SummaryAmendment 38, if passed, will expand the current law and allow citizens to propose and challenge laws at all levels of state and local government. It will also changes existing procedures for placing a measure on the ballot by petition and applies to all levels of government.
What it does:
- Limits ballot title to 75 words.
- All disputes go to state Supreme Court and must be decided within seven days of filing.
- Requires signatures of five percent of votes cast in the state or local government for secretary of state in the last full-term general election for the office.
- Petitions are not really verified. They are counted and protests may be filed. If an individual signature is protested and proven invalid by clear and convincing evidence is not counted.
- If you want to protest a signature, you have 10 days of filing and it must be resolved within 10 days.
- Random sampling may not be used and signatures may not be disqualified for technical defects or minor variations or omissions.
- You have 12 months to gather signatures and if you don’t collect enough for the upcoming election, they may be submitted for the next November election as long as it is within the 12 month period.
- Elected officials may place a restriction on laws exempting them from challenges, but three-fourths of the governing body must vote for it.
- They may elect to exempt 12 per year and if the voters successfully reject a law, the voters may only approve a similar law.
- Measures may appear on any November election ballot.
- In voter information materials, proponents may have up to 1,000 words while opponents must limit their comments to the number of words the proponents have submitted.
- Not require that the ballot title be on the top of each signature page.
My Thoughts
In my opinion, this amendment weakens our government. It makes the citizens the elected body and the elected body almost worthless. There is a reason why we have an elected body to carry out our day-to-day government legislative and administrative functions. There is a lot to do and our representatives represent us.
It will also eliminate safeguards to check the signatures on the petitions by restricting the election official’s ability to verify the signatures will increase the likelihood that an erroneous signature will get on the ballot. Also, the Amendment would not require the petitioner to place the ballot title on each signature page, leading the potential of people not being clear on what they are signing or signing for something they don’t want to.
There is a law already on the books that allow for citizens to propose and challenge laws and it tends to work pretty well. There are certainly plenty of amendments for people to vote on this year. Let’s not weaken government and allow the government to work for the people.
My Vote
No!