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Direct democracy -- the Switzerland-inspired system of initiatives, referenda and recalls that allows voters to make and repeal laws in 24 states -- is poorly understood. It isn’t even very direct. Direct democracy has become blockbuster democracy: a half-billion-dollar international industry of signature gatherers, consultants, and election lawyers who use ballot measures less as a method of making law and more as a tool of mega-communications to boost some politicians, hurt others, and supplement lobbying campaigns.
Blockbuster democracy is a decentralized business that practices wide-open politics. This blog aims to provide a center of news, analysis and conversation for and about the industry. We will report from blockbuster democracy’s capital -- California -- but we’ll monitor ballot measures from across the country and around the globe.
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More Than Half of San Bernardino Sigs in Adams Recall Were Invalid
Some petition circulators in San Bernardino County have some explaining to do.
A memo from the California Secretary of State's office shows what happened in the failed effort to qualify a recall vote against Assemblyman Anthony Adams. The district in question includes parts of Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. The recall supporters turned in more than 58,000 signatures (when 35,000 would qualify the measure), so numbers weren't the problem. Validity was.
In LA, the signature gathering went OK. 13,794 signatures were submitted, and, after the random sampling of 500 signatures, a projected 9,021 were estimated as valid.
But in San Bernardino, where 44,590 signatures were submitted, fewer than half of those in the random sample were found to be valid. Extrapolating, only 15,558 of the SB sigs were projected to be valid. And thus the recall failed.
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OMG!!
Personally I wouldn't trust the petitioning outfit known as Lee Petition Management. However, one observation of the district shows it is very strangely drawn. It is spread out like a thin donut. The middle of district is just mountains and the residents are on the outer ring. Since it isn't large swaths of voters this leads to thin areas of the district. Collecting signatures in these areas will lead to many non districts residents passing through. I did a petition in the city of Mountain View where most of the people entering a shopping center in Mountain View were not from Mountain View. So we had to go door to door which cost way more money for the client. Most people couldn't tell you their state assembly member let alone what district they are in. The other question is why were they thrown out? Non voter or just not in the district? I suspect they were good voters but not in the district. Most of the voters rolls are pretty accurate. San Bernardino County Registrars must specifically say which signatures were out of district or just non voters. Lee and the recall proponent may have gotten a bad database and worked off that. Or possible out right lying of the validity from Lee Petition Management to the proponent. John and Ken of KFI will destroy who was at fault. Derrick Lee are you listening?