Referendum and Initiative

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Beathan
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Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

To get the ball rolling -- this is the process I am familiar with, from the Washington State Constitution --

The legislative authority of the state of Washington shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and house of representatives, which shall be called the legislature of the state of Washington, but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose bills, laws, and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the legislature, and also reserve power, at their own option, to approve or reject at the polls any act, item, section, or part of any bill, act, or law passed by the legislature.

(a) Initiative: The first power reserved by the people is the initiative. Every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. In the case of initiatives to the legislature and initiatives to the people, the number of valid signatures of legal voters required shall be equal to eight percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election preceding the initial filing of the text of the initiative measure with the secretary of state.

Initiative petitions shall be filed with the secretary of state not less than four months before the election at which they are to be voted upon, or not less than ten days before any regular session of the legislature. If filed at least four months before the election at which they are to be voted upon, he shall submit the same to the vote of the people at the said election. If such petitions are filed not less than ten days before any regular session of the legislature, he shall certify the results within forty days of the filing. If certification is not complete by the date that the legislature convenes, he shall provisionally certify the measure pending final certification of the measure. Such initiative measures, whether certified or provisionally certified, shall take precedence over all other measures in the legislature except appropriation bills and shall be either enacted or rejected without change or amendment by the legislature before the end of such regular session. If any such initiative measures shall be enacted by the legislature it shall be subject to the referendum petition, or it may be enacted and referred by the legislature to the people for approval or rejection at the next regular election. If it is rejected or if no action is taken upon it by the legislature before the end of such regular session, the secretary of state shall submit it to the people for approval or rejection at the next ensuing regular general election. The legislature may reject any measure so proposed by initiative petition and propose a different one dealing with the same subject, and in such event both measures shall be submitted by the secretary of state to the people for approval or rejection at the next ensuing regular general election. When conflicting measures are submitted to the people the ballots shall be so printed that a voter can express separately by making one cross (X) for each, two preferences, first, as between either measure and neither, and secondly, as between one and the other. If the majority of those voting on the first issue is for neither, both fail, but in that case the votes on the second issue shall nevertheless be carefully counted and made public. If a majority voting on the first issue is for either, then the measure receiving a majority of the votes on the second issue shall be law.

(b) Referendum. The second power reserved by the people is, the referendum, and it may be ordered on any act, bill, law, or any part thereof passed by the legislature, except such laws as may be necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, support of the state government and its existing public institutions, either by petition signed by the required percentage of the legal voters, or by the legislature as other bills are enacted: Provided, That the legislature may not order a referendum on any initiative measure enacted by the legislature under the foregoing subsection (a). The number of valid signatures of registered voters required on a petition for referendum of an act of the legislature or any part thereof, shall be equal to or exceeding four percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election preceding the filing of the text of the referendum measure with the secretary of state.

(c) No act, law, or bill subject to referendum shall take effect until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted. No act, law, or bill approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon shall be amended or repealed by the legislature within a period of two years following such enactment; Provided, That any such act, law, or bill may be amended within two years after such enactment at any regular or special session of the legislature by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house with full compliance with section 12, Article III, of the Washington Constitution and no amendatory law adopted in accordance with this provision shall be subject to referendum. But such enactment may be amended or repealed at any general regular or special election by direct vote of the people thereon.

(d) The filing of a referendum petition against one or more items, sections, or parts of any act, law, or bill shall not delay the remainder of the measure from becoming operative. Referendum petitions against measures passed by the legislature shall be filed with the secretary of state not later than ninety days after the final adjournment of the session of the legislature which passed the measure on which the referendum is demanded. The veto power of the governor shall not extend to measures initiated by or referred to the people. All elections on measures referred to the people of the state shall be had at the next succeeding regular general election following the filing of the measure with the secretary of state, except when the legislature shall order a special election. Any measure initiated by the people or referred to the people as herein provided shall take effect and become the law if it is approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon: Provided, That the vote cast upon such question or measure shall equal one-third of the total votes cast at such election and not otherwise. Such measure shall be in operation on and after the thirtieth day after the election at which it is approved. The style of all bills proposed by initiative petition shall be: "Be it enacted by the people of the State of Washington." This section shall not be construed to deprive any member of the legislature of the right to introduce any measure. All such petitions shall be filed with the secretary of state, who shall be guided by the general laws in submitting the same to the people until additional legislation shall especially provide therefor. This section is self-executing, but legislation may be enacted especially to facilitate its operation.

(e) The legislature shall provide methods of publicity of all laws or parts of laws, and amendments to the Constitution referred to the people with arguments for and against the laws and amendments so referred. The secretary of state shall send one copy of the publication to each individual place of residence in the state and shall make such additional distribution as he shall determine necessary to reasonably assure that each voter will have an opportunity to study the measures prior to election.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Justice Soothsayer »

Ah, Beathan, you neglected to mention the populist cousin, recall:

SECTION 33 RECALL OF ELECTIVE OFFICERS. Every elective public officer of the state of Washington expect [except] judges of courts of record is subject to recall and discharge by the legal voters of the state, or of the political subdivision of the state, from which he was elected whenever a petition demanding his recall, reciting that such officer has committed some act or acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office, or who has violated his oath of office, stating the matters complained of, signed by the percentages of the qualified electors thereof, hereinafter provided, the percentage required to be computed from the total number of votes cast for all candidates for his said office to which he was elected at the preceding election, is filed with the officer with whom a petition for nomination, or certificate for nomination, to such office must be filed under the laws of this state, and the same officer shall call a special election as provided by the general election laws of this state, and the result determined as therein provided. [AMENDMENT 8, 1911 p 504 Section 1. Approved November, 1912.]

http://www.leg.wa.gov/LawsAndAgencyRule ... tution.htm

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

LOL --

True -- I did not include the recall amendment, but it had nothing to do with my desire to keep folks from recalling me from the RA, honest, I swear.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

Those are a lot of words, and I would not want to adopt that into our own law without making any changes. :o

Could we simply use this as a model, from which we could come up with our own system?

I do think it is very important that we have a Referendum and Initiative capability in place, so that the citizens can let their voice be heard should they have a view widely divergent from their representatives in the Assembly and elsewhere in the CDS government.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

Sonja --

Exactly. I posted this as a model to show the process I am familiar with and trained in. I do not propose we adopt the same thing -- as our needs are very different than those of Washington State. Our process can and should be simpler.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

:?: Would it be possible for the RA to put a Referendum structure in place in time for the April Special Election?

I have asked the question of if this would be possible in general here: http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... 703#p10503

This was, in turn, based on my post with regard to the RA and a possible fourth sim here: http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... 703#p10503

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

I'll check on the technical side of this and have a discussion at the next election committee meeting. Could be a good time for a pilot project.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

How about this wording for the ability to have Referenda voting?:
"At its discretion, the Representative Assembly may place a referendum question on the next available ballot with a simple majority vote."

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

I don't think that this is sufficient. It does not tell us if a passed referendum is statutory or advisory, or where it falls in comparison with other laws of record, or whether the Constitution can be amended by referendum and, if so, how and to what extent.

Also, it does not address the initiative process -- which I favor over referendums. Initiatives allow the People to take the reigns of Government when the Legislature is not responsive on some important public issues. Referendums just create a cumbersome and slow process -- and tend to be used to give cover to Legislators who lack political courage rather than to really move forward public issues.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

Good points about my idea for a referendum process, Beathan. :) I had not thought of those aspects.

Perhaps another sentence could be added for clarification? Such as:
"At its discretion, the Representative Assembly may place a referendum question on the next available ballot with a simple majority vote. The results of a referendum vote shall not be considered legally binding, but only advisory to the government as to the wishes of the citizens."

Such an approach would allow the government to have room to implement the results in greater detail through discussion, factfinding, etc., but doing so with a more direct understanding of what sort of mandate (or lack thereof) it has in its efforts.

I realise this would be a more simplistic version of referendum voting than is used by most RL governments, but it seems to me like this kind of poll would suffice for purposes of decision-making in the CDS - at least until a more complex process would become necessary, at which time the Referendum process could be revised.

My suggested wording was only for a Referendum process. I am also in favor of creating an Initiative process, but have not come up with wording for that yet. Probably that would need to be a bit more complicated than what would be needed for Referenda.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Gwyneth Llewelyn »

Homework: why it is important to have a structure of power delegation on management organisations on decisions:

http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03 ... _numb.html

Notice how we're at one of the "stable" peaks (80 people) and how until we reach the next one (150-200) we require a specific set of organisation which mostly precludes "everybody throwing in their decision in the common room". In fact, I did read this (and similar) documents when originally discussing why referenda in an organisation like the CDS are not a good idea. Not now, and probably never, as we grow too much — and the arguments will weight even stronger against referenda in the future.

Then again, the good thing about science is that you can always find different models to explain the same data :)

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Beathan »

Gwynn --

Maybe I am missing something, but I don't see how the link you cited -- or the underlying research on Dunbar's theory of social unity maintained through personal connection (as opposed to social control and group identification) (in other words family group v. clan v. tribe v. nation) has anything to do with direct democracy.

Arguably, no form of governmental control is needed in a community based on personal connection. (Anthropological evidence of family group hunter gatherers suggests that this is so.) However, such groups are held together by day-in-day out direct personan connection in a single shared space (and are often tied together by blood and marriage ties as well).

In any case, our project is an experiment in governance. We are involved in a system based on group identity and social control. As such, we are already outside the area in which Dunbar's theory is relevant. We are already in the realm of tribes -- not even clans -- and we have pretenses to nationhood.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

It is a mystery to me why there is so much opposition to the concept of allowing the Representative Assembly to send major decisions to the citizens, in the form of Referendum Questions. Every RL democracy I know of allows legislative bodies to do this.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by symokurka »

In some countries referenda can be called by citizens. A minimum number of signatures is required. Referenda "from the base" can only propose to abolish Government's laws. They are not allowed on some subjects, eg. taxes, military stuff.

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Re: Referendum and Initiative

Post by Sonja Strom »

Symo, thank you for your response. You might be right that in some countries Referenda may be called by citizens.

In the two countries with whose voting systems I am most familiar - Switzerland and the United States of America - Referenda are questions sent by a legislative body to a vote of the citizens. In both of these countries, similar votes which are originally called by the citizens are Initiatives (not Referenda).

In Switzerland, both Referenda and Initiatives may appear on the subjects of the military and taxes; and I think this is also true in the United States.

So far I have not proposed any Initiative system (although I am not opposed to it, I simply have not worked on that). What I have proposed is the following, repeated from an earlier post above:
"At its discretion, the Representative Assembly may place a referendum question on the next available ballot with a simple majority vote. The results of a referendum vote shall not be considered legally binding, but only advisory to the government as to the wishes of the citizens."

From responses I have received from some citizens and RA members, there appears to be some confusion about if this bill would create a structure for citizens to introduce questions on the ballot. It seems clear to me that it would not. I am also open to changes in the wording, but so far none have been proposed by anyone.

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