Initiatives: Restraint or Needed Scrutiny?
* Re “Cure for the Initiative,” editorial, Nov. 5: Prior restraint remedies like constitutionality tests and ballot argument reviews as fixes for the initiative process raise the question of who is going to perform these tests. The existence of neutral parties, even in the judiciary, is a fantasy.
The major concern is that any changes would be used to keep initiatives off of the ballot altogether. Most issues dealt with by initiatives would never have been addressed by the state Legislature and would probably have been kept off of the ballot as initiatives if they had a prior-restraint vehicle. Term limits, campaign finance reform, racial preference reform and property tax limitations are a few examples.
Leave the process alone, warts and all, and let the people decide.
DAVID R. GILLESPIE
Bonita
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* I have always wondered why any proposed ballot initiative is not subjected to some form of constitutional scrutiny prior to signatures being gathered and its being placed on the ballot. I have always wondered why the tyranny of the majority is so celebrated in the state of California.
When I am accosted by a signature gatherer, asking if I would sign a petition for whatever important issue that individual is being paid a dollar per signature for, I always ask, “Is that a petition to do away with initiatives? If so, I will sign it.”
ALAN STEINHARTER
Riverside
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