The Nevada legislature adjourned earlier this month. Among the election law bills that failed to pass was SB 434, which would have made it more difficult to qualify a statewide initiative. Here is the text of the bill. Section 4 of the bill said that before a statewide initiative could begin to circulate, the sponsors had to submit the signatures of 1,000 registered voters who support the initiative. Only after the 1,000 signatures had been submitted and verified could the initiative itself begin to circulate. The names of the 1,000 voters who had signed the “pre-initiative” petition would not be counted as having signed the initiative petition itself. The bill passed the Senate but did not advance in the Assembly. It garnered most of its support from Republican legislators. Thanks to Janine Hansen for this news.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
I wonder why it seems Republicans just hate the citizen process of designing law. Democratic lawmakers are some what the same way, but over the years more legislation has been sponsored by Republicans in the states to control this process.
In Oregon the Democrats are the ones restricting the initiative process. They adopted a law about 8 years ago very similar to the “1,000 signatures to start the process” bill. In Oregon, the Republicans are the defenders of the initiative process.
The majority party in the legislature is usually the one that doesn’t like the initiative. In California the Republicans are the defenders of the initiative.