Handouts and Reading
- Statistically Alabamians across party lines, age groups, and income categories want to have the privilege to introduce bills and to remove unpopular legislative acts. Citizens in Charge provide a very useful and convincing chart summarizing responses from 500 likely Alabama voters in a poll conducted by Pulse Opinion Research.
Handouts
- A two page flyer ideal for bulletin boards about campus, community centers, work place. Simply cut paper in half and use about your community.
- What is the Initiative and Referendum Process?
- I&R Use
- History of I&R
- States with and without the Initiative and Referendum Process
- State Histories of their Initiative and Referendum.
Additional Reading and Videos
- Alabama State Bar Association, Report of Annual meeting, Montgomery July 12 and 13, 1912. Mr. Gibson states “The time is coming in Alabama when we are going to use recall.” Furthermore he spoke “In Jefferson county we have the referendum and we use it”
- Initiative and Referendum for Alabama: Empower the People presented at Auburn University on March 6, 2002
- Edwin M. Bacon and Morrill Wyman, Direct Elections and Law-Making by Popular Vote, The Initiative The Referendum – The Recall Commission Government for Cities Preferental Voting, 1912
- Representative Mike Ball’s senior paper, Initiative and Referendum and its Effects
- Ballotpedia
- Direct Democracy
- Lee County Commissioner Sheila Eckman Facebook post 18Nov2014
- Frank Dillman
- Letter to to al.com editor of 1May2014
- Brief mention on al.com of 1May2014
- 13May2014 What our readers are saying: Term limits, recall, and initiative and referendum will strengthen Alabama.
- AL.com Op Ed 23May2014
- 18Nov2014 Speaking before Patrtiots of Liberty TEA Party, on-line coverage by Emily Esleck of Auburn University.
- Alabama Political Reporter opinion of 21May2015. Alabama Political Reporter is the source of all that is happening politically across the state.
- 9th Annual Welcome Back Rally, first legislative day of the 2018 Legislative Session.
- Matthew Duraski, AU Senior Political Science student presents Initiative and Referendum, Government Action, and Public Administration, an informative paper of the I&R process discussing strengths and weakness drawing a summary that “Nothing is perfect…” however “With the proper nuancing and a healthy dose of slow, intentional implementation, Initiative and Referendum can be used as a great check on the government which so often can get out of contol.”
- John Fund of Wall Street Journal speaking in Denver about Colorado’s Initiative Process
- A step by step booklet entitled “Local Ballot Initiatives, How citizens change laws with clipboards, conversations, and campaigns.” by Lucy Burns Institute’s President and CEO Leslie Graves is an outstanding tool for the I & R process. – Free on-line download
- Google Books
- National Municipal Review 1914 Volume III, page 695 for Birmingham 1911 and 1912 referenda
- National municipal review National Municipal League of 1912
- Neal Hobson of CitizensInCharge.org, a national advocacy organization for citizens to represent themselves at the ballot box, presented our effort to the world on May 23, 2014 beginning with “In a ‘Frank-tastic’ op-ed … Dillman calls for the adoption of statewide initiative and referendum for the Yellowhammer state.” Read Neal’s blog of our efforts in Alabama with links to the op-ed.
- Direct Democracy
- Initiative, Referendum and Recall by National Conference of State Legislatures – What a resource
- Paul Jacob, president Citizens In Charge Foundation Improving Direct Democracy in California.
- Represent.us
- Video: We can end corruption in politics
- Video: Public corruption and its termination explained
- Allen W. Jones, Political Reforms of the Progressive Era, paper read at the annual meeting of the Alabama Historical Association, Selma, April 26, 1968 – beginning on page 203.
- Kristi Jones as an AU Senior Political Science student in 2012 wrote Alabama Initiative Implementation. She has provided permission to linking to her paper for the benefit of all Alabama voters. Kristi began law school in 2013 with an interest of election law. We need forward thinkers in our government arena. We wish her well.
- League of Women Voters Alabama
- Initiative and Referendum Study Resource Packet – Preparing for consensus discussion and decision.
- Initiative and Referendum position adopted February 21, 2009 – see paragraph VII. My Note – nearly all LWVAL stated positions have been incorporated or improved upon in Representative Mike Ball’s HB209 of 2014.
- Initiative and Referendum Consensus Questions
- League of Women Voters
- Larry Lessig
- John G. Matsusaka, University of Southern California and I & R Institute,
- Polling
- Public Policy Institute of California presenting a video-recorded forum discussing Reforming Caliifornia’s Initiative Process This video is 1.25 hours in length but well worth your time to learn many of their discussed changes are already incorporated in our perennial bill before the Alabama House each session. Other California references include strengthening and changing their initiative process.
- Bill Piper Part of the Citizen Lawmaker Series of Educational Tools -NEED to INSERT LINK already in Media folder.
- Dennis Polhill, I&R researcher, author, and activist
- Are Coloradans Fit to Make Their Own Laws D_Polhill_are_coloradans_Fit
- Protecting the People’s Voice: Identifying the Obstacles to Colorado’s Initiative and Referendum Process D_Polhill_people’svoice
- Dennis Polhill, Senior Fellow, Independence Institute, and Elena Nunez, Executive Director Colorado Common Cause, discuss the importance and value of initiatives in Colorado hosted by Jon Caldara of Independence Institute.
- Represent.us
- Video: We can end corruption in politics
- Video: Public corruption and its termination explained
- Daniel A. Smith, Ph.D University of Florida
- University of Florida Selected Scholarly Publications [and] Books.
- Direct Democracy and Election and Ethics Laws
- Identifying and Preventing Signature Fraud on Ballot Measure Petitions
- Delegating Direct Democracy: Interparty Legislative Competition and the Adoption of the Initiative in the American States. A review of this research. According to Ballotpedia.org “Daniel Smith, a professor at the University of Florida, wrote a study in 2008 which concluded ‘there is no clear pattern demonstrating that paying for signatures increases invalid rates’ over volunteer efforts” from the Denver Post, “heaping burdens on petitions”, May 19, 2010.
- Pay-per-signature
- Polling if I&R was good public policy and opinion of I&R by Portrait of America in 1999-2000 and 2001, respectively.
- Washington Cities and Charter Counties – Initiative and Referendum Guide
- Wikipedia – Initiatives and referendums in the United States
Resources
- Ballotpedia
- Direct Democracy
- Direct Democracy – Navigator. This site may be the “go to” site for all international direct democracy efforts, including local and national.
- Gary
- Official Obstruction of Boulder’s Voter-Approved Online Petitioning by Evan Ravitz at ERavitz@gmail.com
- The Direct Democracy Foundation, tddf – a easy to navigate page with lots of references https://tddf.net/
- I&R forum – great source of information, advice, and encouragement
- I&R Institute
- Independent Voting – a national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents.
- National Taxpayers Union – 2013 measures to help citizens to keep more of what they earn by state and municipality, as appropiate.
- OurAmericaInitiative – “redefining the liberty movement in America”
- Peopleslobby.com – focus includes an national initiative and referendum
- State of Arizona policy
- State of Missouri “Make Your Voice Heard Missouri’s Initiative Petition Process”
- Missouri ballot measures from 2002 to current
- SB5 2019 Modifying the Initiative and Referendum Process
- Wikipedia
- Zocalo public square – An ASU Knowledge Enterprise – Connecting People to Ideas and to Each Other
2010 national polling