BlogWood: MT Archives

GOP hates democracy

If you’ve been paying attention, you already know that, much like his brother, Jeb! feels that democracy would be much better without all that messy voting and stuff. See, Republicans are in charge of all branches of Florida government, but they aren’t satisfied with that. They remain outraged that mere citizens such as you and I have the power to dictate policy in the form of a citizen initiative.

They say that citizen initiatives clutter up the ballot, even though the legislature itself typically loads the ballot with more initiatives than the people do. (A constitutional amendment in Florida can make the ballot via legislative or citizen initiative.) In fact, the legislature, with Jeb!’s strong backing, has placed an initiative on this year’s ballot that seeks to make it much harder for citizen initiatives to take root.

A new coalition has declared war on a campaign to make it more difficult to amend the Florida Constitution.

The group, Hands off Florida, opposes Amendment 2, which Florida lawmakers placed on the Nov. 2 ballot with the Florida Chamber of Commerce's backing.

The proposal would require citizen initiatives to be filed by February before a scheduled November election instead of August and gives the Supreme Court until April 1 to review each petition.

"Amendment 2 is a thinly veiled attack on voters by wealthy special interests" and "a power grab by legislators and the state's business lobby to maintain power in Tallahassee," says the group, chaired by Rick Sheppard, a West Palm Beach businessman.

Amending the Constitution is the only way residents can get around a Legislature that refuses to address important issues, the coalition contends.

The group includes the League of Women Voters, the ACLU, Common Cause, the American Lung Association of Florida and others who have frequently clashed with state lawmakers in trying to pass legislation.

"We think citizen participation is critical in a democracy," said Larry Spalding, ACLU spokesman.

A spokeswoman for VoteSmartFlorida.org, which was formed by the Florida chamber to rein in the amendment process, said the measure would improve the ability of voters to learn more about a ballot issue before they vote.

Amendments proposed by the Legislature would not have to meet the new deadlines.

Extra time for studying. Yeah, that’s the ticket...

Now, one thing that is rather puzzling is why Jeb! and his minions are even bothering with this attempt to muzzle democracy. After all, when he sees an amendment he doesn’t like, Jeb! typically simply ignores the wishes of the people and does whatever the fuck he wants.

More info:

Hands Off Florida is the group referenced above. Here’s a little taste of their myth vs. fact page:

Myth: Florida's initiative process is "out of control", and voters are being faced with an unreasonable number of initiative proposals.

Fact:
Of the 50 initiatives that were filed for the 2004 general election, only six of them made it to the ballot. Florida's constitution has been amended only 16 times in the state's history through citizen-petitioned ballot initiatives while in that same time the state legislature has amended the constitution 70 times and passed over 10,000 laws. Fully 95% of measures proposed by the state legislature make it to the ballot, while only 14% of citizen initiatives successfully overcome the many hurdles to qualify. Florida doesn't even rank in the top five states with the most ballot initiatives over time.

Myth: It is too easy for citizens to qualify ballot initiatives - as evidenced by the Florida Constitution being amended 95 times since 1968.

Fact:
Florida already has one of the most stringent initiative approval processes in the country. Amending the state constitution through ballot initiatives involves a lengthy and costly process of filing initiative language, securing valid signatures and having those signatures approved by the state Supreme Court and the Secretary of State. While it is true that the state constitution has been amended 95 times, most of those amendments came from legislature, while only 16 of those amendments came from the citizen initiative process. Amendment 2 does nothing to reduce the number of measures referred by the legislature or another governmental body in Florida - it only seeks to reduce citizen-led initiatives.