Proposition 67 Research Paper

As the 8th of November dawned on the nation, voters across the nation lined up at the polls to cast their vote in the election. While most state ballots simply contained presidential candidates and state representatives, the California ballot was a bit more unique. There were severely options on the ballot that voters could mark either yes or no to certain choices simply called propositions. This begs the question, “What exactly are these California propositions?”. The California propositions are essentially state-wide initiatives that directly voted by the California voters rather than the state legislature. In this election year, 17 propositions were on the state ballot with one being Proposition 67. Proposition 67 was essentially a ballot …show more content…
For the first negative, there has to be an acknowledgment that the importance of the initiative process could change with passage of time. As briefly mentioned in “March of the Plebiscites”, very few initiatives were proposed and passed the voters between the 1940s to the 1970s. Of those that were, many dealt with minor issues such as the regulation of fishing. For the second negative, special interests have become the primary source for state propositions. Using Proposition 67 as an example, it was environmental groups and plastic bag manufactures that dominated the support and opposition and not individual citizens that were concerned about their own state. But this not to say the system in terrible for the voters. If the voters properly educate themselves on the proposition and create or maintain ties with special interest groups, they could instead become the main initiators of the process. And that is the beauty of direct democracy. Regardless of the use of the initiative process or the influence of special interests, the power of the vote would always remain in the hands of the people. With the power of the vote, come the power to shape