In the beginning for CIRRRA. the idea was to make the initiative, referendum and recall system cost effective for all voters to use and allow everyone to participate in a secure and private manner from anywhere in the State of California. Transparency in the process of counting signatures was also part of our what we were seeking and we originally wanted to make this a State Constitutional Amendment proposal so that politicians could not easily overturn our directives.
We realized what we were really after was a fix to the pen and paper signature gathering problem. More specifically, overcoming the signature gathering threshold to get our voter solutions on the decision making table! It became clear that a statutory proposal would accomplish this goal. The California Office of Legislative Counsel provided the legal services and written final initiative proposal free of charge, and it is a most impressive jobl It's great to have this legal service and assistance at our disposal.
The entire history of initiative. referendum and recall is easily found online and directly on the Secretary of State's website in every state! These processes have been used since the late 1700's, beginning with Referenda in Massachusetts, and were promoted by founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. and really began to sweep through our nation in the late 1800's and early 1900's. and were last put into a state constitution in the 1990's. Ironically this is when electronic signature technology started to take off!
Here we are in 2021, a quarter century past the widespread use of electronic signature technology. and still not using it in the one capacity that allows 'We the People" to fully exercise our US Constitutional Right under the First Amendment to be able to petition our government!
Initiative. referendum and recall are as much a part of the fabric of our nation as anything and given the fact that these processes have been suppressed by elected officials mostly, who time and again fail to represent us, it is clear where the true discrimination rests] The fact that our own signatures are being withheld from being used in our capacity to petition our government is arguably the greatest discrimination of our time as all political corruption goes unchecked as the people are kept from having the ability to represent ourselves!
The time for 'We the People' to rise up and take charge of our government is now! We must stop pretending that elected officials are ever going to represent us without being directly accountable to their constituents! initiative referendum and recall is the only may for true accountability to happen and electronic signature gathering is the only way to fully turn these processes on!
The time of exclusion and loss of hope that comes with the perception that our participation in our governmental processes doesn't matter is over with this solution, and we can all go to work fixing our corrupt system of governance once we implement these tools of inclusion!