Citizens in Charge

At the Fox & Hounds website, Joel Fox reports that “signatures calling for a referendum on the so-called Amazon tax law requiring out-of-state Internet companies to collect sales taxes from California buyers are piling up.”

If enough signatures are collected in the short 90-day window permitted for referendum petitions — and Fox is predicting that Amazon’s signature drive will, in fact, finish early — the tax would be stayed from going into effect until the voters get to decide the matter at the June 2012 primary election.

It just might be the year of the referendum. After I blogged last week about referendum petitions going to the ballot in Maryland and Ohio I noticed a piece about several major referendum efforts in California. From Capital Notes:

The initiative may the most popular form of direct democracy in California, but 2012 has the potential for the spotlight to be recast on one of the lesser known of the powers created a century ago: the referendum.

Voters in Ohio and Maryland will decide whether to veto acts of their state legislature in November. Ohio voters will weigh in on Senate Bill 5, and Maryland voters will decide whether to keep the “Dream Act.”

We’ve been telling you for some time about Maryland’s ridiculously strict requirements for a valid signature on a referendum petition. That requirement has taken out another effort by citizens to exercise their referendum rights in Howard County as 36% of their petition signatures were rejected.

Steven Allen Adams of the West Virginia Watchdog - a project of the Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia - and I talked yesterday about bringing ballot initiative and referendum rights to West Virginia (my home state). The first segment in a three-part on putting the voters in charge of the Mountain State is excerpted below:

Because Hawaiians have no statewide initiative or referendum rights, the Aloha State earned a “D” on our recently released state-by-state report card on initiative and referendum rights. We like to think that the state’s poor performance will prompt action to give the people more of a voice in government by creating an open and accessible initiative process. Unfortunately, at least one talking head in the state doesn’t want the people to have a greater say in their state government.

In the “Initiative & Referendum Almanac”, the principle reference text for those of us in the world of initiative and referendum, the section on New Jersey history starts out noting that “It is ironic that New Jersey, the state where the national initiative and referendum movement originated, never adopted provisions for I&R.” It’s not only ironic, but sad, because like citizens in the other 25 states that don’t recognize initiative and referendum rights, New Jersey citizens could ce

People around the country have been fighting against speed and red light cameras ever since they started dotting intersections and roadsides in the 1990’s. In many states this policy debate is moving to the ballot, where initiative and referendum rights are able to give voters a voice on an issue that is often decided by unelected law enforcement and highway officials.

I came across an article in the Nashville Scene earlier today and found it to be an interesting take on the idea and practice of a non-binding referendum.

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.

We asked attendees what they thought about the initiative, referendum and recall process.

Citizens in Charge Foundation President Paul Jacob discusses what is on the ballot around the country in 2009. Part I discusses states with Legislative Referral measures on the ballot and the citizen initiatives in Maine. Part II will discuss Ohio and Washington.

I am writing to provide an update on the CB58-2008 referendum petition drive that started last November after the Howard County Maryland Council approved a 300% zoning increase for the size of grocery stores in Turf Valley.You may recall that citizens gathered over 9,300 signatures to place this legislation on the ballot for voters to decide in the 2010 election.