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(LAKE RIDGE, VA) – Today, Citizens in Charge Foundation, a transpartisan national voter rights group focused on the ballot initiative and referendum process, presented the Concerned Citizens Council of Big Spring, Texas with the February 2010 John Lilburne Award. The group is being recognized for standing up for the petition rights of all citizens by filing suit against the city council for violating the state open meetings law in an attempt to block the Concerned Citizens Council’s petition.
At Citizens in Charge Foundation we seek to keep the initiative & referendum process open and accessible for those citizens who have it, and expand the process to those citizens who do not. We believe that the initiative & referendum process is a right that every citizen should have, regardless of what issue or policy they intend to use it for.
Never short on examples of the many attempts around the country to take away the 
peoples’ right to initiative and referendum by gutting the process, Norfolk, VA residents narrowly escaped a doubling of the signature requirement to put measures on the city ballot Wednesday. Thanks to the strong opposition shown by tho
Last month, Ohio state representative Jennifer Garrison announced a plan for what she inappropriately refers to as a “Ballot Integrity Act”. The proposal would require people who help initiative and referendum campaigns collect signatures, and the companies they work for, to go through an onerous and potentially expensive registration process before they could work on a petition campaign.The law would also allow voters’ signatures to be thrown out because of mistakes made by campaign workers.
Richard Winger at Ballot Access News uses a situation in Maine to make a great point about the many and often absurd reasons that petition signatures can be challenged around the country:
The Portland Press Herald has this brief news story today about the legal challenge to 
Maine’s Secretary of State over certifying petition signatures.
Last Sunday the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran an editorial blatantly attacking the citizens and their powers of local direct initiative and recall. My response, which is copied below to the ridiculous claims of the Journal-Sentinel were published in today’s edition.
Recalls, Direct Legislation Are Vital
Frederick County officials are calling on residents to sign a petition to hold a referendum on the city of Frederick’s plans to annex three neighborhoods. The county has set up a website listing petition locations and urging people to sign, while developers have paid city officials to send a letter to all registered city voters urging them not to sign.
Supporters of an initiative aimed at ethics reform have accused Utah’s Lieutenant Governor of preventing them from circulating their petition by stalling on its approval. The Lt. Gov. claims he is not stalling, and will likely let the petition go through to gather signatures. I have blogged before about the many restrictions that Utah places on its initiative process.
While we don’t support or oppose any particular initiatives here at Citizens in Charge Foundation, we work with a lot of initiative activists who do. At the Grassroots Director, I am in regular contact with people involved in initiatives all over the country, and it gives me great insight into how the process really works “on the ground”. It is that insight that makes me question the logic of a bill that has recently passed the California legislature, and whether California legislators even understand the initiative process that they are meddling with.