ballot measure
This video is getting multiple airs during prime time on St. Louis TV news. KTVI-TV covers 
the efforts of a Missouri group to qualify a constitutional amendment for this fall’s ballot.
Today several state and national grassroot organizations are denouncing California Senate Bill 34 aimed at silencing voters by restricting the citizen initiative process. In an open letter to the California State Legislature, citizens are speaking out on the legislation that targets their First Amendment rights.
As pundits continue to look at the value of the ballot initative process its refreshing to get a real prespective, that of the voter. Here is a comment from a reader of Paul Jacob’s Sunday column “Do California politicians have too little power?”
What is wrong with California politics? Is it the politicians, the voters, the balance of power?
Yesterday in TownHall.com Paul Jacob discussed the results of the California ballot measures and tries to answer the question, “Do California politicians have too little power?”. What are your thoughts?
California’s ballot measures have received a lot of media attention in the last few months. Some want to blame the state’s problems on the initiative and referendum process. Paul Jacob disagrees.
In his Common Sense commentary, Prop 13 Declared Innocent, he explains why.
Prop 13 Declared Innocent.
Sometimes we in Kansas like to poke fun at our neighbors to the south in Oklahoma. I’m sure they do the same to us.
But one way in which Oklahoma has Kansas beat is in Oklahoma citizens’ ability to petition their government through the process of initiative and referendum.
Ballots for Oakland’s July mail-only election will be sent to city voters June 22 — and information on four ballot measures voters will consider is posted on the city’s Web site, www.oaklandnet.com.
If all the measures passed, it could generate $7 million to $8 million, according to city estimates.
Since the mid-1990s, California, Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington have passed ballot initiatives to ban affirmative action programs at the state level. Although Colorado last year narrowly rejected a similar initiative, and although petition drives failed to attract enough signatures in three other states…
Throughout the month of June we will be looking at the history and impact of the ballot initiative, referendum and recall process.
These reforms, which started gaining popularity in the late 1800s, can be traced to the political philosophy of one of our founding father, Thomas Jefferson.
We wanted to start the series with a great piece by Paul Jacob, the President of the Citizens In Charge Foundation. For over 10 years Paul has hosted and authored Common Sense, a daily radio commentary.
A development tax that Washington County voters overwhelmingly approved in November might fall victim — temporarily — to the economic downturn.
The tax would pay for road and transit improvements around the county, aiming to relieve congestion caused by new development. Currently developers pay a traffic-impact fee that covers 14percent of those costs, while the public covers the rest. Under the new transportation-development tax, developers would pay roughly 28percent of future costs.
Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Montana and Mississippi failed to get a freeway speed camera measure onto a ballot, but points to Maryland as an example of lawmakers’ success. He says 13 states have specific laws banning freeway cameras, but he sees a natural progression from states using red-light cameras to using freeway speed cameras.
Citizens for Limited Taxation, which has been involved in numerous ballot referendum efforts, called on lawmakers Wednesday to kill three bills that the group says will make it harder for activists to put questions before voters.
Citizens will find it easier to bring petitions to merge or abolish local governments — from villages to fire districts to sewer agencies — under legislation that won final legislative approval Wednesday night in the State Senate.
Today Citizens in Charge Foundation officially launced a new website called BallotBoxNews.com, a newswire providing the latest information about ballot initiatives and government reform from around the country. Sing up for national or state specific news feeds. You can also follow BallotBoxNews on twitter.
Today the California Supreme Court upheld ballot proposition eight banning gay marriage in the state. The 6-1 decision ruled that voters legally outlawed same-sex marriages via a voter passed ballot initiative in November. The court also ruled that the estimated 18,000 gay couples that were previously married in California before the law took effect would continue being married.
Prop. 8, as it is commonly referred to, has been in the media spotlight for several months as Californians struggled to decide what is the legal definition of marriage.