Petitioning the government to deny anyone their civil rights SHOULD be difficult. In reality it should not happen at all. I personally do not believe we need to make the referendum process easier on the county level; we should make it more difficult on the state level. When 3% of the state's population can change a law that the majority of elected officials put in place the referendum process corrupts democracy. If these rights are truly inalienable we should not be voting on them.

How would pushing laws to referendum corrupt democracy? Elected officials should be voting based upon the wishes of their constituents. If the referendum determines that the constituents do not agree with the law, then the representatives did not vote accordingly. So referendums would insure that the democratic process is being followed.

I have already answered that question. When 3% of the voter base can cause an action to overturn the majority's passage of a law the power structure tilts toward the minority having control over the majority.

Maybe I'm confused as to what a referendum is exactly. A vote given directly to ALL constituents would include both minorities and majorities. Politicians do not always follow what their constituents believe or want and giving the vote directly to the people is democracy in a very simple form. Again, how does this corrupt democracy?

See California? See what their "propositions" have done. Simply nuts.

John, if 50.1% want to ban the teaching of evolution in schools and I only need 3% to get it on a ballot, that corrupts democracy. Should an elected representative vote for that. How does the rep know what we want? Watch the wind? Representatives are elected to lead, not be robots.

Just to be clear, as always seems to be the case with Mr. Sears reporting the following statement is inaccurate:

"Miller and volunteers working with her are learning first-hand the difficulties in petitioning a county law to referendum as they attempt to collect enough signatures to overturn a recently passed transgender anti-discrimination law."

The signatures in sufficient amount only allow the matter to appear on the ballot, they will not overturn the law as implied. The good people of Baltimore County would get to vote on that should they be successful in getting the signatures. And the reality is countering the will of the freely elected county council should be hard. And in specific should this effort succeed there are many who would then seek to exclude civil rights legislation from the referendum process in the county.

part 1.
You are pointing to the opportunity for everyone to vote. I am pointing to the number of people who can challenge a referendum. Let’s focus on my point if you want to challenge me.

If it only took ten people to challenge any law every law would be challenged because there are always those who disagree with any law. If we lived in a society where every law could be challenged, then we would have chaos. If it took 90% of the voters to challenge a law we would essentially guarantee that nothing was ever challenged. I believe the current threshold to bring on a referendum is 10% of the number of people who voted for Governor in the last election. According to the census, there were 805,029 people living in Baltimore County in 2010. And according to the numbers in this article (for which I couldn’t find verification) the challenge law in Baltimore County requires 28,826 verified signatures. If the math is correct, that means 288,260 people voted for Governor in the 2010 election.

Part 2.

So the law allows for 28,826 to overturn a law that was put in place by a group of elected officials who were elected by a majority of the County voters.

What I am saying is 29,000 people are could potentially overturn a law that 144,000 people agree with. Why on Earth would we want to make that 29,000 smaller?

We elect officials to run the legislative process for us because we need to work to support ourselves. We need to be preoccupied with living our lives.

The kind of scenario that the folks who want to put everything to a referendum want is to cause political confusion of all levels which will work to disenfranchise all of us.

This legislative structure is efficient because we cannot all be thinking about each and every law on the county level, on the state level and on the national level. I say vote them out if you don’t like the laws they write and vote them back in if you like their laws. Voting them in or out is democracy.

Interesting civil discussion. What a nice change. That said I must admit I have a basic problem trusting our voting public. To vote in the 1700's you generally had to be a property owner (and male :-(). Today 18 years old is enough. <:-((

Very good points made here, but if only 13 percent of Baltimore County's registered voters deposited a ballot this past election (as per Patch's recent article), even all efforts for an easier referendum will be fruitless. Apathy has settled into our citizens. Despite claims of hard economics times by many, we are apparently feeling quite content as a nation. People don't get off their dead asses to vote unless they are feeling real pressure from some type of adversity. We have become a country of spoiled citizens more interested in March Madness or who the Kardashians are banging this week than in who is making the laws that affect our lives. These pathetic non-participating citizens really are probably to stupid to understand the details of any law that would be presented to them in a voting booth, and they really have no business pulling a lever. What a shame.

@Brandon. Maybe "complacent" is a more appropriate word for these folks I'm referencing. The word "content" implies that they are aware of what's going on around them, and are quite happy about it. "Complacency" describes the emotion these lazy citizens feel when they have enough money to renew their $150 cell phone account for another month and enough to complete the dragon tattoo on their neck that they've been working on for the past three years. Everything they see coming through their 86 inch Hi-def plasma on the 216 channel cable plan looks sweet. Their mantra is "Hey man, why should I vote? The folks taking time from their busy day to bother voting seem to be voting the right people in, because the all-you-can-eat buffet is still just $8.99. What a country our forefathers have forged for us into eternity."