CRACKDOWN ON SIGNATURE GATHERERS? The Contra Costa Times has this item in praise of a bill that will attempt to hold initiative sponsors liable for misstatements and misrepresentations made by signature gatherers. One wonders if the sponsor has met any signature gatherers, who tend to be, shall we say, independent-minded. They often are folks who, because of their life choices, like to be paid in cash. How does one police these misrepresentations? Who decides? This bill may pass, but it seems like an outrageous criminalization of political speech that will produce nothing more than litigation.

NO EMERGING NATIONAL TREND: Those Nevada ballot initiatives -- one putting more scrutiny on government contracting, the other banning taxpayer funds from being used for lobbying -- have been withdrawn by their conservative backers. Those backers blame legal challenges by labor for slowing down qualification of the measures.

SARASOTA COUNTY: Florida is billed as a model for how to use ballot initiatives to control growth.

TWO NEW FLORIDA MEASURES: A Florida commission has added two measures to the November ballot: a tax break for businesses that operate on the water, and a measure that could ease the way for a school voucher program that included parochial schools and that had been blocked by the courts.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION UPDATE: The Washington Post takes a look at the anti-affirmative action measures headed to the ballot in five states this fall.

FIGHTING OFF HUMANE SOCIETY: A state legislator in Colorado explains his strategy for keeping a Humane Society measure off the ballot there. (The explanation starts with the eighth paragraph of this piece).