Not the 21st century, mind you. But South Dakota, where American direct democracy began in 1898, is considering whether to change its woefully outdated laws that permit initiative sponsors to write their own descriptions of what their measure would do. In the world outside South Dakota, titles and summaries have been written by public officials who are supposed to be neutral. (In California, it's the attorney general). More details of the proposal from this story in the Mitchell Republic.

A Utah lawmaker has introduced a bill to reduce the length of ballot measure titles from 100 words -- too lengthy apparently for voters in Utah -- to 75 words. 100 words isn't much in an era when complex ballot initiatives often exceed 5,000 words. This story suggests that state and local governments also might save money on printing costs with fewer words.