Business Poli-Sci: Effective Petitions

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Effective Petitions

In "the Te of Piglet" small are peaceful by wanting for nothing and instinctually dodging any harm or pain. This may have been fine in Ancient Asia; however, in modern United States when thinking of people associated with "small" a giant swam comes to mind. Everyone knows once a large animal is killed, it is dead. A swarm of mosquitoes or bees is impossible to divert. After taking several swipes at swarms they are still everywhere.

The small are frequently large. In fact, only one percent of the population contributes large amounts of taxes. Combining upper and lower middle class population equals over fifty percent; therefore, the middle class contributes the most in taxes; therefore, should have the most say in how government is spending money. Wealthy should be protected as a minority through capital gains taxes and other means. Income is income and property is property. Everything should be fair.

In any case, the voting population needs to be voting and submitting petitions. Petitions become initiatives for everyone to vote on during General Elections held every autumn. This should be more effective, yet many do not understand how petitions work.

Often people believe when something passes through the legislature it is all over and time to go home. This is the opposite of truth. A petition with exact wording related to a proposed bill is more effective, because it is easy to change a few words to pass a bill. Somehow a few word changes nullify previous petitions. Go to County, City, State or Federal buildings to gain exact wording of a passed bill and then create petitions; ergo, it begins after a bill is passed.

Another problem is signatures. Rules on registering to vote include voting in a general election within one year or next election and a person must vote for an elected official. Many people nullify their signature when only voting on petitions and never voting for Senators, Governors and Presidents. There might be a thousand signatures on a petition, yet after being processed, hundreds of signatures are from unregistered voters.

What is a good way around this? Organizations should educate members to become properly registered. Another technique is to add voter registration and driver license fields to the signature grid. Often people have a driver license not voter registration card. Count on several signatures being disqualified and check for duplicates. Get more than the minimum required signatures. Now submitted petition has a greater chance of succeeding.

Some issues such as the bailout are difficult. Normally it takes time to generate revenue, yet the government dispersed the money before a standard amount of time to petition the bill. When someone wants to introduce an idea to the legislature place the grievance at the top and find the required number of signatures from the County, City, State, or Federal buildings. These do not entail exact wording, since it becomes a referendum. It could say, "Any bill passed requiring a release of funds requires a six months grace period in order to dispute the bill before funds are released."

There are many people in the United States and the only office requiring the Electoral College is the Office of President. All initiatives, amendments and bonds are vote-per-vote. Though a person wins some and loses some, knowing every vote was counted is a relief. The next general election is coming up soon. Register to vote now!

Related Article
2010 General Election Amendments and Propositions
Democracy's Spaghetti Sauce
Democratic Voting System
Petition to Deny AIG Bonuses
Writing to Your Legislator

Quirky Books
The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff