Newswire
Missouri could start holding public hearings on proposed ballot measures next year under legislation heading to Gov. Jay Nixon for approval.
The state Legislature passed several initiative petition reforms in a bill before the session ended last week. In addition to the creation of public meetings on the proposals, the legislation sets up requirements so Missourians will be able to access information about petitions online, requires petition circulators to disclose whether they are being paid for signatures and by whom, and enhances penalties for petition signature fraud.
Missouri has seen a large jump in the use of citizen petitions in recent years – from 16 submitted to the secretary of state’s office in 2004 to 143 submitted last year.
A referendum petition regarding a zoning ordinance that would allow construction of a Walmart Neighborhood Market is one step closer to appearing on a ballot.
Russellville City Clerk Kathy Collins confirmed Thursday she verified 917 of the petition’s signatures; 878 signatures were required.
The petition called for a special election on Aug. 13 to allow voters to decide whether to keep or overturn an ordinance rezoning property located at South Vancouver Avenue and West Main Street to a planned unit development (PUD).
When our nation’s founders wrote the language in the First Amendment guaranteeing the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” there were no words describing the form of that petition.
Obviously the intent was to make sure the content of your complaints to your government would never land you in jail or to suffer some other harm.
Now, of course, common sense would say that for your petition to have any effect, your words would have to be legible and understandable to a reasonable person. Skywriting or putting a couple of thousand words on a thimble head might impede that legibility or understandability, for example.
A group of local residents, led by Tom Jamieson and Ginny Scantlebury, have joined forces with the bag ban activist group Save Our Choice to seek repeal of Shoreline’s new plastic bag ban.
Ordinance No. 653, which regulates the distribution of plastic and paper carryout bags by Shoreline retail establishments was adopted by the Shoreline City Council on April 29, 2013. The new regulations become effective on February 1, 2014.
Read More: here
The roller-coaster campaign to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio took another dive today. With just two weeks left before the recall’s May 30 deadline, the on-again, off-again paid effort to gather signatures is off again.
This afternoon, I was forwarded a text message sent out to paid canvassers by Sign Here Petitions, informing them that the recall Arpaio committee Respect Arizona had “shut off” the paid drive. They were ordered to stop collecting signatures and turn in their petitions Friday.
Recall Arizona campaign manager Lilia Alvarez confirmed that this was the case. She explained that Recall Arizona had been in negotiations for more funds to keep the paid drive alive, but the funds did not materialize.
A senate panel voted Wednesday to throw some additional hurdles in the path of Arizonans who want to write their own laws.
Existing law already has a set of requirements for putting a measure on the ballot to propose a new statute or constitutional amendment. These include for who can circulate petitions, what has to be on each page and how many names can be on each sheet.
A group trying to oust Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is again paying professionals to gather signatures from voters in a bid to force a recall election against the lawman.
Fundraising difficulties had prompted the group to stop using paid signature gatherers nearly two months ago and instead rely on only volunteers.
But recall organizer Lilia Alvarez says the paid signature gatherers resumed their work for her group Wednesday after contributors followed through on pledges to donate money.
Read More: Here
City officials rejected a second petition by a group of labor unions that are looking to repeal a law that would cut union power.
Now labor union representatives say they are headed to court because of this second rejection.
In march the Anchorage Assembly passed a labor rewrite law also known as ordinance 37.
Union members say the ordinance took away many of their rights, for example collective bargaining and their right to strike.
City officials rejected the first referendum petition citing the ordinance is administrative in nature and a referendum would not legally change it.
In an April 26 editorial, The Spokesman-Review advanced several arguments on why it thought the Clean and Fair Elections Ordinance should not become the law in Spokane. As a member of the group that sponsored that ballot initiative, I assure you we are anxious to respond to those arguments.
However, an election campaign is the time for that. The issue at hand now is whether or not the voters should have the right to vote on this at all. It appears that some on the Spokane City Council and The Spokesman-Review editorial board feel they should not; that this initiative should be stopped before it goes on the ballot.
Read More: Here
A Montgomery County woman says she is planning a petition effort to get Maryland’s gun control bill put to a popular vote.
Sue Payne tells WBAL-AM (http://bit.ly/15tnCCe ) that she hopes to have a website up so voters can download and sign petitions to get the bill on next year’s ballot.
Payne decided to act after opponents of the bill decided on a court challenge rather than a referendum petition.
Read More: Here