[Recall, Referendum and Initiative Amendment]
[Campaign Finance Amendment][Uniform Election Amendment]
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jfl@28amen.org
- Section 1 TITLE..
- The act defines its own form, and so has the sections it specifies for all citizen initiated proposals. We affectionately refer to the Recall, Referendum, and Initiative Act as the R2I Act. And to the Recall, Referendum, and Initiative Amendment as the R2I Amendment.
- Section 2 VERSION..
- The Version has been fluctuating. It is not yet 1.0. When the Spnosor(s) feel that it is ready to be put before the people he (they) will prepare a ballot and submit the Act and ballot to the specified Registrar(s), as specified in the R2I Act itself. Since that (those) Registrar(s) will have no idea what that's all about a separate, parallel process of election will be initiated at that time and worked through, in order to perfect the Amendment and Act and to debug the process. And to build the support necessary to pass both : a majority of the natural born people, citizens of the USA of voting age.
- Section 3 SUMMARY..
- Self explanatory.
- Section 4 SPONSOR(S)..
- So far it's just me. You're welcome to sign on.
- Section 5 PREAMBLE..
This is homage to Mike Gravel, who used this preamble first in his National Initiative for Democracy Act. Mike is the drive wheel behind the NI4d, having invented it and pushed it forward. The Sponsor(s) of the R2I Amendment and Act are deeply admiring of and thankful for Mike's work. The structure of the R2I Amendment and Act are lifted from the NI4d Amendment and Act. The chief differences between the are R2I and NI4d are:
- the NI4d requires a plurality for legislation to pass, the R2I requires a majority
- the NI4d sets up a new layer of representative government to administer its process, the R2I relies on its distribution of responsibility to create direct democracy,
- the NI4d puts no constraint on campaign finances for National Initiatives, the R2I does, and
- the NI4d institutes the Initiative process only, whereas the R2I institutes national Recall, Referendum, and Initiative processes.
The Sponsor(s) hope that the R2I will be the vehicle for direct democracy but, of course, the people will decide. It's an uphill battle to enact either one, or any means of direct democracy.
- Section 6 PROCEDURES..
- This is the meat of the act.
- A. Sponsor..
- The idea here is no corporate recalls, referenda, or legislation. The citizen(s) sponsoring a proposal is (are) named at the top. The present disjoint sets of eligible and registered voters in federal elections are merged, and no further distinction ismade between them.
- B. Subject..
- Keep it simple. I think that anything longer than a page has little to no chance of passage. Working on getting the length of both the Amendment and Act to one page or under.
- C. Form..
- The six sections that all well-formed Recalls, Referenda, and Inistiaves must have.
- D. Content..
- Any citizen of voting age can Sponsor a Recall, Referendum, or Initiative and anyone else can modify Sponsor a revision of such a proposal. The Sponsors and their Registrars will be charged with assigning Versions to each which reflect their provenance, their genealogy. This section tries to perfect the specification of such a system. Please help.
- E. Submission..
- Any natural born citizen of voting age may Sponsor a Recall, Referendum, or Initiative and any other natural born citizen of voting age may resubmit that proposal to his or her own Registrar.
- F. Election..
The proposal is for a secret ballot with the lists of those voting and the ballots themselves open for public inspection. Allowing the voters to arbitrarily mark their ballots allows them to verify that they have been counted.
There are two separate periods of election.
If a Recall or Initiative has not been passed by a majority of the voters in a single US Congressional District within one year then it is dead. If a Referendum has not been rejected by a majority of the voters in a single US Congressional District within sixty days it is dead.
In the event that a Recall or Initiative is passed or a Referendum rejected within a US Congressional District within the time alloted initially the clock is reset and a General Election undertaken in all Congessional Districts.
US Congressional Districts are used only as an intermediate level of aggregation in a Recall, Referendum, or Initiative. The only count that matters is the final nationwide total. The idea is to provide virulence to popular ideas and a corresponding lack of virulence for ideas without real popular appeal.
The list of participating voters and their ballots may be disposed of in the case that a General Election does not ensue but must be preserved for inspection for at least five years in the event of a General Election.
- G. Effective Date..
- Self explanatory.
- H. Campaign Financing..
- The idea, again, is to separate money and politics.
- I. Financial Disclosure..
- Contributions are public. No longer such a big deal with contributions limited. Still important.
- Section 7.
- Either our Congress or ourselves may provide funding for the Registrars new duties. We will probably have to do it ourselves. Copied nearly verbatim from the NI4d Act.
- Section 8.
- Copied nearly verbatim from the NI4d Act.
- Section 9.
- Copied from the NI4d Act, with additions and subtractions as required.
[Recall, Referendum and Initiative Amendment]
[Campaign Finance Amendment][Uniform Election Amendment]
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jfl@28amen.org