STATE BALLOT MEASURE

EXPLANATION:

Bolded is the proposed text and below it is the explanation.
(e) No member of the Legislature shall vote in favor of the passage of any bill by either house unless such member certifies that he or she has fully read and understood the contents of such bill. Prior to voting in favor of the passage of any bill, each member of the Legislature who intends to vote in favor of such bill shall execute a writing containing the following statement:

"I hereby certify under penalty of perjury that I have read [INSERT BILL NUMBER AND TITLE] in its entirety, and that I have taken the steps to understand the entire contents of this bill and its ramifications to the best of my ability."

A vote in favor of the passage of a bill shall not be counted unless it is determined that the member casting such vote has executed this writing. This certification requirement shall not apply to committee votes.

Currently, on both sides of the Party aisle, very few legislators actually read the entirety of a bill, let alone understand or research it. Instead they rely on "experts" and associates to advise them. They rely on some behind-the-scenes person (friend, fellow legislator, campaign contributor, lobbyist, their Party, etc.) whom we did not elect to office, to tell them what is in the bill and whether it is a good bill or not. As soon as this occurs, you and I are the last people on Earth these legislators are representing. Instead these legislators are representing whoever provided the advice.

We all want common sense laws that help improve our society, but this is not possible if our legislators are not personally reading and performing a due diligence on the proposed bills. Said somewhat differently, it is impossible to perform a real and proper due diligence on a bill which hasn't been read and understood.

Look at our country. Our legislators must start reading, understanding and researching the bills themselves.

*****

Our politicians have forgotten who they work for. They apparently don't know that a poorly written law causes more harm than good. They are so focused on partisan politics and the game of politics that we get short-changed in the process. Every time they decide to vote for a bill, they should be reminded as to whom they work for and what we expect of them.

The reasoning behind this is simple and explained best in a couple of analogies:
Take 100 children and never teach them anything about honesty, honor, integrity, courteousness, being industrious or giving to others. Then take another 100 children and do teach them these virtues. What will be the result? Or perhaps a better example would be if you used this same analogy but applied it to soldiers. 100 were trained on how to be a soldier (never-ending drilling and practice) and the other 100 weren't. Which is more likely to be worthy of the name "soldier"?

Some things need repeating, and apparently to offset political pressures, the above expectation needs continous repeating.

 

NOTE:

The full findings, declarations, etc., can be seen here.

Further explanation of the measure can be found here.

There are advantages and perceived disadvantages to this measure, and they are disclosed to you.

There is a plan to make this law a reality and to also change the way government works. If we don't do it, it will never happen. Certainly, we can't rely on government.

There are easy ways you can help out in the comfort of your own home doing things that you normally already do.

 

Contribute to the Cause We need your financial support. Please donate here.		Taking Action Here is what you can do to help.		Subscribe Get the latest updates here.