October 21, 2004

Ballotwatch is a comprehensive collection of international, statewide and local initiatives. Ballot initiatives have quietly (or, unnoticed to me, anyway) become a powerful force in American politics. Some interesting ones in the upcoming US elections - In Alaska there is one to decide whether to legalize marijuana outright, and how could I forget the initiatives to ban gay marriage in 11 states this election.

Here's another good run-down of ballot initiatives. Is the proliferation of ballot initiatives good or bad? On the one hand, they are a way of giving power back to the people. On the other, they are tools of demagoguery. The story of Gray Davis and the California recall is full of problems related to various ballot initiatives. From the last link -- "Even before Proposition 13 thundered into the recall campaign this week, some political experts and even some voters had been starting to wonder whether this landmark anti-tax measure -- and the initiative process it spawned -- might have created some of the instability in state government that many find so jarring."

posted by calimehtar 20 years ago
  • That ballotwatch site sounds cool, but I can't the "comprehensive collection of international, state, and local initiatives." All I can find is a description of the process at each level. I can understand them not having any info on Hawai'i, but I'd still expect them to have a list of national initiatives. I don't know. Maybe I'm just an idiot who can't navigate
  • Mr. Knickerbocker, the real information is mostly in PDFs. Click on the world "Statewide" to get here. Or try the link I posted as run-down above which has the info for 2004 ballot initiatives in a more html format.
  • There's still not really any useful info. One is orginized by issue, which is pretty worthless if you're trying to find out what's on your own ballot. The other has a pdf with a vague 2 sentence description of the Hawai'i ballot. Nothing so far is that comprehensive at all. There's no list of initiative's at any level; local, state, or national. There's just a list of some issues, with some states mentioned under each one. If I planned on moving in the next two weeks, and I was going to base the decision where on what issues are going to be on the ballot, then, yeah, this is kinda useful. But if I'm trying to prepare for nov.2, ballotwatch seems pretty useless.
  • Not true. First of all, just use the the Rothenberg report because it seems to be closer to what you want. From ballotwatch, For a complete state-by-state election overview click here (Adobe PDF file), or you can go to the Statewide I&R page and from there to, say, Arkansas which pretty much has anything you ever wanted to know about the subject - what kind of initiatives are available in what state, when they were created, and what initiatives have passed since they have been available up to 2000 (pdf). But not information for 2004.
  • Your first link is the one that is "orginized by issue, which is pretty worthless if you're trying to find out what's on your own ballot," so it's in no way close to what I want, nor is it in anyway close to being a comprehensive. Your second link is the one that contains 2 vague sentences about Hawai'i. There is no way to consider that complete, nor is there any way to consider that comprehensive. The rest of your links also fail to list any initiative on the ballot. Maybe ballotwatch is good for something, but so far it has failed to be anything close to what you describe. There's no comprehensive list of local initiatives. There's no comprehensive list of statewide initiatives. There's no comprehensive list of national initiatives. The closest thing thing is a short list of issues, with a mention of a states an initiative relating to that issue. If I relied on this "compehensive" website to prepare me for election day, I would show up at the booth totally non-informed, and non-prepared, because this "comprehensive" website fails to state any information about what'll be on the ballot. It doesn't even mention who's running for president, let alone any other thing that'll be on my ballot.
  • I see. Well, it was interesting to me as the only info I got on ballot initiatives related to whatever made the news about gay marriage. For me, 13 pages of info on ballot initiatives in the current election was more than enough. The title of the post is just what Ballot Watch calls themselves, which may be misleading perhaps. In the future I'll email my FPPs to you to edit, first.
  • Sorry if I'm seem snippy, I only seem that way because I'm a giant asshole. (and a little frustrated from this site)