Nevada

The Nevada Initiative Shutout

Joe Mathews — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:45:00 -0400

In Nevada, not a single ballot initiative has managed to qualify for the ballot this year. There were 17 attempts (and four remain alive in the courts). But initiative sponsors ran afoul of changes in state law and requirements that signatures be collected in every county. The Las Vegas Review Journal breaks this down.

Nevada Signature Crisis

Joe Mathews — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:27:00 -0400

This is a big black eye for the signature gathering business. A Nevada district judge, James Todd Russell, has disqualified three well-funded ballot initiatives because of problems with the affidavits signed by petition circulators. These were arguably the three biggest initiatives in the state. One initiative would divert casino taxes to education and other state issues. Another was the son of Prop 13 measure that would have required a two-thirds vote in the legislature to raise taxes. Backers included a former state treasurer and former controller.

What happened? In July 2007, the state legislature adopted new requirements for the affidavits that signature gatherers sign to verify that signatures are real. These new requirements, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, included a statement that the gatherer personally circulated the document, that the number of signatures were counted, and that each signer had an opportunity to read the text of the initiative.

However, Nevada Secretary of State Ross MIller never updated his web site, which lists the rules for such affidavits, to reflect these changes. It appears that signature gatherers relied on the web site and thus did not comply with the new law.

Here's what the judge had to say: "It is unfortunate here that someone didn't do there homework prior to the circulation of these initiatives, although I think the secretary of state could probably have done a better job in this particular case."

This won't be the end of the litigation, I suspect. There could be an appeal of this decision. If the backers of these initiatives lose, they could seek to get their money back, perhaps in the courts. Another question: do signature gatherers have to return any money they made in Nevada on these initiatives?

Oops! Nevada Tax Cap Initiative Misses Ballot Because Vegas Sigs Are 20 Minutes Late

Joe Mathews — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:52:00 -0400

It turns out that in this town, your luck can change in 20 minutes.

All systems seemed to be go for a Nevada ballot initiative that would have imposed Prop 13-style restrictions on tax increases in the Silver State. The sponsor, a Republican candidate for state senate, was so high on it that newspapers reported that it appeared to have the signatures. Turn-in began, but for some reason, they didn't get to the clerk's office in Clark County until 20 minutes (5:20 p.m.) after the deadline Tuesday. They tried to come back Tuesday, but had photocopies rather than originals of signatures. That's a big no-no. And likely the end of the sponsor's campaign.

Thursday Round Up: Casinos Split on Compromise

Joe Mathews — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:14:00 -0400

CASINO INTERESTS DIVIDED ON COMPROMISE: It appeared that the Nevada teachers' unoin and casino interests had reached a compromise to avoid a casino tax ballot initiative and replace it with a hotel tax hike for education interests. It was a classic example of how to use the leverage of a ballot initiative to get what you want. But it turns out that not all casinos are happy with the deal. Specifically, the CEOS of the MGM Mirage, Boyd Gaming Company, and the Las Vegas Sands have expressed opposition. That means the new advisory ballot question and legislation on the compromise could face a strong no campaign. If defeated, it's possible the teachers' union could bring back the casino tax.

ARK GOV AGAINST IMMIGRATION INITIATIVE: Mike Beebe, the Democratic governor of Arkansas, announces his opposition a ballot initiative, now gathering signatures, that would deny public services to unauthorized immigrants. The endorsement in this race that I'd like to see is that of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose record as governor was pro-immigrant but who reversed himself as a presidential candidate, going so far as to question birthright citizenship for the children of unauthorized immigrants.

GAY MARRIAGE DECISION A BOON TO MCCAIN? The Weekly Standard thinks that the California Supreme Court striking down Prop 22, the state's ban on gay marriage, is a boon for John McCain, who opposed the decision by the Republican-dominated court, and a problem for Barack Obama, who supported the decision.

DW HEARTS TAX REFORM: The Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters devotes a column to tax reform, and quotes New America colleague Mark Paul on the subject.

Nevada Deal to Head Off Casino-Teachers' Union War?

Joe Mathews — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:48:00 -0400

This Associated Press story quotes Nevada's politically damaged governor, Jim Gibbons, as saying he supports a compromise to keep a union-backed, casino tax initiative off the ballot. The compromise would raise room taxes, not gaming taxes. The teachers' union wants the money for educational programs. (Hat tip: ballotpedia.org)

Blocking Campaigns in Nevada

Joe Mathews — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:11:00 -0400

Mike Antonucci at the Education Intelligence Agency, which monitors teachers' union, is mad about this story in the Las Vegas Sun. It's a story decrying a blocking campaign launched against a teachers union initiative petition in Nevada that would raise taxes on gaming to provide more funds for education. Antonucci points out that the teachers' union has supported its own blocking campaigns over the years. I'd make a slightly different point: blocking campaigns aren't news. They don't do very much, except slightly raise the cost of gathering signatures. And they are probably a waste of time for those interests who mount them.

Tuesday Round Up: School's Out on Nevada Election Day

Joe Mathews — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:52:00 -0400

TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL: Here's an important and under-reported story: Nevada's schools will be closed on Election Day in November. That should boost turnout in a swing presidential state. And it also could give a boost to the Nevada teachers' unions, who are attempting to raise gaming taxes to boost education funds. Not having to teach that day will boost turnout. Also, about 800 of the poll workers could be students, says the state's registrar of voters. In related news, a Nevada judge rules that two measures to tax gaming to provide funds for education can remain on the ballot. The judge thinks they make little sense, but says that the voters have the right to decide that for themselves.

AG'S DOMAIN: Some agriculture interests are getting aggressive in opposing Prop 98, one of the two measures on June's California ballot that would put restrictions on eminent domain. The Sacramento Bee says that this represents a divide in the agriculture community, since the California Farm Bureau is one of the initiative's backers. (Prop 98's restrictions include tigher limitations on using condemnation for private purposes and on retn control than its competitor, Prop 99).

COLORADO CORPORATE FRAUD: The proponent of the Colorado initiative making business executives criminally responsible for corporate fraud explains himself.

MAINE MISS: The Maine initiative to establish a casino has lost its campaign manager, according to ballotpedia.

A DIFFERENT WAY OF PUBLIC FINANCING: An Alaska legislative committee has added money to the state budget for education campaigns that appear to be designed to fight off a ballot initiative lawmakers don't much like. Since states by law often have to provide unbiased information -- most notably in voter pamphlets -- this action is a mistake and should be quickly reversed.

OREGON TOP TWO ADVANCES: An initiative to establish a "top two" primary system in Oregon appears likely to qualify for the November ballot. This style of "open" (that is, multi-party) primary has recently received some backing from the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down previous open primaries. Here's a description of how it works.

Thursday Round Up: A Look at a Petition Firm

Joe Mathews — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:59:00 -0400

DEPARTMENT OF MOON HOWLING: The Las Vegas Review & Journal takes a long look at one of the country's more important signature firms, National Voter Outreach and its CEO Rick Arnold. I've interviewed Arnold in his Carson City home, and found him to be one of the more thoughtful people in the petition trade, critical of its problems and clear-eyed about its limitations. This story is built heavily around criticism from the liberal/progressive Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which is quick to lable signature gathering as corrupt (at least in cases where it opposes the cause in question). There is a "shocked, shocked" quality to this criticism. The signature gathering business has plenty of problem workers, many of them poorly trained folks who, for lifestyle reasons, have taken a job that usually pays them in cash. But BISC and other critics invariably propopse to criminalize the process of gathering signatures, as in Oklahoma. In supporting these restrictions, liberals are hurting themselves, by establishing precedents restricting political speech that can be used by their political opponents. And such restrictions don't stop direct democracy. They merely slow it down, adding to the costs (and thus the influence of interest groups) that progressives love to denounce. The more you regulate, the more firms like National Voter Outreach will benefit.

BLOOMIE AND ARNOLD: Mike Bloomberg, deepening his involvement in California initiative politics, hosts a fundraiser tonight on behalf of Gov. Schwarzenegger's redistricting ballot initiative. It's still gathering signatures on the street.

MICHIGAN POT: Medical marijuana initiative makes the ballot in Michigan after legislature declines to adopt the measure itself. (hat tip to Ballotpedia).

INDIVIDUAL MANDATE: A ballot initiative to establish an individual mandate for health care in Michigan is now circulating on the street.

NO ANIMAL CONFINEMENT MEASURE IN COLORADO: Colorado's ballot will be a little less crowded, as animal rights advocates drop their farm animal confinement measure. The state legislature passed legislation similar enough to satisfy the initiative's backers.

OAKLAND YOUTH: Here's an interesting report on a city of Oakland (Calif.) ballot initiative to double funding for a youth services program.

NEVADA NEUTRALITY: School superintendents, never fan of teachers' union, are staying out of a coming mega-ballot war in Nevada over the union's effort to raise taxes on gaming to generate more funds for education.

MAINE DEBATE: A referendum question has been submitted in Maine that would remove "sexual orientation" from human rights and discrimination law, and bar same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples.

PARENTAL NOTIFICATION: Here's a description of another attempt, via California blalot initiative, to require parental notification for minors seeking abortions. A similar initiative went down in the 2005 special election. Over the past week, I found this initiative was a low priority for the state's signature gatherers. It's pay $1 or less a signature, half the price being paid by sponsors of redistricting, crime victims' rights, and alternative fuel measures.

FROM OVERSEAS: Croatians won't get to vote on their country's decision to join NATO.

Weekend Round Up: A Colorado Super Bowl?

Joe Mathews — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:34:00 -0400

There are signs that Colorado is headed towards the kind of Labor vs. Business Ballot Initiative Super Bowl that Californians experienced during the special election of 2005. It seems that every few weeks, one side or the other ups the ante by filing new initiatives aimed at the prerogatives of the other. Colorado's governor has called a meeting for Monday in an effort to head off warfare, but don't bet it on him succeeding. Ballot initiatives, once filed, take on lives of their own. A whole industry of people who profit from the measures -- and interest groups who like the measures -- soon seize on viable initiatives. In many cases, the initiative's original sponsors can change their mind and sue for peace -- but it doesn't matter. Here's a round-up of headlines from over the past couple days.

RIGHT TO WORK SUMMIT: The Rocky Mountain News has this report on Monday's scheduled meeting between the governor and advocates for a ballot initiative that would make Colorado a "right-to-work state." California cognoscenti will recognize the name of Jonathan Coors, a former aide to Gov. Schwarzenegger.

MAKING INITIATIVE HARDER: The Rocky Mountain News suggests it should be harder to amend the state constitution by initiative than to establish a statute by initiative. This makes sense, and is the case in a number of states, including California.

DID GATHERERS LIE? And yet another complaint about Colorado signature gatherers. An attorney has filed a complaint with audio evidence of gatherers working on the right-to-work measure. Similar complaints by opponents of an anti-affirmative action measure received attention this past week from The New York Times. The problem with pursuing such complaints is that gathering signatures involves political speech -- the kind that really must be protected by the First Amendment. And complaints about signature gatherers' tactics are almost never based on principle; the people on each side change depending on whose ox is gored by the petition in question.

ARKANSAS DOESN'T LIKE TRAVELERS? A counter-attack begins on a ballot initiative that would force Arkansans over age 13 to produce proof of citizenship or legal residence before they receive public benefits. The measure was filed March 27. Scholarships for undocumented immigrants have been a major issue in the state; former Gov. Mike Huckabee was criticized during his presidential campaign for backing the idea.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION IN THE DESERT: A newly filed Arizona initiative would bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And the sponsor of an Arizona measure that would have asked voters to ban same-sex marriage died after members of the legislature amended in protections for same-sex couples.

BEATING THE CASINOS: A court in Nevada has turned aside a gaming industry challenge to a teachers' union-backed initiative to raise taxes on casino winnings.

ANOTHER MEASURE ON SOUTH DAKOTA BALLOT: Open government initiative qualifies.

MIZZOU NEWS: Is this an April Fool's Joke? A college newspaper reports that a Missouri group wants to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18.

On the Street: A Comprehensive Report

Joe Mathews — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:44:00 -0400

UPDATED APRIL 4 After two nights of contacting gatherers and reading initiatives from all over the country (AND SOME EXCELLENT CORRECTIONS ON ARKANSAS AND MICHIGAN FROM Ballotpedia), here's my report on what's "on the street" and circulating in this great democratic land of ours. Please let me know if you think I'm missing important measures. For a more progressive take and focus, you can look at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center's issues map.

THE GOLDEN STATE: California leads the way, with 52 measures circulating as of April 2 (and more to come, almost certainly). The whole list is here. "We're drowning," the owner of one signature gathering firm told me Thursday. About a dozen seem to have funding to get on signature gatherers' clipboards. Two new initiatives (one that would remove a prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation in schools, another a tobacco tax hike to pay for children's health insurance) were titled and approved for circulation Tuesday. They join three new measures -- one banning abortion, one banning stem cell research and the other banning cloning -- that also were recently approved for circulation, though such socially conservative measures typically have trouble attracting the money to qualify for the ballot in California.

ARIZONA wins the award for most circulating initiatives per capita, with 37 measures, 19 of them constitutional amendments and 18 initiative statutes. Reading the list, one gets the impression that Arizonans are so angry that they may leave the country, raising the question of whether John McCain will be eligible to be president. There are measures to maintain initiative rights (which legislators have talked about limiting), roll back taxes (the sponsors have names like Arizona Tax Revolt and Prop 13 Arizona). The blockbuster democracy industry is closely watching one initiative statute that would allow petitions to be circulated via the Internet; industry types tend to like the idea, in that it would control costs, but signature gatherers worry about being cut out of the street action. My personal favorite: an initiative that would require two witnesses before a crime might be prosecuted. There's also an initiative, sponsored by a group calling itself Arizona Tea Party, that would require someone who testifies falsely against another person in court to receive the same punishment that the accused would have received. And you wonder why they called it the Wild West.

In OREGON, 40 measures are listed as formally approved to circulate for the 2008 ballot, but the deadlines and energy for most of those have long passed. The most important measure currently on the street, according to signature gatherers is naturally an initiative that protects the rights of signature gatherers, by limiting the ability of the state to regulate them. (Oregon has been one of a handful of states to try to limit paid signature-gathering). The initiative also would permit ballot initiatives to be considered at primary elections as well as at general elections. Among the dozen or so measures currently on gatherers' clipboards in the Beaver State are initiatives that would create a renewable energy commission, alter the medical marijuana laws, establish a non-partisan or open primary, and prohibits legislators from receiving public pensions.

WASHINGTON is having a big year, with 43 measures filed, numbered and titled for circulation. (Two were approved for circulation and withdrawn; two more have been filed but are not ready for circulation). With some of those filings being different versions of the same measure, signature gatherers say they've seen as many as 18 petitions on clipboards there. The assisted suicide measure sponsored by former Gov. Booth Gardner is getting the most attention. But there are multiple measures dealing with traffic, elections, and taxes. Here's the full list. Anything new and different? How about an initiative that would set aside public funds to pay for embryo transfers as an alternative to abortion? Or an initiative that would make it a crime to lie about war? Those two initiatives have the same author, a frequent initiative filer and Tacoma CAT scan technician named David Henshaw. There's also a measure that would prevent employers from firing cocktail waitresses who refuse to serve alcohol to pregnant women.

NEVADA has 8 measures currently circulating officially, but the two attempts to raise taxes on gaming have been dropped, as has an education initiative.

MISSOURI has 20 measures approved for circulation, including Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action measure and initiatives on renewable energy, a union-backed measure on the home health care workforce, an initiative to expand eligibility for children's health insurance, and another of the so-called "paycheck protection" measures which require employees to give their written permission before money from their paycheck is used for political purposes.

ARKANSAS (updated April 4): Initiatives to institute a state lottery and ban adoption by same-sex couples are circulating. Thanks again to Ballotpedia.

MICHIGAN (updated April 4) has nine measures currently circulating, including legalization of marijuana use and cultivation on private property, a universal health care plan, an individual education accounts for children proposal, two tax measures, and two part-time legislature plans.

COLORADO: 82 measures (updated 97) were filed for the 07-08 cycle, but only five are currently circulating. Signatures on the Ward Connerly measure were turned in last month. Among the few circulating are: a payroll deduction measure, restrictions on campaign contributions by government contractors, and judicial term limits. Under the category of comedy, initiatives to impeach former President Clinton are making their way through the process. Can you impeach a former president?

FLORIDA: 52 measures remain officially active, but signature gatherers say the street is dry in Florida. There likely will be only two measures on the November ballot -- one that would give the legislature power to regulate the land ownership of undocumented immigrants, and another prohibiting gay marriage.

ALASKA: In the only state where the lieutenant governor is in charge of initiatives, it's already late in the signature gathering season. (Alaskans favor summer elections--the next is in August -- because it's dark half the year). Here's a list of measures; the viables ones -- clean water, clean government, public finance -- have already submitted petitions. Readers of this blog know all about the measure to stop wolves from being shot from the air.

MAINE: 10 measures have been circulating (here's the list), though a newspaper editor there tells me that only a handful are on the street. One measure would allow a casino in Oxford County, another would make the real estate Multiple Listing Service a public document.

IDAHO: Yes, they've got wolves, and an initiative that calls for their removal. It's one of three initiatives circulating. The others would make it easier to sue judges and others for their official duties, and would ban the building of new coal-fired and nuclear plants.

MONTANA: Three measures are out there. One is a property tax limitation, a constitutional amendment Another is a "personhood" measure, a constituional amendment -- and part of a new class of anti-abortion, anti-stem cell measures that seeks to define anything from a fertilized embryo on up as a human being. The third is an initiative statute to ease eligibility for a children's health insurance program.

NORTH DAKOTA: Six measures are pending, though the measures regulating hunting and school superintendents (wild game of another kind) seem to be the ones headed to the ballot.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Only one measure, a referendum of legislation relating to the eminent domain powers of railroads, is still circulating. Six measures -- almost all having to do with political reform -- already have made the 2008 ballot.

OHIO: Has a casino measure circulating, according to gatherers. Ballotpedia also lists a sick leave measure in circulation. The Ohio Ballot Board lists four measures that it has considered.

NEBRASKA: There have been four filings: the Connerly affirmative action ban, two measures that involve municipal annexations, and a telecom initiative.

QUIET ON THE STREETS (as far as I can determine) in New Mexico (which has the referendum but not the initiative), Illinois, Massachusetts (where the deadline was last November for submitting signatures on initiatives in the two-part process that gives the legislature a chance to weigh in first), Mississippi, Utah (where 2007 was the big referendum year), Wyoming (where the filing deadline came and went in February), and Oklahoma (where signatures on the anti-affirmative action initiative were turned in late last year).