the Plan

Using our recognized right to change our city’s charter by petition, we’ll secure our basic right to put any New York City law on the ballot. So the plan in its essence is: we write the charter amendment that defines our democratic rights, then we get it on the ballot by gathering the required petitions, so that the city’s voters can adopt it.

With today’s technology, we’ll also create an alternative to the traditional petitioning method, not just for deciding what we vote on come election day, but communally shaping and deliberating proposals beforehand. It’ll combine the lessons learned from over a century of direct democracy in other states with our best understanding of what is needed for truly democratic and sound decision-making.

Power holders across town and elsewhere are sure to put up one hell of a fight, but then we knew they would.

Timeline

Through Summer ‘10: We’re inviting everyone to help decide exactly what we want to place on the ballot, taking into consideration that we don’t want to be stopped in court for running afoul of state or federal law. We get the word out, build a small, charming army of volunteer petitioneers, and begin marshaling resources.

Fall ‘10 through Summer ‘11: We gather the needed petition signatures in a variety ways, and prepare to go to court after they are turned in in early July of 2011.

Over that Summer: We fight it out with the city clerk and amp up our media campaign. By summer’s end we should know whether we are on the ballot.  There is a good chance that Bloomberg’s charter revisions will delay ballot placement, but that would only be temporary.

(It is also possible that the meat of our petition will be deemed invalid under state law.  We are making every effort to avoid this, but if we get knocked off the ballot, we’ll know that in 2017, when New Yorkers are next given the choice, we must vote to amend the state’s constitution, and elect pro democracy delegates to the ensuing constitutional convention. We will have sowed strong seeds for doing so. It might be more expeditious, though, to enact real democracy nationwide.)

By the Fall of 2011: Hopefully people all over town and elsewhere will be having great conversations about democratic government and voting accordingly. Lowercase democrats act on such conversations now so they’ll be relevant then.

Many ways to join in.

Be sure to sign up for infrequent action-oriented announcements at the bottom of the right sidebar if you might like to gather some signatures when we start petitioning, whether from a few friends, or with others at an outdoor public event of your choice, or on a challenging bar crawl. Real democracy doesn’t happen without real citizens!