It has been true for most of my adult life: if we show up to the polls, we usually win.
Like most things,
I don’t. I’m pretty sure there is nothing stupider than an American electorate. I take hope, however, in the ultimate fate of Ohio’s Senate Bill 5. SB 5 was going to eliminate the right of public employee unions to collectively bargain for wages and fringe benefits. It passed, and GQP Asshole John Kasich signed it.
A veto referendum was organized and a record number of signatures collected. Here’s how the vote map looked:
SB-5 was vetoed by more than a 3:2 margin. Only five counties voted to keep SB-5.
As to Luntzing up some nonsense like, this is a “Right to Vote” law…I don’t see it working in this case. Even misleading names like “Right to Work” laws are becoming clearer in their real meaning to voters.
To invoke the initiative or referendum, petitions signed by a number of registered electors, not less than eight percent for initiative and five percent for referendum of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last preceding general election at which a governor was elected shall be required.
No law as to which the power of referendum properly has been invoked shall be effective thereafter unless approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon at the next general election.
Any law proposed by initiative petition shall be either enacted or rejected by the legislature without change or amendment within 40 session days from the time such petition is received by the legislature. If any law proposed by such petition shall be enacted by the legislature it shall be subject to referendum, as hereinafter provided.
If the law so proposed is not enacted by the legislature within the 40 days, the state officer authorized by law shall submit such proposed law to the people for approval or rejection at the next general election. The legislature may reject any measure so proposed by initiative petition and propose a different measure upon the same subject by a yea and nay vote upon separate roll calls, and in such event both measures shall be submitted by such state officer to the electors for approval or rejection at the next general election.
Any law submitted to the people by either initiative or referendum petition and approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon at any election shall take effect 10 days after the date of the official declaration of the vote. No law initiated or adopted by the people shall be subject to the veto power of the governor […]
Apart from the no-bail element, I agree with this. I would increase the penalty to 5-15 years, given that we’re a country that believes in long prison sentences.
Nope. Referendum is for approving or disapproving a law passed by the legislature. Initiative is separate, and is used for the public to put forward a law for approval or disapproval by the legislature.
OK I’m saying this before reading all the responses, but can someone for the love of God tell me what a drop box ever did to a Republican candidate or party? It’s a fucking receptacle to hold ballots. It’s not sentient, it can’t change a ballot, or lose a ballot. If they’re worried about ballot stuffing then that will show up during the counting.
Not at all. Note the distinction between “initiative” and “referendum.” To wit:
The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and to enact and reject laws, called the initiative, and the power to approve or reject laws enacted by the legislature, called the referendum.
I was basically about to ask the same question. On what grounds are either of these good/justifiable policies?
One proposal would bar voters from using drop boxes after 5 p.m. the day before the election. Local government would also be barred from including prepaid postage with mail ballots sent to voters
What “fraud” would those steps prevent? How would they “protect” voters? I don’t see how they could be anything other than direct suppression.
Well, technically they were well into cancelling votes before “Cancel Culture” was a “thing”, so I supposed the “Grandfather Clause” applies in this situation.
Here’s one I’d like explained. Why in the hell should it be illegal to hand a bottle of water to a person in line waiting to vote? Tell a person in France, or Canada, or Spain this is a law and they’d have to think your nation was effing insane.
Finally they hit upon the “Other Other Proposition”, where if people didn’t vote for them, they would be forced to wait in 5 hour lines with no food or water. This, for Jim Crow & Sons, was the turning point.
Hey Missouri resents that statement. We passed Clean Missouri, the lege said “you guys didn’t know what you voted for so we’re putting a new slightly wrong worded prop on the ballot in 2020 because we know you didn’t know what you did”. And their version passed, which pretty much negated what Clean Missouri was all about.
Yeah, I read that too and thought wouldn’t Democrats then be able to pass stuff as well to quickly undo what was done. Also, this unbelievably low threshold would just destroy the workings of the state Gov.
