HURRAY FOR Jeff Jacoby for setting the record straight on voter initiatives (“Something stinks, but it isn’t voters,’’ Op-ed, Oct. 18). In California and across the country, the initiative and referendum process is under relentless attack from the very elected and appointed officials whose power it checks. But voters are well served by having an outlet to tackle issues the legislatures will not.
There’s a safety value, too. If any Californian, including state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George, doesn’t like the way the people or the legislators have legislated, she or he can gather signatures on a petition and, with enough support, gain a new vote of the people to change the law.
It’s called democracy. And it is not practiced too much, but too little.
For instance, Massachusetts’ process for citizens to petition a constitutional amendment onto the ballot is unique among the states in also requiring a 25 percent vote of the Legislature. In the last 90 years, only three measures have survived the Legislature to garner a vote of the people.
Paul Jacob
President
Citizens in Charge Foundation
Lake Ridge, Va. 
