https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/direct-democracy-in-california-a-brief-history-and-its-functions
Direct democracy is the term we in government use to describe the ability of the voters to take matters into their own hands. In other words, it is the ability of the voters to enact or repeal laws, or recall elected officials. California is one of two dozen
This week’s episode of The CAP⋅impact Podcast features a meaty conversation about voting rights and elections with North Carolina Central University School of Law Professor Irving Joyner – who in addition to teaching is Legal Counsel for the North Carolina NAACP. In a conversation that covers gerrymandering, and lawsuits against voter ID laws, and
In August 2018, Sonoma City Councilmember Rachel Hundley was attacked by an anonymous group of internet trolls. Their tactic? Take pictures that Rachel had posted on her own Instagram account from Burning Man and combine those with some inflammatory accusations on a website. Their goal? Blackmail Rachel into not running for re-election by threatening to
As I discussed yesterday in my post “How California Municipalities are experimenting with voting,” cumulative voting is an electoral process in which voters have a number of votes equal to the number of seats to be elected. For example, if in an election there were three seats up for election, voters would have
Yesterday was the deadline for ballot initiatives that had qualified for the ballot – that is, they received the requisite number of signatures – to be pulled from November’s ballot. In fact, three initiatives were withdrawn from the ballot for this November.
The three initiatives that Californians will not be voting on come November are
Last week, a ballot initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act qualified for the November ballot. Yesterday, the Assembly Committee on Housing & Community Development and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a joint initiative hearing on the measure.
Costa-Hawkins was passed in 1995 and was most recently amended in 2004.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper’s initiative to split California into three states, being marketed as Cal 3, qualified for this year’s November ballot. The idea is problematic.
But before we dive in to the
Early returns are in from yesterday’s primary election here in California. Below is a recap of some key statewide races and some of the key Legislative and Congressional races with my thoughts on what last night’s results mean for the election in November. Unless otherwise noted, all the numbers referenced are courtesy of the hard
As I’ve discussed before, the #MeToo and We Said Enough movements are starting to bring change to the California legislature’s persistent culture of sexual assault and harassment. That process of bringing change has been slow, perhaps too slow.
Furthering that concern are the reports about state Senator Tony Mendoza. He
In yesterday’s podcast, I discussed common misconceptions about elections in California. Today I am taking a deeper look at elections in California. Specifically, I will be talking about initiatives and referendum – two of three direct democracy processes available to voters in California. The third process is the recall.
The