News

Op-Ed: Direct democracy in California has been a dangerously mixed bag. It doesn’t have to be

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 […]

Op-Ed: Direct democracy in California has been a dangerously mixed bag. It doesn’t have to be Read More »

The 2018 Portland Metro Area CIR is Starting Today! (And Running Aug. 23-26)

The Portland metro area is hosting its first-ever Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR), facilitated by Healthy Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in Portland. Up for review: the Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure. A cross-section of voters – who are randomly selected to match the demographics of the metro region in key areas such as political affiliation,

The 2018 Portland Metro Area CIR is Starting Today! (And Running Aug. 23-26) Read More »

2018 Portland-Area CIR Details

The Portland metro area is hosting its first-ever Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR), facilitated by Healthy Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in Portland. Up for review: the Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure. A cross-section of voters – who are randomly selected to match the demographics of the metro region in key areas such as political affiliation,

2018 Portland-Area CIR Details Read More »

Citizen Panel to be Selected to Review Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure

PORTLAND, Ore. — Healthy Democracy, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that pioneered the Citizens’ Initiative Review, will be holding a public event to randomly select a group of registered voters from Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties to serve on a review panel to examine the Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure that voters will be asked to vote

Citizen Panel to be Selected to Review Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure Read More »

This is What Democracy Looks Like: Notes from Conversations in a Crook County Barn

Into the Central Oregon barn walked students with purple hair, red Chuck Taylor high tops, and silver nose rings. They were gay and straight, male and female; each of them young, and all of them environmental studies majors from Lewis and Clark College in Portland.

Greeting them were farmers in Oregon State baseball caps and ranchers with silver hair beneath cowboy hats, and small timber operators with the scars to prove it. Some were young, but most were less young, and all had lived their lives and were making their living on the soil of the small Crook County community of Powell Butte.

This is What Democracy Looks Like: Notes from Conversations in a Crook County Barn Read More »

Massachusetts: State lawmakers working to make ballot questions more clear to voters

From WWLP 22 News: BOSTON (WWLP) – State lawmakers are working to make voting easier on election day. Ballot questions can be confusing, sometimes making it unclear what your ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote actually means. State lawmakers have a proposal that could change where your information comes from. More than 50 state lawmakers support a bill

Massachusetts: State lawmakers working to make ballot questions more clear to voters Read More »

A Manageable Improvement to the State Initiative Process?

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

A Manageable Improvement to the State Initiative Process? Read More »