California voters are backing efforts to reform the state’s centuries-old referendum process over a proposal promoted by unions and philanthropic groups to make the movement to overturn state laws more transparent.

UC Berkeley Government Research Poll A poll co-sponsored by The Times found that more than three-quarters of registered voters, including seven in 10 Republicans, support change. The content includes identifying the top three funders of the referendum campaign on each page of the petition, having signatories testify under penalty of perjury that they have not lied to voters, including the suspension of the license of those who misled

By a similar margin, bipartisan voters simplified ballot descriptions to make it easier to understand whether the referendum would support the law or not, and the bill’s official outline showed the top three contributors for and against. Supports voices calling for the inclusion of

“There is overwhelming support for wiping out what I call the failed referendum system,” said Tia Orr, executive director of SEIU, California.

Lawmakers are considering these and other changes in the state capitol this year. Congressional Bill 421. Congress approved the bill on Wednesday and sent it to the state Senate.

Led by Mr. Orr and the International Service Workers Union, supporters of the bill say businesses intend to sign the petition as part of a political tactic to delay and sometimes overturn progressive laws passed by the state’s ruling Democrats. claiming to lie to voters about Legislative body.

Their complaints are that this year, efforts to overturn state environmental laws that create buffer zones between companies and new oil wells and homes and schools, as well as union-backed bills that improve wages and working conditions, will be announced by 2024. It was elevated by its success in approving it in the annual vote. food worker.

In both campaigns, California voters shared experiences of being lied to and misled about the effectiveness of their signatures.

In order for a bill to overturn the law to be placed on the ballot, referendum supporters must obtain valid signatures from: 5% of the number of eligible voters in the previous gubernatorial election. Political activists often hire pay-per-signature companies to distribute petitions outside grocery stores and retail chains and on college campuses.

The referendum process was established in 1911 to provide Californians with a direct democratic mechanism to counteract corporate influence over the state government. But now, with Democrats holding more than two-thirds of the increasingly progressive California legislature, businesses are spending millions of dollars to make the referendum process more frequent.

A bill to change this process would require that 5% of all signatures collected to authorize measures be collected by volunteers. The intent is to make it difficult for businesses to rely solely on paid signature collectors with large numbers of out-of-state participants to advance policies without grassroots support.

A poll found that 50% of voters supported changing state laws to require unpaid volunteers to participate in petition gatherings, while 15% opposed and 35% had no opinion.

Congressional Republican leader James Gallagher (Republican, Yuba City) wants direct democracy in place because Democrats and their allies don’t like the fact that their flagship bill will be before voters next year. said they were trying to create barriers to

“I think it’s interesting that when the direct democratic process seems to work well for their opponents, they think that’s fine,” Gallagher said during a parliamentary debate on the bill. “But when that doesn’t work, suddenly there’s a need for reform and change.”

of Berkeley IGS Poll The election was held online in English and Spanish to 7,465 registered voters in California from May 17-21. The poll sample is weighted to match the census and voter registration benchmarks. Due to the weighting, it is difficult to estimate the bounds of error exactly, but the results are estimated to have a bound of error of 2.5 percentage points in either direction for the entire sample.

Funding for poll questions about the referendum process Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Foundation, A San Francisco-based private foundation whose purpose is to increase civic participation and improve the state’s democratic processes.