As an American, can you explain what this “voting out poltiicians” thing is? I think 80 percent of this country has no idea what that means…
Kidding, Kind of.
In the broadest terms, a significant number of states and localities have a process by which if citizens are frustrated that a certain law has not been enacted, they can collect signatures to force a referendum on a particular proposal. (There are also times when a state legislature can decide to put something to the voters.) These matters can be new laws, amendments to the state constitution, or a question on whether to approve the issuance of bonds or the raising of taxes for a certain purpose, such as to raise money for building new schools.
California, in particular, is notorious for putting lots of initiatves on the ballot. Many are on complex issues and can be contradictory, because, for the most part, whatever gets a lot of signatures ends up on the ballot.
These are often called an initiative, referendum, proposition, or question. All pretty much the same thing, but each state has different laws about them.
There are no national initiatives because our Constitution has no provision allowing them on national matters.
Don’t worry, not all Merkins are clear as to the details, and said details vary from state to state.
As for my opinions on the subject, I’m all for it in principle. But some while back the courts decided that it was perfectly proper in the SoW for backers of a ballot measure to use paid signature gatherers— which means that it’s possible for a well-heeled looneytune (who does not have to live here, just have someone to act as a front) to get one or more pieces of nonsense on the ballot. In theory, anything spectacularly odious will be defeated; but there are no guarantees.
Back in Ohio, they posted a detailed description of proposed local and state initiatives on the walls of voting areas. From what I gather, some representatives were tasked with writing up an advocate view, and some were tasked with writing a counterview. IIRC, they seemed written in a pretty non-deceptive, and straightforward. I’m not sure if it means the initiatives have to be written up by congressmen, or if they just attach their names to a citizen initiative as a supporter/detractor or what. I remember one issue in particular - some automatic budget funding for something innocuous sounding, environment-related I think, had about 18 sponsors and 2 people listed as writing the counter-argument.
In any case, I recall being impressed with the writing of that document - but I doubt more than 10% of people actually bothered to read it. They just said “um… good for environment… uh… sure!”
I’m pretty sure you could name an initiative the “I LOVE KITTENS AND PUPPIES ACT”, and attach a rider that orders that every 5th person to vote on it would be publically executed a week later, and people would still look at it and say “YAY PUPPIES” and vote for it.
That made my day!