WHAT DOES CIRRRA AND CEVI DO?
According to the California Constitution, Article II, Section 8(b); Elections Code Section 9035, the current initiative signature requirements are:
The current process to obtain signatures (petition circulation) is very costly and time consuming. It's done with a pen and paper, one signature at a time, a system which may have worked in 1911 when the population was much smaller...when only 35,000 signatures were required to qualify a proposal! Today, a signature can be invalidated with anything from a voter signing the wrong name to duplicate signatures to a looped Y below the line! The process makes it difficult to participate and trust.
Times have changed! Let’s bring the process into the 21st Century! We simply must help restore political balance in California, before everyone moves away!
CIRRRA asks CA voters for an electronic means to affix voter signatures to online petitions, to be applied instantly and securely to any initiative, referendum or recall qualified for circulation, on file with the California Attorney General's Office, and recorded with the California Secretary of State.
Here are CIRRRA’s main points:
- Initiative Statute: Collect 623,212 signatures in 180 days
- Initiative Constitutional Amendment: Collect 997,139 signatures in 180 days
The current process to obtain signatures (petition circulation) is very costly and time consuming. It's done with a pen and paper, one signature at a time, a system which may have worked in 1911 when the population was much smaller...when only 35,000 signatures were required to qualify a proposal! Today, a signature can be invalidated with anything from a voter signing the wrong name to duplicate signatures to a looped Y below the line! The process makes it difficult to participate and trust.
Times have changed! Let’s bring the process into the 21st Century! We simply must help restore political balance in California, before everyone moves away!
CIRRRA asks CA voters for an electronic means to affix voter signatures to online petitions, to be applied instantly and securely to any initiative, referendum or recall qualified for circulation, on file with the California Attorney General's Office, and recorded with the California Secretary of State.
Here are CIRRRA’s main points:
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to ensure each qualified initiative be represented with the proponent's support of the actual initiative, referendum or recall proposal, and to allow for any opposing argument to be presented as well. Pro and Con views are to be made visible on the Secretary of State's website.
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to allow the proponent a choice, at the onset of submitting any such proposal, the ability to use the modernized electronic system, or to simply use the existing system as it currently functions (pen and paper).
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to allow for a secure PDF that each voter can electronically download and complete in order to mail their signature directly in to the Secretary of State. This option was provided for voters not able to, or not wishing to, use the direct signature electronic affixing method.
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to maintain on its website an ongoing, publicly visible, tally of the current number of signatures, so transparency is maintained and voters’ trust in the mechanisms is gained and preserved.
- DIRECTS this electronic signature endorsement proposal to work with all initiative, referendum and recall processes for local and Statewide initiatives in the same manner.
CEVI, asks CA voters for an electronic means to vote online, and for this option to be added by the California Secretary of State to our existing walk up, absentee and vote by mail processes.
Here are CEVI’s main points:
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to create a new secure and private online voting system.
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to allow voters to be securely and confidentially identified and secretly able to participate in a new online voting system while using 3 layers of identification and verification measures taken to ensure the user is the voter authorized to participate.
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to ensure our electronic ballots are submitted securely to three separate locations, (county, state, and third part dedicated locations) where they will be kept in an authorized hard copy format.
- DIRECTS the Secretary of State to ensure voters get paper and encrypted email receipts to allow voters to verify ballots are in fact received, counted and we added the ability to verify our voter intent remains intact!
- DIRECTS this electronic voting proposal to be secured in every way and done with transparency measures and penalties for misuse.
What Does CIRRRA AND CEVI need after THEY ARE put in place?
Once CIRRRA and CEVI are in place and electronic signature gathering and voting is serving the voters of California by turning on our Initiative, Referendum and Recall system as well as adding accountability to our voting system, our job as voting citizens begins!
First we must oversee that the entire online system including the existing paper system is balanced. We currently do not have a good system of accountability when it comes to vetting voter intent and ensuring every voter's participation is accurately represented when signing anything! To do this we must have the ability, as voters, to check our intended support on any given proposal using methods currently accepted as well as newly formed electronic methods. We should not limit our use of technology to any one form and embrace all our tools when seeking to get things right! So this means confirmation can happen in person, or via mail, email, or electronic submission and all avenues should be made available for us to reasonably audit our own participation.
It is also important that Elections Officials be able to do the same in reverse and more efficiently then they are currently able to do! Furthermore, the proponents of any given proposal should be provided specific information to show non-personal and non-security information so they can track the details of how many people are participating in any given area and what type of voter has supported their proposal. Personal identification should only be exposed in a court of law and protected in that setting with the intent to maintain voter privacy. If any tampering, hacking, or foul play is suspected, or proven, then a legal challenge and criminal investigation would be in order and a full audit deemed appropriate to expose any such criminal activity! Legal challenges are in place and how the current system works but we do not have a good system of accountability given the many layers of information we have to work with in these processes. It is also very difficult to use the legal system to hold our elections processes to a reasonable standard of accountability but that too can be addressed once we have the ability to propose a better system of accountability.
Electronic technology has the ability to efficiently separate out all the layers involved with voter identification allowing voters to maintain privacy, to have control over their participation, to be able to reset their security and access options, to allow elections officials the ability to see critical identification information while preventing all others from doing the same, and to allow the general public to see limited aspects of our voter participation that do not expose who we are or our specific address location. the pen and paper system gives not just the proponent direct control over this information , but all the paid signature gatherers and the corporations that hire them access to our voter information and signature samples and this practice has to stop. Our voter information is flowing freely among these entities and being used in ways we do not consent to have them used and we do not have an effective way to check on this currently. There are ways to easily meet these needs with an electronic system that the paper system will never be able to accomplish. We have far too many hands on our voter intent in the pen and paper system and we wonder why the current system is riddled with errors and suspicions of not being accurate while serving those who can pay for access to our information and leaving the rest of us out of the loop politically! Let common sense prevail! We are better than this and ready to modernize, so the time to act is now!
From the point of CIRRRA and CEVI both being implemented and putting this full system of accountability in place, the voters of California can begin to participate in our law making processes and simply do our job holding elected officials accountable in ways never before realized! Our system of governance is severely out of balance in favor of an elite few who currently control everything and a healthy system of proposing solutions must be restored so that public debating of our issues and differences becomes the way we refine our them and how we come to rest on any live and let live conclusions we may find!
We the People have the vehicle, it has the engine necessary to drive our government, but the key to making it truly inclusive which fundamentally represents us all per the words; of the people, by the people and for the people, has yet to be turned on! CIRRRA and CEVI are the key!
First we must oversee that the entire online system including the existing paper system is balanced. We currently do not have a good system of accountability when it comes to vetting voter intent and ensuring every voter's participation is accurately represented when signing anything! To do this we must have the ability, as voters, to check our intended support on any given proposal using methods currently accepted as well as newly formed electronic methods. We should not limit our use of technology to any one form and embrace all our tools when seeking to get things right! So this means confirmation can happen in person, or via mail, email, or electronic submission and all avenues should be made available for us to reasonably audit our own participation.
It is also important that Elections Officials be able to do the same in reverse and more efficiently then they are currently able to do! Furthermore, the proponents of any given proposal should be provided specific information to show non-personal and non-security information so they can track the details of how many people are participating in any given area and what type of voter has supported their proposal. Personal identification should only be exposed in a court of law and protected in that setting with the intent to maintain voter privacy. If any tampering, hacking, or foul play is suspected, or proven, then a legal challenge and criminal investigation would be in order and a full audit deemed appropriate to expose any such criminal activity! Legal challenges are in place and how the current system works but we do not have a good system of accountability given the many layers of information we have to work with in these processes. It is also very difficult to use the legal system to hold our elections processes to a reasonable standard of accountability but that too can be addressed once we have the ability to propose a better system of accountability.
Electronic technology has the ability to efficiently separate out all the layers involved with voter identification allowing voters to maintain privacy, to have control over their participation, to be able to reset their security and access options, to allow elections officials the ability to see critical identification information while preventing all others from doing the same, and to allow the general public to see limited aspects of our voter participation that do not expose who we are or our specific address location. the pen and paper system gives not just the proponent direct control over this information , but all the paid signature gatherers and the corporations that hire them access to our voter information and signature samples and this practice has to stop. Our voter information is flowing freely among these entities and being used in ways we do not consent to have them used and we do not have an effective way to check on this currently. There are ways to easily meet these needs with an electronic system that the paper system will never be able to accomplish. We have far too many hands on our voter intent in the pen and paper system and we wonder why the current system is riddled with errors and suspicions of not being accurate while serving those who can pay for access to our information and leaving the rest of us out of the loop politically! Let common sense prevail! We are better than this and ready to modernize, so the time to act is now!
From the point of CIRRRA and CEVI both being implemented and putting this full system of accountability in place, the voters of California can begin to participate in our law making processes and simply do our job holding elected officials accountable in ways never before realized! Our system of governance is severely out of balance in favor of an elite few who currently control everything and a healthy system of proposing solutions must be restored so that public debating of our issues and differences becomes the way we refine our them and how we come to rest on any live and let live conclusions we may find!
We the People have the vehicle, it has the engine necessary to drive our government, but the key to making it truly inclusive which fundamentally represents us all per the words; of the people, by the people and for the people, has yet to be turned on! CIRRRA and CEVI are the key!
Abraham Lincoln's Quote
From The Last Line Of The Gettysburg Address:
"–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom –
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the Earth.”
From The Last Line Of The Gettysburg Address:
"–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom –
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the Earth.”
WEBSITE PAID FOR BY YES ON THE CALIFORNIA INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL REFORM ACT
AND ELECTRONIC VOTING INITIATIVES
and committee major funding by Timothy Draper
FPPC# 1420476
AND ELECTRONIC VOTING INITIATIVES
and committee major funding by Timothy Draper
FPPC# 1420476