Be Generous in Referring Measures to the Ballot This Year
June 11, 2020
Mayor Weaver and Members of Council:
Better Boulder has closely followed the conversation and challenges regarding petitioning in the time of COVID-19. The Boulder County Public Health position on petition signature collection amid the pandemic and the 41-day Stay at Home order are considerable obstacles for advocacy groups to overcome. While petitioning has not previously been considered in terms of a public health crisis, we believe that some latitude at the local level is in the best interest of the health and safety of petitioners, those who wish to sign petitions and the preservation of grassroots, people-powered democracy that we all treasure.
Better Boulder urges Council to be generous in referring measures to the ballot for this year. We ask that you refer all measures receiving greater than 50% of the required signatures by the required date.
We acknowledge that some of the initiatives you are being asked to consider for placement on the 2020 ballot may not be receiving sufficient signatures, in part, due to certain imperfections. This could be due to the rushed effort to develop the initiatives in light of the difficult organizing environment COVID-19 created. We, therefore, recognize the prerogative of City Council to make modifications in the proposed language of initiatives it refers to the 2020 ballot in order to address unintended policy implications and/or statutory conflicts, while maintaining the original initiative intent.
While our organization and its members may not support all of the measures, our community’s voices deserve to be heard. Please don’t put democracy in competition with health.
Better Boulder