Citizens in Charge

152,588,520 are thanking you for supporting the efforts of Citizens in Charge and our partner organization, Citizens in Charge Foundation over the past year. As the only national organizations dedicated to protecting the initiative, referendum and recall rights of all Americans without regard to partisanship or politics, we had a busy year in 2011. The rights of 152,588,520 were defended thanks to the hard work and dedication or our transpartisan coalitions throughout the country.

You can view a list of the state projects that we engaged in last year here but, I’d like to share some of the highlights.

Yesterday’s Common Sense article from Paul Jacob touches on the Michigan recall controversy:

The state constitution of Michigan grants citizens the right to recall their elected officials, but that right may face a challenge from the state legislature:

There have been many citizen initiatives passed in many different states throughout the years. Some have been fairly mundane and inconsequential, others have been controversial.

In the last 100 years, what do you think has been the most consequential citizen initiated ballot initiative that passed into law? If you can’t come up with just one, what would be the top 5? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

This article from Citizens in Charge President Paul Jacob isn’t necessarily about initiative rights, but it’s a great piece and worth the read:

California Governor Jerry Brown will propose a ballot measure to increase taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increase the state sales tax:

The citizens of Wisconsin are an angsty bunch eh?

It’s now official. Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan will face a recall election after over 4,400 petition signatures were verified by the city clerk:

The signature gathering in Wisconsin to recall Governor Walker began in earnest nearly two weeks ago, and already they’ve collected quite a few signatures.

The United Wisconsin coalition claims to have collected 300,000 signatures in just 12 days, which puts them over halfway to the roughly 540,000 needed to force a recall election. When collecting signatures it’s not unusual for some of them to be thrown out as incorrect or unidentifiable. However, even with the bad signatures taken out the coalition to force a recall is off to a pretty effective start.

What do you think? Will those seeking to recall the governor of Wisconsin be successful in their efforts?

Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge Foundation would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope your day is filled with good food, family, and friends. It is a day to celebrate and remember the rights we have, but let us never forget that our work continues to protect and exand citizen initiative rights around the country.

Oh, and if you’re deep-frying your turkey try not to let this happen…

The campaign to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gets most of the media’s attention around the state and country. However, there is another recall effort currently underway in the city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin:

In an important decision for initiative rights, the California Supreme Court today unanimously told the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the proponents of initiatives in California have a legal right to defend their voter-enacted measures against legal challenges:

…the justices sided with Proposition 8 sponsors, who’ve argued they should be able to appeal a federal judge’s decision last year striking down the same-sex marriage ban because the governor and attorney general have refused to defend the voter-approved law. The state Supreme Court overwhelmingly agreed that Proposition 8 backers can go it alone in trying to preserve the gay marriage ban.

In what is sure to be a hard-fought and intense process, the recall campaign against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker began yesterday across the state:

Jubilant opponents of Republican Gov. Scott Walker launched their effort Tuesday to try to recall him from office, starting a 60-day blitz to gather more than half a million signatures to force an election next year.

Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge Foundation would like to thank our veterans and active duty military personnel. All of what we work for here would not be possible without their service and sacrifice. Thank You.

A judge recently changed the wording on a ballot measure in Philomath, Oregon regarding whether or not the city should put flouride in the drinking water. This is not a nationally covered, and it really only affects those in one city, but it brings ups an interesting topic. How much should a judge be able to alter ballot measure wording? From an article on the wording changes:

Yesterday in a number of states across the nation, citizens headed to the polls to vote on a variety of issues.

In Mississippi, there were three measures on the state-wide ballot for voters, two of which passed. Initiative 27 which would require an ID at the polls to vote, and Initiative 31 which prevents government from using eminent domain to acquire private property both passed by significant margains. Initiative 26, the personhood amendment defining life as beginning at fertilization was defeated by a smaller but still wide margin.