Any practical advice is welcome.
Edit: After some research, the path seems to be basically this:
- Get state residents to contact their delegates asking them to draft and/or support a constitutional amendment that gives citizens power to submit ballot initiatives (that's what we do not currently have in our state constitution).
- The legislature has to pass it by 2/3 in order for it to appear on the ballot (governor does not need to sign it for it to appear on the ballot)
- A simple majority of voters (> 50%) would have to vote "yes" on the proposed amendment on election day.
Sounds easy enough, but the last 4 ballot initiatives (all legislatively sponsored) were basically power grabs (thankfully none of them passed). Still, going to see if I can maybe get the ball rolling and channel my jealousy of other states into something productive.
I disagree in practice and in theory.
In practice, until we get corporate money out of politics, ballot initiatives are pretty much decided by advertising dollars. If you've got the money, you can buy any law you want with the right ad campaign.
In theory, ballot initiatives aren't democracy but populism. Ballot initiatives rely on popular vote to protect minority rights.
Let me give a little example. I always think of the exclusionary rule, implied by necessity from the Fourth Amendment: illegally obtained criminal evidence is inadmissible against the accused. That's a minoritarian right, it protects a minority of unpopular people: accused criminals.
If we voted on it, do we think we would vote to let criminals go free just because a cop made a mistake?
Suppose this question comes up on a ballot initiative in a nice liberal state such as Massachusetts, which allows ballot initiatives. It's probably going to get voted down. The liberals are going to fight it. The defense bar will fight it. They'll probably defeat it. And that's great. Democracy at work, right?
Do it again next year though. And next year. And next year. And next year. Put the squeeze on all those liberal activists going door to door making a hard get-out-the-vote pitch on behalf of accused criminals. Put the squeeze on all those defense lawyers, who make a living defending accused criminals--not traditionally wealthy people--and make them spend down their political capital. While they're busy fighting the initiative, what other special interests will have ballot initiatives that year that need to be fough, what else are they trying to jam through at the legislature hoping everyone is too distracted and tapped out by the initiative to muster the political capital to stop?
There are plenty of cherished minority rights that are not popular when put to the masses, but essential to those few who benefit from them.
In sum, ballot initiatives = populism, not democracy.