Anyone who has worked to place a citizens' initiative on the statewide ballot can attest to how much work is required. State law makes backers collect signatures from at least 10 percent of the registered voters in 20 counties. But not all people who sign petitions are registered voters. Initiative backers must exceed the requirements for good measure.
After all that labor, most of the citizens' initiatives that have been certified for the ballot have failed. It's a long, hard and often disappointing process, which explains why the process is little used in the Beehive State. Now, Rep. Tammy Rowan, R-Orem, wants to up the ante. Rowan is sponsoring legislation that would require signatures to be gathered in each of Utah's 29 counties. The measure has been endorsed by the House on a vote of 49-19.Some lawmakers argue that, in a republic, a citizen initiative process can undermine representative government. If this was California, where citizen initiatives have run amok, that would be a sound argument. But in Utah, citizens have not abused the initiative process. There is no rationale to unnecessarily hobble people who wish to labor to put an issue before their fellow Utahns.
Yes, the threshold needs to be high enough to discourage every Utahn with a pet issue from taking it to voters. But the bar shouldn't be so high that legitimate causes are stymied because backers can't marshal enough volunteer forces or generate enough financial backing to gather the required number of signatures.
Under Rowan's bill, petitioners would be required to collect the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters in every county. In sparsely populated areas, that would mean signature gatherers may need to drive many miles between farms and ranches to ask voters to sign.
Although the new requirement would give residents of every county a role in statewide initiatives, they arguably have a role now. They vote. A vote cast in Altamont counts every bit as much as one cast in Salt Lake City.
Obviously, some legitimate philosophical arguments exist about the value of citizens' initiatives. But ego also plays into the equation. Voters entrust legislators with the power to pass laws, and some people believe initiative drives undermine that responsibility. But a balance of power exists. Lawmakers always could overturn a citizen initiative through the legislative process. Courts could find a petition drive to be unconstitutional.
Sometimes, lawmakers either can't or won't pass legitimate laws the public says it wants. This is precisely why volunteers are now collecting signatures for the Safe to Learn -- Safe to Worship Act. Despite numerous public opinion polls that demonstrate support for banning concealed weapons from schools, lawmakers have shied away from the issue. While they have introduced a crime package they believe addresses some of the same issues, the proposed legislation is not as far-reaching as the citizen initiative.
Rowan's bill, HB220, addresses a problem that doesn't exist in Utah.