EVERYONE CAN BENEFIT!
(THE FOLLOWING ARE Opinions and perspective from ThE CIRRRA PROPONENT that are INTENDED TO SPARK THIS DISCUSSION!)
VOTERS!
Voters will get to participate in the existing initiative referendum and recall system like never before! The hurdle of being priced out of participation for not having millions of dollars to pay professional signature gatherers would end and an era of efficiently answering our questions revolving around our solutions and ideals would begin! The days of not having the time or ability to participate by sitting out in front of grocery stores would also change dramatically as all would have direct access to participate, and do so directly with our County and State Election Departments, on a secured online platform.
The need for protesting could be replaced with a desire to propose a solution and a process of refining our solutions to get to the best possible live and let live result would be the ultimate goal! We use the popular ballot system in search of a popular vote here in our state and good ideas that could make things better for us all are all too often left behind simply because they are not a priority given the way things currently work.
Having the ability to use these proposal mechanisms allows every CA citizen a way to present their grievances in the form of solutions directly to the voters and do so with incredible efficiently! This allows for our differences to be entered into a forum where healthy debates can take place and potential support can be gathered or dismissed!
Modernizing to a system where our voter intent can be better taken care of requires using all of our communication and technological resources! This means in person, by phone, email, text, mail, and especially online which has made amazing advancements in the past few decades! We simply must have transparency and privacy in every place possible to keep us informed and safe from predators and the only way to achieve this goal is to use all of our resources to ensure we maintain a secure, informed, and controlled relationship with our elections processes!
ELECTIONS OFFICIALS!
The problems with vetting voter identity and intent is one that requires a full system upgrade to keep up with the ever growing volume of voters participating! We have many ways to track these bits of voter information, but the efficiency of the process is where things can get sideways as we validate each voter's intent. Not all counties have the resources to process things manually and in order to do so each election department's staff often must wear multiple hats to get the job done!
Sacrifices are made in budgets and with how personnel is used on a regular basis to ensure these petition vetting jobs get done, and the job always seems to get done, but at what cost to those folks involved who are just trying to keep up. A new electronic system changes all of that and much more, freeing up staff to focus on managing these processes more than preforming the tasks manually. Counting and vetting signatures and petitions manually has many obstacles to overcome and the bottom line is time, money and resources are spent trying to minimize the element of human error in these processes, while trying to process any given and open ended amount of work, where the process of getting it right becomes a matter of judgement in most cases. Are we doing the best we can, I believe so but could we do it much better and get it way more accurately with far less effort?
Electronic processing becomes more instantaneous as it uses superior methods of securing a voter's intent using things like encryption, blockchain, intranet servers, and so on, and it all happens directly with each voters encounter with the system tracking every key stroke, which means more time can be spent ensuring the system is functioning properly, as intended, and measures to counter any tampering could be made a top priority by staff authorized to do so.
The point is that we have had the technology to electronically sign petitions legally for decades and our use of it is sadly decades behind! Furthermore, our use of antiquated digital signatures processed from the DMV data base to register voters could also use a facelift electronically! This is not a plug to abandon everything that is already in place, as much as it is a request to embrace all of our abilities to get the best possible outcome for each and every voter willing to participate in how our state functions!
The new electronic signature system could also allow for increased opportunities for voters to engage with their elections department and the elections department in return could better ensure each voter maintains current and accurate information in their system. Additionally, there are simple solutions to organizing the SOS's website based on the support a proposal might have being categorized and changing the percentage of support needed to even qualify a proposal for a ballot by doubling or tripling the percentage needed which also becomes possible with a more efficient and electronic system.
PROPONENTS OF BALLOT PROSALS!
Proponents will simply have a choice to use the old pen and paper system or the new online process. The efficiency to which you can answer your proposal question will be based mostly on the popularity of their solution and not have everything tethered to the costly and time consuming process of sorting through millions of people to find those individuals who are even legally capable of participating. Basically, the days of having hundreds of thousands of signatures potentially tossed out would end as each voter supporting your proposal would be already vetted prior to participating.
Campaign financing and funding needs would also likely change to meet the new model of signature gathering. Signature gathering could potentially involve dedicated access to submitting a signature of support using third party apps for paid signature gatherers to access securely though the CA SOS, but it would not be the only way as funding advertising alone for a proposal could effectively get the word out instead. The risk of spending millions and not getting enough signatures because signature gathering efforts were poorly ran by inexperienced people trying to figure out the way it all works, or voter signatures gathered with the best intentions become too difficult to validate prior to submission, would also change. There are many benefits, but the ultimate benefit is the ability to participate for the average voter becomes possible in ways never before seen.
SIGNATURE GATHERING COMPANIES AND PROFESSIONAL SIGNATURE GATHERERS!
The industry will simply have to adapt! The potential for third party applications having access to a secure system could allow for paid signature gatherers to continue to collect electronic signatures on devices that only allow direct submission of any such voter intent to participate with the CA SOS, and a record of that transmission could be made available to the proponent as a receipt of sorts, who would then be responsible to pay for any such efforts. The same process could also be used for volunteers using the application, but only if the SOS authorized this form of access, so that would be something worth pursuing in order to stay involved with more traditional methods of petition circulation.
ELECTED OFFICIALS!
Let's face it, population demands are making it impossible for elected officials to truly represent all of their constituents effectively. Add that to an ever growing divide in political thinking and forcing folks to live with solutions they had no say in becomes a recipe for failure. We the people need a healthy outlet to know we are being represented in some way and if we can't get that with our elected officials then we need to be able to answer our questions somehow! This electronic signature gathering solution can only help resolve our differences by allowing greater access to all, including folks who are homebound or in the military away from home to participate better, and if it does not resolve our differences, then folks will be much better off in their decision to move to a place where their way of living is better accepted knowing it is not what the overwhelming majority here wants. We must have a better way to decide where and how we will live our lives and stop the practice of pushing unwanted agendas on people without giving them a way to participate or a way out without answering their questions!
Living in a state where so many don't even care to participate is quite telling, and that is a very big issue her in CA. Elected officials are limited in many ways when it comes to getting anything their constituents want done and this constant battle for relevance on any given political issue tends to cost seats when politicians are unable to deliver on campaign promises! Basically, elected officials should not fear the people participating especially when those folks are the ones who put them in office! The fear should come from not being able to represent us as the time to vote comes around and constituents want to know if they are getting things done or not. We will all be better served when working together more as the pressure to get answers legislatively is more shared by all and not thrust on the back of any individual trying to make good with their constituents. Exclusion practices politically are what we now face as a whole and that is mostly due to the fact that we have outgrown our ability to self govern given the limitations of how we currently participate in our elections choices and our elected officials know it.
There is a pecking order of politics that tends to marginalize those outside of specialized and specific agendas, and that goes for all parties involved. This electronic signature gathering proposal allows constituents a way to answer their questions even when their elected officials can't or won't! It also allows for a much healthier process to get things resolved being a proposal and open for debate, as opposed to relying on divisions in a given party who often disagree amongst themselves, or when opposing parties counter each other's efforts blocking solutions solely based on partisan differences and not what the solution means to we the people! The efficiency of our entire political system is bogged down for all the obvious reasons and it is time to open things up, allow the debates and entertain each other's ideas, or continue to face the frustrations that result from not resolving our differences!
SPECIAL INTEREST ORGANIZATIONS!
This will simply open up avenues for all such organizations to ask the voters of CA to support their solutions and proposals. Many organizations fail to overcome the signature gathering requirement threshold and that leaves those in support of any given yet failed proposal wondering if it was only because they could not get enough volunteers, funding, or paid signatures to reach their goal, or if folks simply are not interested in it enough to make it happen.
The way things currently work leaves most, who would even try to qualify for a ballot using pen and paper petitions, out in the cold! This is not a system of survival of the most popular, it is a system that has failed to represent the people of CA where it has served only the most powerful and well funded interests, which has left our legislative choices very controlled and limited to only those who can use the antiquated pen and paper system, given the way it currently works. There will not be much use for these processes to the average CA citizen if it continues to work the way it does, and some day it will be more a question of why not just eliminate initiative, referendum, and recall system all together if it does not serve the people as directed in our own state constitution! If we continue to use these processes then electronic signature gathering is inevitable and the sooner we embrace it, the sooner we can perfect the process!
Final word is to fix the system so we can all participate in it, or risk losing it all together. Seeing a system of representation only form of government in many ways fail us all, due to the loss of having a balance with the principles of direct democracy, must be addressed! We are not meant to be run by representation alone, nor as a direct democracy! We are not meant to be driven by a single engine of special interest agendas either! This proposal balances out our entire system of governance and makes all processes more functional by adding transparency, accountability, and the ability to participate for all!
Voters will get to participate in the existing initiative referendum and recall system like never before! The hurdle of being priced out of participation for not having millions of dollars to pay professional signature gatherers would end and an era of efficiently answering our questions revolving around our solutions and ideals would begin! The days of not having the time or ability to participate by sitting out in front of grocery stores would also change dramatically as all would have direct access to participate, and do so directly with our County and State Election Departments, on a secured online platform.
The need for protesting could be replaced with a desire to propose a solution and a process of refining our solutions to get to the best possible live and let live result would be the ultimate goal! We use the popular ballot system in search of a popular vote here in our state and good ideas that could make things better for us all are all too often left behind simply because they are not a priority given the way things currently work.
Having the ability to use these proposal mechanisms allows every CA citizen a way to present their grievances in the form of solutions directly to the voters and do so with incredible efficiently! This allows for our differences to be entered into a forum where healthy debates can take place and potential support can be gathered or dismissed!
Modernizing to a system where our voter intent can be better taken care of requires using all of our communication and technological resources! This means in person, by phone, email, text, mail, and especially online which has made amazing advancements in the past few decades! We simply must have transparency and privacy in every place possible to keep us informed and safe from predators and the only way to achieve this goal is to use all of our resources to ensure we maintain a secure, informed, and controlled relationship with our elections processes!
ELECTIONS OFFICIALS!
The problems with vetting voter identity and intent is one that requires a full system upgrade to keep up with the ever growing volume of voters participating! We have many ways to track these bits of voter information, but the efficiency of the process is where things can get sideways as we validate each voter's intent. Not all counties have the resources to process things manually and in order to do so each election department's staff often must wear multiple hats to get the job done!
Sacrifices are made in budgets and with how personnel is used on a regular basis to ensure these petition vetting jobs get done, and the job always seems to get done, but at what cost to those folks involved who are just trying to keep up. A new electronic system changes all of that and much more, freeing up staff to focus on managing these processes more than preforming the tasks manually. Counting and vetting signatures and petitions manually has many obstacles to overcome and the bottom line is time, money and resources are spent trying to minimize the element of human error in these processes, while trying to process any given and open ended amount of work, where the process of getting it right becomes a matter of judgement in most cases. Are we doing the best we can, I believe so but could we do it much better and get it way more accurately with far less effort?
Electronic processing becomes more instantaneous as it uses superior methods of securing a voter's intent using things like encryption, blockchain, intranet servers, and so on, and it all happens directly with each voters encounter with the system tracking every key stroke, which means more time can be spent ensuring the system is functioning properly, as intended, and measures to counter any tampering could be made a top priority by staff authorized to do so.
The point is that we have had the technology to electronically sign petitions legally for decades and our use of it is sadly decades behind! Furthermore, our use of antiquated digital signatures processed from the DMV data base to register voters could also use a facelift electronically! This is not a plug to abandon everything that is already in place, as much as it is a request to embrace all of our abilities to get the best possible outcome for each and every voter willing to participate in how our state functions!
The new electronic signature system could also allow for increased opportunities for voters to engage with their elections department and the elections department in return could better ensure each voter maintains current and accurate information in their system. Additionally, there are simple solutions to organizing the SOS's website based on the support a proposal might have being categorized and changing the percentage of support needed to even qualify a proposal for a ballot by doubling or tripling the percentage needed which also becomes possible with a more efficient and electronic system.
PROPONENTS OF BALLOT PROSALS!
Proponents will simply have a choice to use the old pen and paper system or the new online process. The efficiency to which you can answer your proposal question will be based mostly on the popularity of their solution and not have everything tethered to the costly and time consuming process of sorting through millions of people to find those individuals who are even legally capable of participating. Basically, the days of having hundreds of thousands of signatures potentially tossed out would end as each voter supporting your proposal would be already vetted prior to participating.
Campaign financing and funding needs would also likely change to meet the new model of signature gathering. Signature gathering could potentially involve dedicated access to submitting a signature of support using third party apps for paid signature gatherers to access securely though the CA SOS, but it would not be the only way as funding advertising alone for a proposal could effectively get the word out instead. The risk of spending millions and not getting enough signatures because signature gathering efforts were poorly ran by inexperienced people trying to figure out the way it all works, or voter signatures gathered with the best intentions become too difficult to validate prior to submission, would also change. There are many benefits, but the ultimate benefit is the ability to participate for the average voter becomes possible in ways never before seen.
SIGNATURE GATHERING COMPANIES AND PROFESSIONAL SIGNATURE GATHERERS!
The industry will simply have to adapt! The potential for third party applications having access to a secure system could allow for paid signature gatherers to continue to collect electronic signatures on devices that only allow direct submission of any such voter intent to participate with the CA SOS, and a record of that transmission could be made available to the proponent as a receipt of sorts, who would then be responsible to pay for any such efforts. The same process could also be used for volunteers using the application, but only if the SOS authorized this form of access, so that would be something worth pursuing in order to stay involved with more traditional methods of petition circulation.
ELECTED OFFICIALS!
Let's face it, population demands are making it impossible for elected officials to truly represent all of their constituents effectively. Add that to an ever growing divide in political thinking and forcing folks to live with solutions they had no say in becomes a recipe for failure. We the people need a healthy outlet to know we are being represented in some way and if we can't get that with our elected officials then we need to be able to answer our questions somehow! This electronic signature gathering solution can only help resolve our differences by allowing greater access to all, including folks who are homebound or in the military away from home to participate better, and if it does not resolve our differences, then folks will be much better off in their decision to move to a place where their way of living is better accepted knowing it is not what the overwhelming majority here wants. We must have a better way to decide where and how we will live our lives and stop the practice of pushing unwanted agendas on people without giving them a way to participate or a way out without answering their questions!
Living in a state where so many don't even care to participate is quite telling, and that is a very big issue her in CA. Elected officials are limited in many ways when it comes to getting anything their constituents want done and this constant battle for relevance on any given political issue tends to cost seats when politicians are unable to deliver on campaign promises! Basically, elected officials should not fear the people participating especially when those folks are the ones who put them in office! The fear should come from not being able to represent us as the time to vote comes around and constituents want to know if they are getting things done or not. We will all be better served when working together more as the pressure to get answers legislatively is more shared by all and not thrust on the back of any individual trying to make good with their constituents. Exclusion practices politically are what we now face as a whole and that is mostly due to the fact that we have outgrown our ability to self govern given the limitations of how we currently participate in our elections choices and our elected officials know it.
There is a pecking order of politics that tends to marginalize those outside of specialized and specific agendas, and that goes for all parties involved. This electronic signature gathering proposal allows constituents a way to answer their questions even when their elected officials can't or won't! It also allows for a much healthier process to get things resolved being a proposal and open for debate, as opposed to relying on divisions in a given party who often disagree amongst themselves, or when opposing parties counter each other's efforts blocking solutions solely based on partisan differences and not what the solution means to we the people! The efficiency of our entire political system is bogged down for all the obvious reasons and it is time to open things up, allow the debates and entertain each other's ideas, or continue to face the frustrations that result from not resolving our differences!
SPECIAL INTEREST ORGANIZATIONS!
This will simply open up avenues for all such organizations to ask the voters of CA to support their solutions and proposals. Many organizations fail to overcome the signature gathering requirement threshold and that leaves those in support of any given yet failed proposal wondering if it was only because they could not get enough volunteers, funding, or paid signatures to reach their goal, or if folks simply are not interested in it enough to make it happen.
The way things currently work leaves most, who would even try to qualify for a ballot using pen and paper petitions, out in the cold! This is not a system of survival of the most popular, it is a system that has failed to represent the people of CA where it has served only the most powerful and well funded interests, which has left our legislative choices very controlled and limited to only those who can use the antiquated pen and paper system, given the way it currently works. There will not be much use for these processes to the average CA citizen if it continues to work the way it does, and some day it will be more a question of why not just eliminate initiative, referendum, and recall system all together if it does not serve the people as directed in our own state constitution! If we continue to use these processes then electronic signature gathering is inevitable and the sooner we embrace it, the sooner we can perfect the process!
Final word is to fix the system so we can all participate in it, or risk losing it all together. Seeing a system of representation only form of government in many ways fail us all, due to the loss of having a balance with the principles of direct democracy, must be addressed! We are not meant to be run by representation alone, nor as a direct democracy! We are not meant to be driven by a single engine of special interest agendas either! This proposal balances out our entire system of governance and makes all processes more functional by adding transparency, accountability, and the ability to participate for all!
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