California given ‘F’ for its initiative process
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Sacramento Bee: California is one of 24 states that allow direct legislating via initiative petition and it's been given an "F" grade for the integrity of its initiative process by the Washington-based Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. The report echoes many of the criticisms of the California initiative process that have developed as direct legislating has become an ever-greater factor in political policy, beginning with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. BISC is especially critical of what it describes as fraud, or the potential of fraud, by lightly regulated professional signature-gatherers, most of whom work for companies that specialize in collecting voters' names on initiatives, referenda and recalls. The report cities an article in the Los Angeles Downtown News, which described how residents of the city's skid row line up to sign petitions and voter-registration cards on the promise of free meals and other rewards, even through the practice is illegal. BISC says two states, Colorado and Oregon, score markedly higher in ballot integrity, having made changes in response to reports of fraud. Efforts to make major changes in California's initiative process have become mired in the Capitol's perpetual partisan and ideological wars since initiatives are used most often to bypass a Legislature that's dominated by Democrats.
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