Citizens in Charge

Come this November, voters in Nevada will only have politicians to vote for on the ballot, and no citizen initiatives:

For the first time since 1992, Nevada voters will find no question on their November ballot that qualified as the result of a citizen’s initiative petition, the secretary of state’s office has reported.

The deadline for submitting the required number of signatures to county clerks passed Tuesday with no petitions presented in any county. Three petitions to amend the state Constitution were in circulation.

This election year marks the second in a row when not one initiative petition qualified for the ballot. Voters did approve a petition-generated question in 2008, but the petition had been circulated and certified for the ballot in 2006. All questions to amend the Constitution that qualify for the ballot as a result of an initiative petition must be approved by voters in two consecutive statewide general elections.

Those who attempted to qualify measures for the ballot this year and in previous elections say the process is too difficult for average citizens, with legal challenges from opponents and complex signature gathering requirements cited as two examples.

Once again, unnecessarily high signature requirements and complex distribution requirements have kept citizens from having a direct say in their government. Of course, this is exactly what those restrictions are meant to do…keep citizen initiatives off the ballot.

Nevada did score fairly well in our 2010 State Grades Report, receiving a B+. This story highlights the fact that even in states that scored well in the report, it is still difficult to put citizen-initiated measures on the ballot. We still have a lot of work to do.