Citizens in Charge

Yesterday on a party-line vote, Democrats in the California Senate passed SB 448, a bill that will force petition circulators to wear huge badges on their chest while collecting signatures. You can read more about that here. The bill now moves on to the state assembly, where hopefully it will be voted down.

From San Jose Mercury News:

Democrats in the state Senate approved two bills Monday designed to shorten the reins on professional signature-gatherers who have come to dominate California’s initiative process.

Under one bill, individuals would have to wear large-print badges specifying whether they are volunteers or are being paid to collect voter signatures.

“It gives a little transparency,” Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, said of his bill.

SB448 also would require the badge to note whether the gatherer is registered to vote and, if so, where.

A second bill, SB168, by Sen. Ellen Corbett, would prohibit paying gatherers for each signature, a practice Corbett said encourages fraud.

Both bills passed on party-line votes and were sent to the Assembly…

…Citizens in Charge, a Virginia-based national voter rights groups that supports the initiative and referendum process, last week circulated an open letter objecting that DeSaulnier’s badge bill would violate First Amendment free-speech rights.

The group also said, in jest, that it would oppose any legislation requiring lawmakers to wear prominent badges reading, “Paid State Senator” or “Paid Member of the California Assembly.”

Senators of both parties said the initiative process, which began a century ago as an exercise in grass-roots democracy, has morphed in recent years into an industry dominated by those who can afford to pay to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures within a limited timeframe.

“It’s an opportunity for moneyed interests to game the system,” said Sen. Roderick Wright, D-Inglewood. “We have really lost our way with this initiative process.”

It’s ironic that State Senator Wright would put it that way, because we actually half agree with him, he has lost his way with the initiative process.