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From The Los Angeles Times: . . . By contrast, the review process for citizen ballot measures is woefully inadequate and sometimes leads to the passage of initiatives that don’t stand up to legal scrutiny. That’s what happened with Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage, and Proposition 187, which limited public services to immigrants who

From Fox & Hounds: Californians have a love-hate relationship with the Initiative process. Recent surveys by PPIC show that two-thirds of voters are satisfied with the initiative process even though a majority think that special interests have too much control and an even larger majority think the wording of initiatives is “often too complicated and

From MassLive: Massachusetts voters who read an independently produced statement about the marijuana legalization ballot question felt better informed about the issue and more confident in their knowledge. But it is likely that few residents were even aware of the so-called “Citizens’ Statement.” Organizers of the Citizens Initiative Review pilot project, which produced the statement,

Ashley Trim of the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University writes about the challenges of the California initiative system and the unique democratic power of the Citizens Initiative Review. Via People2Power.

From the Pepperdine University Graphic: The Pepperdine School of Public Policy is continuing its work from last semester on a project to make the California Initiative process more transparent for its students. Headed by Dean Pete Peterson of the Davenport Institute, the School of Public Policy intends to bring Healthy Democracy, an organization based in

From MassLive: Legalized marijuana in Massachusetts would be safer than marijuana bought on the black market, because it would be tested and labeled. But after legalization in Denver, the black market continued to thrive. These were among the findings released Sunday by a panel of 20 Massachusetts residents who spent four days analyzing the marijuana legalization

From Oregon Public Broadcasting: What happens when you put 20 average Oregonians in a room and ask them to spend four days learning the ins and outs of Measure 97? That may sound like the wonkiest reality show ever, but it actually happened over the weekend at Western Oregon University. A group of Oregonians selected to represent the

From the Albany Democrat-Herald: The members of the Citizens’ Initiative Review panel that was examining Measure 97, the proposal for a corporate gross receipts tax, wrapped up their work on Sunday afternoon and left Monmouth, where they had gathered for four days of work. They left behind a straightforward summary of the measure’s pros and

From The Oregonian: Now that it has qualified for the ballot, there has been a predictable increase in public discourse about what is now known as Measure 97, the corporate gross receipts tax measure. This ballot measure will no doubt continue to generate intense interest, with a deluge in advertising from opposing campaigns sure to follow.

From the Albany Democrat-Herald: Next month, 24 randomly selected Oregon voters will gather at Western Oregon University in Monmouth to weigh the pros of cons of Measure 97, the controversial proposal for a gross-receipts tax on certain Oregon corporations. Think of the group as an impartial grand jury of sorts: Members will hear presentations from proponents and

From MassLive: A group of politicians and academics — including former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis — are piloting a program to have a committee of citizens analyze the ballot question on legalizing marijuana and draft a statement of its pros and cons to be distributed to voters. “This is going to be a great thing for

From Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government: Cambridge, Mass. – May 5, 2015 – Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, announced the Top 10 programs for the Roy and Lila Ash Innovations in Public Engagement in Government Award, including the four finalists who will

From NPR: Ben Hamilton walks down the salad dressing aisle at his neighborhood grocery store in west Denver. The human resources consultant usually seeks out organic options and scans nutrition information. “I am a label reader. I think a lot of people read labels and really are curious to know what is in our food supply,”