Ballot Propositions: Politicians or Petitions?

Happy Holidays to all y'all! This has been a crazy year for your old pal Melissa and starting this blog has brought much needed sanity and focus. I am grateful for all my Constant Readers and hope you all have a wonderful holiday break. Much love going out to local treasure Elaine Santore and the inimitable Robert Solis. (Each of whom recently wrote nice things about me. That I totally don't deserve. But I will take anyway, thankyouverymuch.)

Constant Readers,

As many of my Facebook friends know, I have been sick for several weeks. When tests for serious illness came back negative, my Doctor politely diagnosed me as a Whiny Loser and sent me home. So, for at least two weeks, I threw myself a Private Pity Party. Activities included: a game of “Drink a Shot of Theraflu Whenever I See a Head-On, Active-On or Prefer-On Commercial” (this caused me to lose consciousness several times), watching the entire first and second seasons of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and reading old SF Voter Information Pamphlets.

I know. You were with me until that last one. The Doctor was clearly right…

Well, I had them sitting around.

In May of 2007, I wrote about a study I did on the use of the mechanism by which four Supervisors can put an ordinance on the ballot without any public scrutiny. (Section 2.113 of the City Charter.) I found that, since 2002, when being a Supervisor became a full-time job thanks to Prop J, there was a marked increase in the use of the “four Supe shortcut” – which, as my Dad would say, “Don’t make a lick a' sense." This is why I supported Prop C, which passed by a wide margin in the November 2007 election.

So, now that we have Prop C, what can we expect? I think that, given (a) the text of Prop C and (b) the low voter turnout at the last election, we can expect a resurgence of petitions as a means of getting initiatives on the ballot. Let’s take these factors one at a time, shall we?:

Proposition C

Created by Supervisor Elsbernd, Prop C changed the law to require any initiative (ordinance or policy statement) put on the ballot by virtue of the four Supe shortcut or by Mayoral letter (City Charter Sec. 3.100(15) says that the Mayor can put an initiative on the ballot this way) must be submitted to the Board and assigned to a Committee where it will be subject to a public hearing, else the voter guide will contain a nasty little asterisk saying that no public hearing was held on the measure. Will voters care? Not sure. But there you go. While there are already special rules that govern the submission of petitions, the new "public-hearing-or-black-eye" law known as Prop C does not apply to petitions.

Low Voter Turnout

According to Section 14.101 of the Charter, the number of signatures required to put an ordinance or policy statement on the ballot is 5% of the total number of votes cast in the last Mayoral election. The Department of Elections website says that 149,465 votes were cast in the last Mayoral race, so, for the next four years, we are looking at 7,473 signatures required for a petition to put an initiative on the ballot. I just did math for y'all! Merry Christmas!

FUN FACT: Unlike the "four Supe" or "Mayor letter" shortcuts, a petition can also propose a Charter amendment if it has signatures equal to at least 10% of the number of votes cast in the last Mayoral election. (That’s about 14,947. And yes, I had to use my calculator.) Prop B on the February 2008 ballot is a petition-based Charter amendment - the first in about 13 years.

So, why should we care? According to the Department of Elections, the 149,465 votes cast in November of 2007 is the lowest number cast in any Mayor’s race going back as early as 1975, both in real terms (number of votes) and as a percentage of the total number of registered voters (35.8%). I’d go back farther, but its laundry day and I am down to my last ironic-but-kind-of-trite t-shirt. Suffice it to say, its been a long time since so few signatures were required to put an initiative on the ballot.

Relationship Between Petitions and Four Supe Ordinances

Notably, there does seem to be a negative correlation between petitions and four Supe shortcuts. From 1990 to 2002, there were a total of 30 ordinances put on the ballot via petition and 17 ordinances put on the ballot using the four Supe method. Since the November 2002 election, there have been 10 ordinances put on the ballot via petition and 19 put on the ballot using the four Supe method. In other words, we went from about twice as many petitions as shortcuts to about half as many petitions as shortcuts in only five years.

Along the line somewhere, I think folks figured out that getting four Supervisors on this Board to sign an initiative was easier than getting thousands of petition signatures. However, given the new public hearing and disclosure requirements contained in Prop C and the low number of signatures required for petitions, it may now be easier to find 7,472 like-minded folks than to deal with the scrutiny of a public hearing and the…ahem…"personalities" at City Hall.

So, next time you are approached by some kid on the street with a clipboard, it may not be a solicitation to fund hippies in boats – it may well be a petition for a ballot initiative. Examine it carefully, y’all.

-Melissa

Comments

[R.S]

Are you sure you've fully recovered, what with insightful thoughts about voting on the eve of Christmas? A little more Thera-flu on the rocks may be in order.

Anyway, thanks for the plug today. I'll take all the kind words I can get.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

r.s.