In The News 
Light initiative ballot likely
Oregon voters may soon decide on longer prison terms for sex offenders, dispensaries for medical marijuana and whether lottery profits should go permanently to parks, wildlife and clean water programs. With the signature deadline a week away for those petitioning to put initiatives on the November ballot, three other proposals are less certain possibilities.
Fraudulent Signatures Submitted in 4 Counties
Fraudulent signatures have been submitted in at least four counties for a ballot initiative targeting outfitter sponsored nonresident hunting licenses. Officials say the same person turned in fraudulent signatures in Cascade, Chouteau and Blaine counties.
The State’s Green Ways Are Under Attack
Californians, and especially politically liberal Northern Californians, take a lot of pride in the state’s history of aggressive environmental regulation. This is the state whose air-quality initiatives all but invented automobile emissions controls. It is a place where the high-tech industry supports stringent pollution rules, pointing to the thousands of jobs being created in the solar power business as an example of how a tech-driven industry can lead an economic renaissance — and offer cleaner air, too.
States can publicly ID petition signers
People who sign petitions calling for public votes on controversial subjects don't have an automatic right to hide their names, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday as it sided against Washington state voters worried about harassment because of their desire to repeal that state's gay rights law. The high court ruled against Protect Marriage Washington, which organized a petition drive for a public vote to repeal the state's "everything-but-marriage" gay rights law.
Supreme Court on R-71: Names on petitions can be made public
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the names of people who signed petitions in an attempt to overturn a new gay rights law in Washington could be made public, a victory for state officials who said the case was a test of open government laws.
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to keep R-71 petitioner IDs private
A near unanimous U.S. Supreme Court today ruled Washington state can release the names of the roughly 138,000 people who signed ballot petitions to overturn a same-sex domestic partnership law. The court found the Washington Public Records Act covered the release of referendum signatures and the state has a responsibility to promote "transparency and accountability" in the electoral process.
“Show me” Ballot Petition Fraud
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigators are following up on the case of a petitioner who illegally used children to solicit signatures for the ShowMe Better Courts ballot initiative, according to one Old North resident. Graham Lane said he was approached by two adolescent girls to sign a ballot initiative petition in April, when they were too young to gather signatures for a ballot initiative and petitioners are sworn to personally witness each signature gathered.
Proposed constitutional amendment would bar lawmakers from redrawing districts
A proposed constitutional amendment would strip North Dakota lawmakers of the job of drawing their own legislative districts and give it to an independent commission. North Dakota's League of Women Voters is promoting the measure and wants it on the November ballot, said Lois Ivers Altenburg of Fargo, the organization's president and chairwoman of the initiative campaign.
Surprising groups oppose new measure against corruption
In Alaska, where prosecutors have sent a string of politicians and bribe-payers to federal prison in recent years, who could oppose what has been billed as an anti- corruption ballot measure? How about the AARP. The Resource Development Council and the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, the Alaska Democratic Party, and the AFL-CIO. Unions for police, teachers, firefighters and other public employees. Municipalities and boroughs from around the state.
Group files suit on redistricting ballot measure
A battle over how Florida lawmakers will decide the next round of redistricting is now headed to court. A coalition of groups and people who want to change the once-in-a-decade task of drawing new districts for Congress and the Legislature say that legislators are trying to mislead voters into keeping everything the way it is.
