Wall Street Journal Editorial September 6, 2000

Al Gore and George W. Bush are accusing each other of ducking debates. For real ducking, though, check out the local and state officials trying to duck direct democracy by blocking voters from putting initiatives on the ballot.

In Arizona, citizens collected more than 150,000 signatures to place on the ballot a measure eliminating the state's individual and corporate income taxes over a four-year period. Opponents moved to remove the measure, arguing it violated the state constitution's "single subject" rule. To almost everyone's surprise, the Arizona Supreme Court, without hearing any oral arguments, agreed with a lower court and removed the measure from the ballot.

Carol Springer, Arizona's state treasurer, called the Supreme Court's action a "blatantly political" narrowing of the single subject rule. She said it was "totally inconsistent" for the court to throw out the income tax repeal and at the same time wave through a public land use measure that was rolled in with other issues.

In July, the Arkansas Supreme Court threw off the ballot an initiative that would have abolished property taxes while raising the state sales tax, reasoning that it would mislead and confuse voters. The Colorado Supreme Court barred a measure to limit bilingual education from the ballot.

Elected officials are also becoming less shy about second-guessing the voters. Last month, Governor Jane Hull of Arizona, a Republican, and Governor Angus King of Maine, an independent, both suggested that the number of signatures required to place initiatives on the ballot were too low and suggested a large increase.

Governor King said the impetus for allowing citizen lawmaking in 1911 was the perceived need to counteract powerful special interests, but that those forces no longer dominate state government. "He's missing the point," says State Rep. Adam Mack. "Now, different special interests like teacher unions call the shots."

Dane Waters, director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute in Washington, D.C., says that lost in all the complaints by elected officials is that direct democracy often makes government function when legislative bodies are gridlocked. He also points out that more than 60% of the ballot measures facing voters this fall will have been placed there by legislatures themselves, not by citizens.

The ideas of representative government and the right of petition should be viewed as complementary, not antithetical. In just the past two years, initiative efforts in California alone have led to the repeal of failed bilingual education programs and forced legislators to open more charter schools.

Notwithstanding brickbats from elected officials of both parties, the initiative process is overwhelmingly popular. Voters want a final trump card over entrenched incumbents, who often feel free to ignore voters. So it's no surprise to see courts strike troublesome initiatives off the ballot before voters get a chance to even look at them.