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Edited by Brittany Clingen
1 certification
3 measures for 2013
Connecticut has a new, certified legislatively-referred constitutional amendment, the Connecticut Early Voting Amendment, which will appear on the November 2014 ballot. It will ask voters whether the constitution should be amended to allow for more early voting options. Such options would include issuing absentee ballots to whoever requests one, not just those who are ill, disabled or away on business, as is currently the case. The measure would also allow people to cast their votes even if they do not go to polling locations on election day. The text of the measure will read: "Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to remove restrictions concerning absentee ballots and permit a person to vote without appearing at a polling place on the day of an election?"[1]
As previously reported, the House approved the bill 90-49. On May 8, the Senate passed it 22-14.[2][1] The bill is now set to be signed by Gov. Dannel Patrick Malloy.[1]
In Oregon, Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-6) and Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-25), along with Richard LaMountain, have filed a veto referendum in hopes of repealing Senate Bill 833, which will allow people who do not qualify for eight-year driver's licenses and can't prove legal presence in the United States to obtain four-year driver's cards.[3]
The group, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, is leading the charge on the Oregon Alternative Driver Licenses Referendum. This group and other supporters must collect at least 58,142 valid signatures by September 26 in order to land the question on the ballot on November 4, 2014. If the referendum effort fails, the new law laid out in SB 833 will go into effect on January 1, 2014.[3]
Though it's probable Michigan's referendum on wolf hunting will be rendered useless, voters in Maine may get to decide on a hunting measure of their own. Despite the fact a nearly identical measure was voted down in 2004, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has taken the first steps to initiate a ballot measure that, if passed, would make certain aspects of bear hunting illegal.[4]
This so called referendum is actually an initiated state statute and would ask voters to pass the new law via a yes or no answer to the question posed. This question will begin the process of going to the ballot if LD 1474, a bear hunting bill that is sponsored by Rep. Denise Harlow (D-116) and supported by the HSUS, does not pass the legislature. The referendum would ban the same aspects of bear hunting as the bill, plus bear baiting, a technique frequently used by hunters. The measure would appear on the ballot on November 4, 2014.[4][5]
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