The Center for Governmental Studies recently released Online Signature Gathering for California Initiatives, a report that looks at how citizens in the Golden State could use computers and the Internet, as opposed to paper signatures, to gain the requisite number to qualify a measure for the ballot. As usually CGS is thinking out of the box.

Clearly, the main benefit of permitting online signature gathering is that it has the potential of balancing the influence of money in the process of qualifying initiatives because it would drop the costs significantly. This could open up the initiative petition process to a much larger spectrum of grassroots activists. This is worth pondering.

Hat tip: Ballot Access News