By Jameson Taylor for CLARION LEDGER
As a longtime political activist, I still marvel at how easy it is to talk to state lawmakers. It’s easy to contact them via email. It’s easy to talk to them on the street, at church or in the grocery store. It’s easy to be a citizen advocate at the capitol. You basically just have to show up and start talking. Even I — a natural introvert — have found state legislators very approachable and friendly.
The legislative process isn’t perfect — no one should expect it to be — but Mississippi’s is a citizen Legislature, run by and accessible to ordinary people from all walks of life. A ballot initiative will not make Mississippi more democratic. In fact, it will undermine the democratic process, leading to less transparency, accountability and fairness.
A ballot initiative allows a proposed law or constitutional change to go before voters for a statewide yes or no vote after the required petition signatures are collected. Unlike ordinary legislation, a ballot initiative does not go through committee hearings or testimony, amendments, legislative debate and votes and gubernatorial action.
Some would have you believe ballot initiatives give voters a greater voice. The truth is that they can water down individual representation. Each community has a state representative and a state senator in the Legislature — two leaders among 174 lawmakers who can question, debate, amend and fight for their constituents. With a statewide initiative, each Mississippian would have one vote among nearly 2 million registered voters. Based on these numbers, it’s clear that representative democracy — not the ballot initiative — better represents all voters, but in particular, minority voices and voters.
