|
Over the past six years, BISC has seen a dramatic increase in the use of signature gathering fraud and
deception by initiative campaign committees and the vendors they hire to qualify initiatives for the ballot.
 In fact, at every step of the way throughout the ballot initiative process, citizens are being subjected to abuse, fraud and deception—misleading and deceptive ballot language is often submitted, there are widespread cases of citizens being lied to during the signature gathering phase, and voters are being asked to make decisions about amending their state laws by people who may have themselves broken the law to propose the initiative.
Perhaps most troubling is the fact that many, if not all, initiative states provide little or no transparency, accountability, and oversight of the process.
Even worse, the people advancing changes to state laws—the petition circulators who collect signatures necessary to qualify an initiative for the ballot, the paid signature gathering vendors who often times come from out-of-state to work on changing a state law, and the campaign committees—are rarely held responsible for the actions of the people they employ.
BISC is continuing our efforts to shine a spotlight on the problems that exist and the need for states to take action and implement common sense reforms to restore integrity to an important process that helps create the foundation of our democracy.
We have examined all 24 states that support the initiative process and created a Ballot Integrity Report Card that rates each state on what it currently does and more importantly, does not do to protect the integrity of the ballot initiative process at every step in the system.
We have also provided a blueprint for reform that can help states move forward and take much needed action.
Only by implementing solutions to the problems that exist will states be able to provide people with a ballot measure process that works for voters instead of against them.
|
Contents
State by State Report Card 11
|
|
