On June 3, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Election Laws held a hearing on three bills to make it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot. As it usual in Massachusetts, the committee did not take any action on the hearing day itself.
Witnesses from these groups testified against all three bills: Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), Common Cause, Citizens for Limited Taxation, the Family Institute, and Citizens in Charge. The only group in favor of the bills was the Teachers Union, but the Teachers Union witness merely said that the committee should read his written testimony, and did not otherwise speak.
The three bills are H559, H571, and H572. H571 would require paid circulators to wear a signboard with all of this information in 14-point type size: (1) the circulator’s name; (2) the circulator’s employer; (3) the name of the group who hired the employer; (4) the statement “I am being paid $ (insert amount) for each signature I collect.” Anyone not wearing the sign would be subject to a fine of $500, and his or her employer would be subject to a fine of $5,000.
H572 would make it illegal to pay initiative circulators, something that the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled to be unconstitutional.
ALL houses of ALL 50 State legislatures are indirect minority rule regimes due to gerrymanders — i.e. are ANTI-Democracy monarchies / oligarchies — taking tax / fee cash and giving it to special interest gangs.
A plurality of the votes in a bare majority of the gerrymander districts = about 25 percent minority rule.
P.R. NOW – before it is too late.
Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes needed to get elected.
In most states its groups like PIRG and Common Cause who are for making it harder to get initiatives on the ballot, especially in places like Montana.
Actually in most states PIRG and Common Cause are generally supportive of the initiative process.