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> What's weird is that before moving to MA I had never even heard of ballot options. I'm not even from the US - what are ballot options? I can't find much abou
by Vinnl 6y ago
> What's weird is that before moving to MA I had never even heard of ballot options.
I'm not even from the US - what are ballot options? I can't find much about them, but from what I've seen, they seem similar to referendums?
- technothrasher 6y agoYes, a ballot question can be a referendum or an initiative. Basically, at least in MA, if you as a citizen want a law passed or repealed and you don't think the legislature will take it up, you can collect signatures of people who agree with you. If you get enough, it will be added to the next state election as a question for the voters to yea or nay. In other words, it's a direct democracy end run around the usual representative democracy system.
- Vinnl 6y agoAh cool, that makes sense - I think that's called a citizen's initiative in the Netherlands and in the EU, where it has only existed for 14 and 13 years, respectively. Indeed a great addition to representative democracy.