Ballot Initiatives

Activists List
1

Marcy,

  The signatures may be from any San Francisco registered voters,
regardless of how they are registered. I mentioned non-Libertarians
only in terms of them helping us gather signatures, not that there is
any distinction as far as who can sign to put a measure on the ballot.

Yours in liberty,
        <<< Starchild >>>

Thanks to Phil for his enthusiasm! Phil is correct that if we are
going to put any initiatives on the November ballot, a vote on which
would be necessary pretty soon. Thanks also to Starchild for his
comprehensive report on what steps are needed to place an initiative
on the ballot. One question I would appreciate Starchild answering
if possible: Department of Elections Guide,Initiative Ordinance and
Declaration of Policy II. Summary of Requirements says "An
initiative proponent must gather at least 10,486 valid signatures of
registered San Francisco voters....." Does it say elsewhere the
voters need to belong to a particular party, as you seem to be
stating in your report? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Marcy

--- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, "ricochetboy" <philzberg@e...>
wrote:

I suggest we narrow the list now to one primary initiative
either...Marijauan
or.......Curb rights

Then once that is decided, we can talk about adding the Feneva
Convention resolution.

Any objections...

Come on folks out there lets here from you. We gotta get moving.
-

-- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, Starchild <sfdreamer@e...>

wrote:

Starchild wrote:

This is a big project. If we don't adopt some kind of voting

method

weighted by contributions, are people going to do the work?

And if we do, are people going to do the work or just say they

will to

get their way?

-- Steve

  I feel like our group is small and honorable enough that we

could

trust people to fulfill pledges, but if someone wants to come up

with

some kind of enforcement mechanism rather than relying on the

honor

system, that's OK by me.

  If it seems like there is adequate interest in gathering

signatures or

contributing money without any extra incentives, that's even

better. I

have mixed feelings myself about introducing any kind of weighted
voting system for making decisions -- I'm just concerned that we

set

goals for ourselves such that we will gather the signatures

necessary

to succeed.

  Some ballpark figures: We have perhaps about 20 core

activists. If

each of us commit to getting 500 valid signatures (say 750 raw
signatures, assuming a 66% validity rate, which seems reasonable)
between now and July 11, that would put us in the ballpark of the
10,486 valid signatures we'll need. In other words, about 125
signatures per person per month for six months. Going rate for a
signature is, I'm guessing, around $3 counting overhead. So I'd

suggest

using that as the contribution equivalent, i.e. the equivalent of

500

valid signatures would be $1500 for those who would rather

contribute

cash. Any combination of signatures and cash would be fine too.

  This may sound intimidating, and it probably should. But each

of us

should also be out there trying to network and find other people

to

circulate petitions for us or donate money to the effort, which

we

could use toward our individual goals of 500 valid signatures or

the

cash equivalent each. If you are saying to yourself, "I'm not

going to

pledge $1500 or the equivalent in work-hours to the LPSF this

year!"

that's OK -- as long as you don't have much company! If too many

of us

are saying that to ourselves, then the effort is in jeopardy

unless we

figure out better incentives. Weighted voting was simply one idea

I had

for an incentive.

  Now if we pick an issue like marijuana which already has a

strong

constituency, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that
non-Libertarians will gather a substantial percentage of the

signatures

we need -- maybe more than half. But we shouldn't sit back and

count on

that. As the leading organization promoting this measure, we'll

need to

promote it, and coordinate efforts by non-Libertarian signature
gatherers as well as our own efforts, in order to make sure that

we're

progressing at an adequate rate toward the signature total we'll

have

to turn in on or before July 11.

Yours in liberty,
        <<< Starchild >>>

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