The Alaska Division of Elections will soon determine whether the initiative to repeal the top-four system has enough valid signatures. There are enough valid signatures statewide, but Alaska also requires a minimum number of signatures in three-fourths of the legislative districts, and the initiative may not have complied with the distribution requirement. See this story.
On July 19 a state court judge ruled that about 3,000 signatures are not valid, because the voters who signed them did so when no circulator was present. The petition blanks had been left on various bulletin boards and other places where no one was watching voters sign.
Even initiatives would benefit if proposers could pay filing fees to put them on the ballot.
Filing fees do not show public support. That is a terrible idea for initiative and referendum petitions.
Is it such a terrible idea? I’ll bet a lot of popular issues would get on the ballot that would not otherwise. The whole petitioning gauntlet has become a racket to suppress new ideas.
And, let’s be honest. A lot of initiatives ONLY get on the ballot if supporters hire petitioners to do the petitioning.
The initiative process doesn’t work very well if there are too many initiatives on any one state’s ballot.
Public support should be determined at the polls. Whether issues get on the ballot typically has a lot more to do with how much money the proponents have than anything else, as Andy well knows. Adding the option to qualify through direct contribution rather than astroturf petition drives wouldn’t preclude initiatives which genuine popular support from qualifying through the signature route.
Granted, it would not be good for the bottom line of those such as Andy who are still in the petition business.
Richard, that would depend on the signature threshold, but if we add a fee option it would equally depend on the amount of the fee.
ONE VOTER FORMS FOR CANDS/ISSUES
FEE = MIN PET AMOUNT X UNIFORM $ AMOUNT
CA– HIGH ON LIST WITH *MANY* BALLOT INITS ON BALLOTS ???
FALL OFF VOTES ON LOWER INITS ???
ANY STATE PUTTING INITS BEFORE OFFICES ???
“The initiative process doesn’t work very well if there are too many initiatives on any one state’s ballot.”
How much is too much? If there are “too much” (whatever that is), who gets to decide which go, and which don’t?
While, I might concede that there IS a limit to how many initiatives can go on a ballot in any one election, I don’t think that many places have reached that limit.
MOORE v. OGILVIE, 394 U.S. 814 (1969)
UNCON SPREAD SIGS
DISTS NEVER HAVE SAME NUMBER OF VOTERS
WZ —
ANY MAX ON NUMBER OF BILLS GERRYMANDER HACKS MANAGE TO VOTE ON —
ESP AT END OF SESSIONS ???
Let’s take the case at issue here. A judge ruled that 3,000 sigantures are invalid because there was no circulator present. The petition blanks were left on bulletin boards in various places for voters to sign. This seems likely because everyone knows that Alaska is a big state with low population density. It is difficult for circulators to be present to witness every signature.
So, what’s so bad about the promoters making up the deficit of disqualified signatures by paying a fee determined by the number of signatures disqualified? It would provide a remedy when signatures are disqualified after the petitioning period has closed.
Does the candidate selection process not work very well if there are too many candidates on any one state’s ballot?
“Does the candidate selection process not work very well if there are too many candidates on any one state’s ballot?”
Under plurality voting it can produce less desired results. But, the remedy proposed by both major parties is to minimize the number of third party and independent candidates thru various means, such as ballot access barriers. This, or course, just serves to limit the options available to voters.
Better remedies require considering alternative methods of voting.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/20/politics/senate-race-rankings-july-2024/index.html
10 MARGINAL USA SENATE GERRYMANDER SEATS
—
CA = WY — ONLY IF ONE IS TAKING MAJOR BRAIN DRUGS – ESP 180 PROOF BOOZE/ALCOHOL
USA GERRYMANDER SENATE — THE WORST UN-REPRESENTATIVE LEGIS BODIES IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION. ???
—
PR IN ALL LEGIS BODIES
@AZ,
The distribution requirement in Alaska takes into account the number of votes cast in each district.
The Senate is by state. It’s not gerrymandering you fucking retard.
Puerto Rico has a legislature you fucking retard. Seriously, post your retarded bullshit elsewhere.
@WZ,
What percentage of Alaskans live within 5 miles of 1000 other Alaskans?
States like Alaska are actually quite densely populated for the vast majority of population. Building out utilities and infrastructure on frozen ground is difficult and expensive. On a population density map the vast empty parts of Alaska would be very small.
Have you ever been to Anchorage? It’s large.
Same with Fairbanks. Most of the rest is suburbs and nearby areas (on the scale of Alaska) like Kenai and Wasilla.
Filing fees for initiatives and referendums would mean wealthy individuals or organizations could put issues on the ballot without doing the work of gathering petitions which means they would show no popular support among the public. The entire point of doing the petition is to show that lots of people want an issue to be on a ballot.
Andy, you know as well as i do that it’s not what actually happens. There are many issues which could be popular, but they don’t make ballots because they don’t have money behind them. Many others go down in flames at the polls. If the proponents throw enough money, it’s rare that an initiative won’t make the ballot.
When you throw that money. Enough petition nomads will throw enough b.s. pitches at enough people walking by to get just about anything on the ballot. Yeah, you can give me a counterexample or several, but generally speaking this is true, so it really has very little to do with what’s popular.
Which is ok. People have a lot more time to study issues and decide to vote yes or no once they’re in the voter pamphlets. Not when they’re walking by and signing whatever, which may or may not have anything to do with what they are actually signing.
You know all this very well, too.
LESS NEED FOR BALLOT INITS WITH PR IN LEGISLATIVE BODIES.
TOTAL VOTES / TOTAL MEMBERS = EQUAL VOTES TO ELECT EACH MEMBER
ALL VOTES COUNT
—
NOW —- ABOUT 40 PCT VOTES FOR GERRYMANDER LOSERS
1/2 OF 60 PCT = 30 PCT INDIRECT MINORITY RULE
MUCH WORSE PRIMARY MATH — ABOUT 5-12 PCT REAL MINORITY RULE — LEFT/RIGHT EXTREMISTS
— WHO LATER GET THE 30 PCT IN GENERAL ELECTIONS
Anchorage is awesome this time of year.
Rule through initiatives and referenda exclusively. No representatives, no misrepresentation in your name.
Rule exclusively through representatives. Division of labor is a good thing, and so is divided government with checks and balances.
TOTSOP = TOTAL CHECKS AND BALANCES
Not all ballot initiatives, including ones with.big money behind them, qualify for the ballot. In 2022 in California there was a ballot initiative sponsored by American Indian casinos to allow them to get sports betting, dice games and roulette wheels. They put big money behind it and it paid a high rate to petition circulators, yet it failed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. If they could have just paid a filing fee it would have qualified, but they had to show public support by gathering petition signatures and they failed.