CA: Gerrymandering and the November ballot (Let the voters vote, AG Lockyer!)

OC Register ^ | 7/11/05 | Editorial

[NormsRevenge]

Will Attorney General Bill Lockyer succeed in taking Proposition 77, the governor's redistricting initiative, off the Nov. 8 special election ballot?

We hope not. The simple essence of democracy is that voters get to vote. When their votes are prevented or in some way diminished, so is democracy.

Unfortunately, on Friday evening Mr. Lockyer announced that he had filed suit to remove Prop. 77 from the November ballot. Prop. 77 would replace the current system, in which legislators draw their own districts, with a system in which districts are drawn by a panel of three retired judges. After the title and summary were issued by the attorney general earlier this year, minor discrepancies were discovered between that version and a second version to which registered voters signed their names to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

--snip--

"Allowing access to the ballot for initiative proponents who switch or modify text during the signature gathering phase would defeat existing laws designed to protect the integrity of state elections and would corrupt the people's initiative process," Mr. Lockyer's statement said.

"There's no substantive change" between the two versions, Ted Costa told us; he's CEO of the activist group People's Advocate, which circulated the petitions. "We want to go forth with what the people wanted" - the initiatives they actually signed. He said his group's attorneys have identified several cases in which courts kept initiatives on the ballot despite minor discrepancies.

An initiative can be invalidated only if "the materials, in light of other circumstances of the election, were so inaccurate or misleading as to prevent the voters from making informed choices," read the decision in the 2002 case, Peoplev. Scott.

[GVnana]

What a stupid mess. But I think Lockyear's going to have a battle on his hands if he wants to thwart 951,000 signatories.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

GV, Either way it's a winner. We want this to happen and it eather gets on the ballot this time or Lockyer gets it thrown out with a techicality. If that happens it comes back harder, stronger and meaner the next time around. IMO as a CA resident.

[Thud]

California courts have been incredibly picky about the wording of initiative petitions for as long as I can remember. If they are true to form, this reapportionment initiative is toast. Whether all the signatures are valid is one thing, but having the wording of the proposed initiative and its explanatory text vary from the form submitted to the Secretary of State, and the ones shown to signers of the petition, is easy to spot and has, AFAIK, always been fatal in court.

[rahbert]

I have my doubts about leaving such a hot issue as
legislative boundaries to unelected committees.

I guess thats better than having the Dems do it, but
even they must face the voters.

Better to be like Texas and drive the Dems to hide out
in some motel in Ardmore OK...

[NormsRevenge]

stuff happens. unfortunately.

I agree, not well handled,,

This could get series, vey series... but..

We'll be seeing the same initiative back in June '06 or November '06, if need be.. :)

[pogo101]

I understand your suspicions about the new (proposed) approach, but it's gotten good results in Iowa and Oregon. And, bear in mind that whatever plan gets drawn up, can be challenged (and invariably is, in states with similar systems) in the state supreme court.

I guess thats better than having the Dems do it, but even they must face the voters.

What you're forgetting is this: the particular voters whom the gerrymandering Democrats "have to face" are the ones they hand-pick. They draw districts so as to concentrate the state's 45% GOP voters into 35% of the districts, making their (the Democrats') own districts very safe indeed. So the "check" that voters otherwise could apply to abuses of the line-drawing power is itself undermined severely BY those very abuses.

[GVnana]

Yeah. I know people scratch their heads over the initiatives, but as long as the rainbow babies in the state legislature behave as "normal" extraordinary measures will be required IMHO.

Heard some female state legislator this a.m. on the radio who is drafting legislation to ban Schwarzenegger's smoking tent. Should have heard her whine: "the whole capital smells like cigars" and all I could think was, "Haven't you anything better to do?"

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

the whole capital smells like cigars"

Actually the whole capital smells like RAT droppings.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Actually the whole capital smells like RAT droppings.

It smelled like urine during the recall campaign...

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

I bet. It wafted down here to the southland...