Signature Gathering

(originally published at Fox & Hounds Daily)
As Californians assess direct democracy on our system's 100 birthday, one criticism echoes from across the political spectrum: access to the system is limited because qualifying ballot initiatives, referenda, and recalls is such a costly process.

(originally published at Fox & Hounds Daily)
I know that Senate Bill 448 -- which requires circulators of initiative and referendum petitions to wear large badges or signs on their chests explaining, in 30 point type, that they are paid - is probably unconstitutional, given that it restricts the First Amendment rights of people to petition their government.

(originally published at Fox & Hounds Daily)
I, like virtually every member of the California media and good government community, was appalled when the group calling itself Californians Against Identity Theft and Ballot Fraud, backed by the building trades and pipe trades unions, broadcast a radio ad claiming -without evidence -- that signing an initiative petition put you at great risk for identity fraud.

We face historic challenges at a time when our state is increasingly thought to be ungovernable. Our outmoded system of government is crippling our ability to deliver basic services to the Californians who create our extraordinary productivity and prosperity – and undercutting our ability to plan and invest for the future. There are plenty of proposals for reform, but the public is often distrustful of those who offer them. It's time to change the process.

Gov. Jerry Brown's budget and temporary tax push is stuck, in part for lack of leverage.

It sure would have been nice if he had been able to gather signatures on a ballot initiative as he negotiated with lawmakers in March. But that would have cost too much (thereby giving too much power to his financial backers) and taken too much time.

While putting together the program for a free, public international conference on initiative and referendum (it's called the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and you can register here:), I've been hearing dozens of accounts of the strange ballot initiative qualification season that has just been concluded.

(cross posted at Fox & Hounds Daily)
Leading California politicians and unions are fighting electronic signature gathering here. This week, the European Union embraced it.

(cross posted at Fox & Hounds Daily)

What are we to make of the California Labor Federation’s decision to put a prominent Bay Area Democratic political consultant on a banned list that includes Wal-Mart, union-busting hotels, and a major donor to Prop 8?

Guess what? Electronic signatures aren’t new to California politics. In most counties of this state, records of voter registration are kept in electronic form. So when the clerk’s office checks to see if your pen-and-paper signature on an initiative petition matches the signature they have on file, the signature they’re comparing it with is an electronic one.

(cross posted at Fox & Hounds Daily)

If you think California governing system is badly broken, how should you vote in the governor’s race?

The likely nominees of each party, Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, haven’t even bothered to offer an answer. (And for the record, Steve Poizner, despite being more specific about his policies than his rivals, has dodged this big question too).