Ballot Initiatives

You're probably familiar with the concept of a ballot initiative, even if you don't realize it.

It's when a voter (or a group of voters) take their beef straight to the people. Like with the recent pay day lending issue...the pay day lenders decided they didn't want the legislature having the final say, and petitioned to put it on the ballot.

Why do these matter to you?

A) Because it's one of the few cases where you get to have a direct voice in the government.
B) These are laws that directly effect you.

There are a lot of people who will be upset when they can't just go take out a check express loan whenever they feel like it, and unfortunately I don't think many of those people voted on the issue. They lost their voice on their cash advance loans because they didn't vote.

It's also nice to think that my opinion counts, and I'm not relying on the judgement of some person who is going to vote the party line. (The judgement of the electorate is another question altogether).

So how do you get an initiative on the ballot?

Regulations differ from state to state as to how to get an initiative on the ballot. In fact, one of the ballot initiatives on my ballot this year was about new regulations for ballot initiatives (irony!).

Typically, you need to get enough signatures (number varies) on a petition to prove there's a need for this issue. Then you have to have them in by a certain date, to allow for verification of said signatures. Because not just any clown can be a signer...they have to be registered voters, and at least in Ohio, registered in the county your peitition is designated for.

That's why those people have like 90 clipboards, a petition for each county, just in case. Oh, and there's steps about the petition itself, to make sure it isn't TOO misleading...just go to the Secretary of State's webpage about ballot access to get the full story.

Anyhow, here's where the interactive part comes in. I'd like to hear from you about your favorite ballot initiative this year. Whether it's one you actually liked, or hated. Whether it was your own state, somewhere in the nation, or a city ordinance. I don't care, I just want to hear about a ballot initiative that struck your fancy.

E-mail me or comment on this post...I'll run a recap post with all your thoughts next week (appropriateness pending, of course).

Hope to hear from you!

Election

You all know how the election worked out. You're either still feeling that gooey relief or simmering anger, either about McCain/Obama or Wulsin/Schmidt or any of the dozens of other races.

I won't bore you with a recap at this late date, since we all know the Franklin County Board of Elections can give you the low-down if you really still need it.

I do want to mention something about my personal voting experience, however. The fact I was forced to vote by provisional ballot this year.

When I moved, I registered to vote well ahead of the deadline (in order to avoid this nonsense, can you believe that?). My lil card came back, and it read the correct address. I thought, "Sweet!" and didn't give this another thought.

Until I showed up to vote, and the rather hostile lady informed me that my APARTMENT number on the rolls differed from the piece of mail I brought in.

***Side note, I used my change of address confirmation from the BMV because my license shows a place I lived two addresses ago. I THOUGHT that would make it simple***

They had apartment 3D listed. I actually live at 2D. A typo when someone was compiling the voter rolls, I'd put a lot of money on it. I was rather pissed off, I'll admit it (although, that may have more to do with having been up since 8pm the previous evening). I mean, I was a guy who did everything the right way and I still felt like my vote didn't count.

Did it? Another confession...I don't know. My candidates all passed with healthy margins, so I didn't feel a duty to double check on the BOE. The poll workers gave me an explanatory sheet with information about provisional voting, reassurances that my vote would be counted (if I was actually a voter), and a hot line I could call to see if they counted my vote.

I skipped it tho. I didn't have the energy to make them figure it out...and I'm a middle class white guy. Can you imagine how easy it would be to keep a poor minority voter from getting their say heard?

That's the problem with this set up...a typo can disenfranchise a person. What the crap?