Bill is a start in reforming initiative process

Mon, Jul 20 2009 — Source: San Francisco Chronicle

By now, any Californian who has not been hounded to sign a petition for a ballot initiative must never go grocery shopping or strolling along a downtown street. The paid signature gatherers are abundant, they are aggressive and sometimes they are deceptive in their pitches. Most of them have an incentive to be pushy and not quite forthright: They are being paid by the signature.

 

Sen. Ellen Corbett’s SB34 would make it a misdemeanor to pay or receive money based on the number of signatures collected. Signature gatherers could continue to be paid by the hour. The bill made it through the Senate and is now awaiting a vote on the Assembly floor.

“Most important to me is preserving the integrity of the initiative process,” Corbett said in a phone interview last week.

This bill addresses a reality of the century-old initiative process in the modern era: What began as a way to offset the power of monied interests - most notably, Southern Pacific Railroad - has become a favored tool of the monied interests.

“Frankly, the way we gather signatures is probably the worst way to decide what goes on the ballot,” said Bob Stern, president of Los Angeles’ Center for Governmental Studies. “If you have enough money, you can put anything on the ballot, it doesn’t matter what it is.”

Opponents of SB34 contend that it undermines grassroots democracy.

Paul Jacobs, president of Washington’s Citizens in Charge, said pay-per-signature is nothing new and is an effective way for advocates to get their issue on the ballot.

“It’s a little like picking apples in an orchard,” Jacobs said. “What you want is a certain number of apples, not a certain number of people picking apples.”

Read the rest of the article from the San Francisco Chronicle