California Libertarian Ballot Initiatives

These initiatives are now being circulated for the California ballot.  All you need to do is print them out, sign and/or circulate them, and mail the signed copies of each measure back to its proponent.

Remember:

• All signers, and you as the circulator*, must be registered to vote in California.  Register here.  (Hint: If you have registration postcards to hand out, people can register and sign immediately.  Use the above link to get the postcards as well.)
• Each petition must be printed in full (including the full text of the measure as well as the signature spaces).  Two-page petitions must be on both sides of a single sheet of paper.
• At least one inch of blank space must be left at the top of each page.  Election officials will disqualify petitions not in compliance.
• Voters who live in different counties must sign separate pages (copies) of each petition.  All signatures on one page must be from a single county.
• You must sign the statement at the bottom certifying the collection of signatures, even if you are the only signer.  (You do not need to live in the same county as the signers in order to certify their signatures.)
• The deadlines listed here are the dates that each proponent must turn the petitions in to election officials in each county, so it's important to get your petitions back to the proponent a week or two before that date.
• It is illegal to gather names and addresses from the petitions for any other purpose, such as a mailing list.  (Elections Code section 18650)

You may also wish to bookmark California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's complete, official list of initiatives and referenda now circulating, as well as California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's list of initiatives and referenda awaiting the summaries he must write before they can be circulated.  (Neither official list covers recall petitions.  If you wish to contact the proponents, use the Attorney General's list, as it includes photocopies of the original papers they filed with the Secretary of State's office.)

I list only the ones that I think libertarians would want to sign.  A listing here does not imply that any of the proponents are libertarians.

Download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, free.  (Some petitions may not display correctly in old versions of Acrobat Reader.)

*  The law requiring that circulators be registered to vote in California was being challenged in court cases involving recent campaigns which brought in professional circulators from other states.  If a final decision was rendered, I haven't heard what it was.

Petitions Now Circulating

This page is now dormant.
I no longer have time to keep it properly updated.

Ongoing efforts

Amend "Three Strikes"
Proponent:  Citizens Against Violent Crime, 12922 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove, CA  92840; voice (866) 378-7453 ("(866) 3-STRIKES"); e-mail, web site
Modifies existing "Three Strikes" law so that all three strikes must be serious or violent felonies, and separate incidents, to qualify for increased sentences.  Gives persons previously sentenced under the "Three Strikes" law who no longer qualify for increased sentences the right to a re-sentencing hearing within six months.

Electoral College
Proponent:  Californians for Voter Equality, 215 E. Orangethorpe Ave. #300, Fullerton, CA  92832; voice (909) 596-5000; no e-mail, web site
Replaces current "winner-take-all" voting system for presidential electors.  Provides that California's electoral college votes be determined on the basis of the outcome in each congressional district, plus two votes determined by the statewide outcome.  Provides additional time for receipt and counting of absentee ballots from military voters overseas.  Provides for petition by presidential candidates to seek accelerated vote certification and recount of votes for President.  Requires Secretary of State to adopt regulations for recounting ballots for each voting system in use.

Instant Runoff Voting
Proponent:  Center for Voting and Democracy; 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 610, Takoma Park, MD  20912; voice (301) 270-4616; e-mail, web site
Amends state election law to use preferential ballots for all state and local elective offices, except offices to which more than one candidate may be elected (such as city councils and county boards where elected at-large).  (Local governments could opt out of using preferential ballots in their own local races.)  Each race using preferential ballots would be counted in multiple rounds, with the lowest-vote-getting candidate in each round eliminated (and his/her votes reassigned to each voter's next-preferred candidate) until one candidate gets a majority.
The primary purpose is to allow voters to vote for minor-party and independent candidates while still "having their votes count" if those candidates lose.  (But in free-for-all elections such as the one that chose Governor Davis's replacement when he was recalled, the non-celebrity candidates in each major party are also likely to benefit.)
Note the non-California address.  This campaign is being waged in all 50 states.

Judicial Immunity
Proponent:  J.A.I.L. For Judges, 11304 Chandler Blvd., Unit 207, North Hollywood, CA  91603; e-mail, web site
Supersedes existing judicial immunity and creates three 25-member "Special Grand Juries" empowered to:  determine if a judge may invoke judicial immunity in a civil suit; indict and, through a special trial jury, convict and sentence a judge for criminal conduct; and permanently remove a judge who receives three adverse immunity decisions or three criminal convictions.  Disallows immunity for deliberate violations of law, fraud, conspiracy, intentional due process violations, deliberate disregard of material facts, judicial acts outside the court's jurisdiction, unreasonable delay of a case, or any deliberate constitutional violation.

Reapportionment
Proponent:  Fair Vote 2K Coalition, 44 Summerfield St., Thousand Oaks, CA  91360; e-mail, web site
Provides that districts for election of the U.S. House of Representatives, California State Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization be drawn by the Secretary of State based solely upon geographical compactness and population determined by census divisions designated by the federal Census Bureau.  The population of each district shall vary no more than 1% from other districts for the same elected body.  Districts shall be drawn without regard to party registration, voting history, race, sex, or national origin.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Proponent:  Thermopylae Group, 1261 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 108, San Jose, CA  95125-3030; e-mail, web site
Amends the California Constitution to add a personal right to keep and bear arms for defense of self, family, and home.  Requires state to prove a compelling government interest for any action regulating the keeping and bearing of arms.  Provides that this amendment, and such state laws as it allows, take precedence over county, city, and local government regulations on this subject.  Allows the state to continue regulating the acquisition or possession of arms by felons, minors, mentally incompetent persons, and persons subject to restraining orders based on their violent conduct.

Victories

Recall Governor Gray Davis (October 2003).  Davis was recalled and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Drugs.  Probation and Treatment Program (Proposition 36 in the November 2000 general election).  Passed with 60.8% of the vote.

Recall Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush (April 2000).  Quackenbush resigned after petitioning started, but before the petitions could be submitted.  I believe the recall petition forced him to resign, so I count this as a win.

This web page is an individual effort; I do not represent any party or organization, and I do not accept political contributions.  Copy as you please.

Feedback
John David Galt's Home Page