Title:
Act now to save the initiative process in Nevada
Message:
Currently, the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee is considering Assembly Joint Resolution 5 (A.J.R. 5), which would amend the Nevada Constitution to hinder citizens' ability to put initiatives on the ballot. The changes would make Nevada's initiative process—already one of the most restrictive in the country—easily the most difficult in the nation, barring participation by all but the richest interests … interests already well represented in Carson City.
Please, take action and tell the committee members to respect the process. For 100 years, the citizen initiative has been an essential element of Nevada politics. In a government of, by, and for the people, this citizen-based process is critical to good government.
A.J.R. 5 has three major components, each of which is designed to restrict citizen access to the ballot.
First, A.J.R. 5 would increase the number of signatures required for an initiative to qualify for the ballot from 10% of the votes cast in the previous general election to 15% for a statutory initiative and 20% for a constitutional initiative. This would increase the number of signatures required from 83,156 to 124,734 for statutory and 166,312 for constitutional initiatives. This is an immense burden: none of the initiative petitions submitted in 2004 had 83,000 raw signatures, much less valid ones.
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Second, A.J.R. 5 would impose new geographic requirements on signature gathering—to replace provisions found unconstitutional. Petitioners would be required to gather the signatures of 15% of the voters in each of Nevada's three congressional districts. Since the 2nd Congressional District covers roughly 90% of the state, the logistics for gathering the signatures of 15% of the voters in that vast area is daunting—and extremely expensive. This devalues the signatures of Nevada's urban residents—who compose the vast majority of the state's population—in favor of rural dwellers.
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Third, if 55% or more of the voters disapprove of an initiative in an election, no initiative that is "substantially similar" may appear on the ballot in the next general election. This is patently unfair and undemocratic. There is no similar bar on legislators filing the same legislation year after year.
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These changes are a solution in search of a problem. Nevada has not been inundated with citizen initiatives. The changes in A.J.R. 5 would not improve the process; they would simply limit access. The end result of the proposed changes would be to destroy any real concept of a "citizens" initiative.
