Virginia
Article XII
Section 1. Amendments.
Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in
the Senate or House of Delegates, and if the same shall be agreed to by
a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such
proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals,
the name of each member and how he voted to be recorded, and
referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session held after the
next general election of members of the House of Delegates. If at such
You have no statewide Initiative & Referendum rights and very few local jurisdictions have any Initiative & Referendum rights.
Coalition for an Open & Accessible Initiative Process:
Goucester County Citizens for Accountable Representation, VA
Virginia Institute for Public Policy
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
While the Populist call for “more democracy” was gaining strength
throughout most of the nation, Virginia’s ruling Democratic Party was
giving its citizens less democracy. In May 1901, voters elected 100
delegates to a state constitutional convention, 89 of them Democrats. The
new constitution they approved included a poll tax and a literacy test,
both designed to prevent poor whites and blacks from voting. The
delegates did not even submit the new constitution to the voters for
BY WINNING a clear victory in a referendum on Sunday February 15th the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has succeeded in removing constitutional limits to his indefinite re-election. The president, who has governed the country since 1999, immediately declared, to a crowd of cheering supporters at the presidential palace, that “this soldier is a pre-candidate for the presidency, for the period 2013-19”.
Gloucester County petitioners on the hook for $80,000 worth of fines took their civic battle to Richmond this week and scored key victories in the House of Delegates.
They also picked up the support of what could become a key ally, the American Civil Liberties Union.
Churchville attorney Francis Chester said Thursday the response to his petition drive to roll back Augusta County’s property values to 2005 and set aside the current reassessment has been strong. “You would not believe the phone calls and people coming into the office,’’ Chester said. One person asked for 15 petitions to circulate to county property owners, he said. Chester plans to present the petitions to the Augusta County Board of Supervisors at the board’s March 11 meeting.
In the next few weeks and if sanity prevails, the General Assembly will teach the judge that here in America, you can’t blast citizens for exercising their constitutional rights ”” then thwack them with a bill on top of it.
Because of Parker, two local Republican delegates ”” Tom Gear of Hampton and Harvey B. Morgan of Middlesex ”” have filed measures in Richmond to protect citizens against being forced to pay removal costs, attorney fees or other sanctions, should those citizens have the audacity to petition to remove an elected official.
Larry Sabato has a point.