Quotes about Voter Initiatives

John Dingell

The founding fathers set up this country as a republic—not a democracy.

Opposing electronic town meetings and referendums:

Mikhail Gorbachev

[Urging a referendum:] The issue of private ownership of land is too critical a decision to be left to the government.

David Broder

Democracy derailed …. An alternative form of government …. The initiative process has become a tool for millionaires and rich special interests.

Michael Gottlieb

[The governor] has chosen to follow political advice rather than medical advice.

In 1988 a proposition regarding AIDS was on the California ballot which was opposed by every major medical group in the state. Just before the election Governor George Deukmejian endorsed the proposition. Three members of his AIDS California Task Force resigned in protest:

John Perez

If a voter initiative can deny gay people access to traditional representative, democratic processes, then in California, any other small, historically disadvantaged minority group can also be denied the right of representative.

Mitt Romney

I fully support Governor Kasich's-I think it's called 'Question 2' in Ohio. Fully support that. In fact, on my website as far back as April I laid out I supported 'Question 2.' ... I support it 110%.

Dick Morris

Internet referendums will not, in the beginning, have any legally binding effect, but they will be politically binding.

Walker Merryman

... too Orwellian to contemplate, they've gone way too far.

Referring to a voter initiative on the 1988 Oregon ballot which would outlaw smoking in almost all public places:

Frank Bruni

“The Wisdom of Crowds” suggests that if enough bumbling people act in concert, they’ll find their way to a less bumbling place.

“The Wisdom of Crowds” is a digital information theory‘ that a very large number of people might make a better quality decision that a few experts in an area. Bruni was a critic of this notion.

Voter Initiatives Quotes