[EM] Initiatives

[William J. Williamson]

Daniel Davis wrote:

>     SIR:
>
>     As the writer of an initiative that garnered more signatures than needed, and
> was thrown out by the judicial system for being "unconstitution",--well I am
> still angry about that.
>
>     Does the judicial system have a right to throw out an initiative (with valid
> signatures, following all regulations) because it feels it is unconstitutional?
>
> dd
>
> New Democracy wrote:
>
> > Greetings,
> >
> >      There must be ways in which elected officials can be held accountable.
> > One way is when they face re-election. Another way is recall. These two are
> > not enough to make our lawmakers accountable. There are two other ways that
> > need to be added before we will have the best accountability of our
> > lawmakers.
> >
> >      One is that the citizens should have the means to petition for a
> > referendum, so that the citizens can pass laws that the lawmakers refuse to
> > pass or laws that the lawmakers are not allowed to pass. The second way is
> > for the citizens to have the means by which they can change or veto any
> > measure that was passed by any one of their levels of government.
> >
> >      We the citizens must think of our elected officials as our employees.
> > We have the right to correct our employees and the right to change any
> > decision they may have made. In most cases of disagreement we the people
> > would be more willing to change a decision of a lawmaker than to recall the
> > lawmaker. We the people should have this option.
> >
> >      In regard to accountability, these two improvements in government are
> > more important than proportional representation - more important than any
> > other election reform. Even before we gain full representation(PR) in our
> > voting for lawmakers, these two improvements will work very well by
> > themselves to give us accountability.
> >
> >      The voters of any currently existing district should be able to
> > petition to have a House measure put to a vote in their district. The
> > district vote could be taken before or after the House vote. If the people
> > voted different than their representative, then one vote on the measure in
> > the House has been changed. As more votes get changed from other districts
> > the measure could lose enough votes to void the measure. Not all districts
> > need to vote on the measure.
> >
> >      Proportional representation is good and I hope it is installed in my
> > country, but it will not give us the level of accountability that we need.
> > The power to change the vote of the lawmakers has far more power to make
> > the lawmakers accountable. More so than re-election by proportional
> > representation or recall or the media and other forms of public scrutiny.
> >
> >      These two improvements are the first two principles of Direct Democracy.
> >
> >      Maybe Direct Democracy should change its name to Accountable Democracy.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Donald Davison
> >
> >      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
> >      ///                 N E W    D E M O C R A C Y                ///
> >      \\\ Home of Citizen's Democracy   http://www.mich.com/~donald \\\
> >      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
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  I am new to this list so this is my first response.

Of course the judicial system has that right that is its purpose.
Jeff Williamson