Quote:
Originally Posted by girdy
No. Public policy should not be determined by petitions by special interest groups. Public policy should be defined by our elected representatives with appropriate research. Petitions have no control with regards to who signed, and public (i.e. taxpayer) money should not be opened up to abuse of inappropriate petitions.
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Those are important concerns. However it should be possible to define the process to avoid these:
1. Set the initial petition threshold quite high, say 10% or 15%
2. Have tough financing rules to keep moneyed interests from subverting the process.
3. Have tough audit rules with regards to stop abuses of signatures.
4. Use the indirect approach, ie when the issue has been approved by public vote it is then sent to the legislature.
Remember if the issue is truly just a special interest issue, then a) it is unlikely they will get enough signatures or b) it simply won't pass.