolina’s government and, no surprise, hasn’t been willing to give the voters access to a statewide initiative process. For the sake of accountability, that ought to change.