Televote

(This is ERIC (Educational Research Information Center, a US. govt. agency) document # ED107300. ERIC #s ED095896 and ED095897 are also about Televote. All are available from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service or (800) 443-ERIC.)

A New Civic Communication System

by Vincent Campbell and Janet Santos
February 1975

This publication was funded by the Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) Program of the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. [Grant No. GI-37183]

Editorial assistance from Sam Halsted, Stephanie Murphy, and Allen Shinn is gratefully acknowledged.

AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH

[For current information on TELEVOTE, contact: Vincent Campbell at  208-340-7253. Email: vincecampbell@cableone.net

WHAT IS TELEVOTE?

A televote system is a convenient way to inform citizens about civic issues and quickly get opinions back from them. It is rapid, low- cost communication between the people and government officials.

People need information and public officials need feedback from the people. The success of government depends both on good decisions and public acceptance. Programs with new ideas are likely to succeed only after people are comfortable with them.

HOW IT WORKS

Relevant facts and opposing views on an issue are sent to all interested citizens who have registered as televoters. They then have a week to express their opinions. by dialing certain numbers on the telephone. A computer counts the number of people choosing each opinion, and the results are delivered to public officials and the media a day or so later.

EXAMPLE:

Issue: Which transportation plan will be better for our city? Study the fact sheet. (A page or two of background information describing plans, their costs and supporting facts)

Choose one answer:
187 Plan A: (Summary of Plan A and its main advantages)
298 Plan B: (Summary of Plan B and its main advantages)
319 Other: If you want to tell us what other plan you prefer,
please call 998-2668.

When a televoter has studied the information and chosen an answer, the choice is televoted as follows:

  • Dial the phone number of the Televote Center
  • Dial own confidential “televote number,” which is different for every person. This assures that only one vote is counted from each person.
  • Dial the number beside the answer chosen. In the example above a televoter who chose Plan B would dial 298.

[for a modern process tailored for elections with many candidates and issues, please see our BROCHURE, under How Voting by Phone Works]

The computer counts the number of votes for Plan A, for Plan B, and for “other.” It can also give separate results for each part of town, males and females, age groups, and whatever other breakdown is desired.

Government councils, commissions, advisory panels and other citizen groups can use this information immediately in their planning, because the results are available within a day after the televote ends.

Televotes may be used by any kind of government of any size. The cost of a televote is less than any other means of getting feedback from large numbers of citizens–about 25 cents per adult resident per year after installation. [Please see COST for ’90s numbers -editor]

Televoting has been successfully used in a large school district in San Jose, California where several public agencies are now planning to share one system. By sharing they can keep costs low and each agency can still choose its own issues.

WHY PUBLIC AGENCIES ARE INTERESTED

Public agencies are being held increasingly accountable to their constituencies and are seeking ways to be responsive while still making sound decisions in the public interest. To be responsive is to base decisions on accurate knowledge of citizen needs. An efficient means of evaluating people’s needs and preferences is necessary. Televoting is a means of achieving this efficiency by providing quick feedback from many people at low cost. Televoting is only one useful way of exchanging ideas with people. It will not replace working committees and public hearings, which are necessary to create good plans and make known various viewpoints. What televotes can do is inform the public and get a quick, accurate appraisal of their informed choices among specific plans, policies, or goals.

In addition, one can test levels of awareness: Do citizens know what officials are planning? Do officials know what citizens want, and what they think of government plans? Attitudes are a crucial ingredient of communication as well: Do citizens feel that public officials want their opinions? Do public officials care about citizen views? Televotes can assess knowledge and attitudes as well as preferences.

If the public participates in a certain area of planning right from the start they are more likely to get the kind of programs they want. They will also better understand the problems which public officials face. For these reasons, a good civic communication system should both improve government and strengthen public support of public agencies. Over the years, mutual respect and trust between citizens and officials should increase. Because early communication avoids miscalculations of public reaction, there should be fewer failing tax and bond elections. Saving the cost of wasted elections alone might pay the cost of a televote system.

QUALITY OF CITIZEN OPINION

If citizen opinions are to have a beneficial effect on government decisions, they should be well informed and thoughtful. The televote system informs people by giving them summaries of information relevant to the issues, easy access to more detailed information, and time to think the whole matter over before deciding.

Televotes open to all citizens are thus similar to regular elections in which voters are sent carefully prepared arguments on ballot propositions.

Televoting by a preselected representative sample of the community is another use of the system. This use is more similar to scientifically reputable polls which survey a random cross- section of a defined population. An important difference from a typical poll is that the televoter is given a summary of the main background information needed to make a sound judgment, and is given up to a week to think it over and discuss it before reaching a conclusion. Poll respondents, on the other hand, are typically not given advance information to study, but rather are asked to make a quick judgement based on little or no information at a time which may not be convenient.

If televotes were held often and citizens came gradually to realize their impact on public decisions, they might have greater incentive to inform themselves and thus make wiser decisions. Informed or not, their opinions will bear directly on the success of government programs, and therefore should be taken into account by public officials as they make plans.

SETTING UP A TELEVOTE SYSTEM

The major decisions and tasks of setting up a televote system are each described briefly below:

Governance

The system can be operated by the public agencies which use it, or by a citizen organization created especially for that purpose, or by an independent private organization. In all cases it is important that lay citizens and participating government agencies be adequately represented both in setting policy and defining issues.

Who Selects the Televote Issues

Each participating public agency identifies those issues on which televotes might assist agency policymakers. Examples: Transit routes or service; location of major shopping centers; educational programs; parks acquisition projects; and capital improvements bond elections.

Citizen groups may also initiate issues. The governing body establishes general procedures, including rules guaranteeing televotes on issues that are requested by a specified minimum number of citizens. A 24- hour hotline is open to receive citizens’ issue suggestions. Issues may also come from a citizens’ advisory body, set up to monitor issue statements.

How Are Issues Presented

Consultants and staff first research and then draft issue statements. Statements are then referred to officials of the initiating agency for review and confirmation of issue priorities. The citizens’ advisory body reviews every issue to see that all major viewpoints are presented fairly and reflect concerns relevant to particular neighborhoods. The final say on wording of an issue, however, lies with the agency which initiated it. Five or six hundred words (two pages) of concise information is a desirable amount for study by televoters. Endorsement by special interest groups, experts, or officials may heighten public interest in an issue.

The final statements are mailed directly to all registered televoters, printed in newspapers, and distributed by various civic and government offices.

Use of Televote Results

Each participating agency publicizes results and includes them in their policy deliberations. Results can be analyzed and the issue restated and returned to televoters for more reaction. A series of such televotes can produce tested and reasoned decisions. Official decisions can be published alongside televote results to show responsiveness or to explain differences.

Who Televotes?

All residents of the community age 12 [obviously, must be 18 for legal elections -editor] or older are invited to become televoters. In addition to all voluntary televoters, a representative sample of all segments of the community is asked to televote regularly.

Representative and voluntary samples provide basically different kinds of information, each kind serving somewhat different uses. A voluntary sample will more closely resemble the part of the public which normally votes and participates in civic affairs. A representative sample will describe all types of people in the community, including citizens who do not usually participate.

Getting Citizens Interested

A televote system includes a continuous program to attract citizens of all cultural and socioeconomic groups. An aim of the program is to demonstrate how televotes can help minority groups serve their special needs, as well as helping the whole community. Meetings with local and civic groups, newsletters, and mass media presentations are part of the program.

Televoting helps overcome the very low motivation most citizens have to participate in civic matters in the following ways:

  • Participation is made easy since people can study the issues and televote from their own homes in a matter of minutes.
  • A televoter can influence government decisions directly without have to display the skills of public speaking or letter writing.
  • Televoters realize that public officials are asking for their opinions to aid their decisions, and are more likely to have their say if they think someone is listening.
  • Televote impact on public decisions is publicized.
  • Once registered, televoters are reminded to call in through spot announcements on radio and TV and notices in newspapers.

The televote system allows citizens to choose a level of constructive participation in civic planning suited to their interest in a given issue. Those with much time can play a key role in defining issues, researching them or mobilizing support. Those with little time can make a valuable contribution by studying the alternatives and televoting their preferences.

The percentage of residents who respond initially will likely be small, but can be expected to grow as more citizens perceive the impact of televotes on public decisions. [and grow much faster if televotes are legally binding -editor] A starting sample of even a few hundred citizens will provide officials far better estimates of informed public opinion than officials usually have. This size sample is also large enough to give reliable results within +- 5%, no matter how large the city is.

Registration of Televoters

In order to be sure only one vote is counted per person, every televoter must be registered and given a unique televoter number which cannot easily be dialed by chance. Everyone who wishes to become a televoter therefore is registered and given such a number. Registration forms are published periodically in newspapers and provided to any organization willing to distribute them to community residents. Below is a sample form.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Sample Registration Form

Name ___________________________________

Address_________________________________

City _____________________ Zip ________

__ Male __Female

Registered voter? __yes __no

__12- 17 __18- 29 __30- 49 __50 or over

Parent of child under age 18? __yes __no
-----------------------------------------------------------

The name and address can be used to verify registration. The other information is used to break down televote results for separate groups.

A person can register by phone or mail at any time and thereby receive a televoter card along with the next televote issue. [For legal elections, see our BROCHURE, under How Voting by Phone Works -editor] The card shows instructions on how to televote and the televoter number assigned to that person, as in the sample below:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Sample Televoter Card

To televote: First study the information and choose your 
answers. Then call 998- 1166. As soon as the tone begins, 
dial your televoter number (below), then dial the answer 
numbers.

YOUR TELEVOTER NUMBER IS: 00-00-00

If you have questions or suggestions, or want a new 
televoter number, call 998- 2668.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Processing Televotes

Televoters may use any telephone. All televote information comes to a single televote center which houses equipment and a hotline operator who uses a conventional telephone to handle inquiries, suggestions and registrations of televoters.

Each incoming telephone line by which televotes are transmitted has a data coupler and decoder to convert dial and touch tone signals to digital information. A small eight- bit computer [Now, any standard personal computer -editor.] controls the decoding process and transfers televotes onto paper or magnetic tape through a teletype machine or digital tape recorder. At the end of a televote week all data from the tapes are transmitted by telephone line to a larger computer at a commercial data processing firm where the results are batch processed overnight. [Not necessary now -editor.] There is no permanent record of how a person televoted. At the end of a week when results have been tallied, televotes of individual persons are erased permanently from all records.

COSTS

Initial set- up costs and annual operating costs are estimated below for cities of 50,000 to 500,000 population. Figures are based on actual costs for the San Jose try out.

Set- Up Costs

Equipment: $ 7,000 – 10,000

System manager (3 mos.) 4,000

Secretary/hotline operator (3 mos.) 2,000

Computer programmer 2,000

Public orientation 4,000

Registrations (12,000@ $250/l,000) 3,000

Consultants 3,000 – 5,000

Total set- up costs: $ 25,000 – 30,000

If the number of registrations rises as high as 50,000, additional one- time set- up costs of about $16,000 would be incurred.

Annual Operating Costs

After set- up is complete, yearly operating costs will vary from approximately $.15 per capita for a population of 500,000 to $.50 per capita for a population of 50,000 (assuming 12 televotes yearly). [Current Boulder election costs are now $2 per capital for a single vote -editor] A breakdown of yearly operating costs is shown below:

Number of Registered Televoters:

5,000 50,000

System management $ 10,000 15,000

Hotline operators/ secretaries 8,000 24,000

Equipment maintenance 2,000 3,000

Telephone lines 1,200 4,500

New computer programming 2,000 2,000

New registrations (20% per year) 600 4,000

Print and mail televote information

(12 televotes per year) 1,800 16,000

Televote data processing (assume 20% of

registrants respond to each issue) 2,400 6,000

Miscellaneous 1,000 2,000

Total Operating Costs Per Year $ 29,000 $76,500

If the total system cost is shared by several agencies the annual cost per agency would be:

5 agencies $5,800 $15,200

10 agencies 2,900 7,600

Costs of Alternative Methods

Once a televote system is set- up and operating, additional televotes cost little. The estimated cost per additional issue (beyond 12) is compared below for televotes and other survey methods.

No. of reg. voters: 5,000 50,000

Televote (by tele- phone- computer) $600 $ 2,000

Mail punch cards 600 5,500

Telephone survey 3,000 27,000

Door- to- door survey 8,000 77,000

The time spent by public officials and citizens defining important problems and formulating televote issues is not considered an added cost of the system. These are functions which need to be performed however civic communication is handled.

THE SAN JOSE TELEVOTE SYSTEM

Televoting was developed and used over a period of one year in the San Jose Unified School District. This initial demonstration was funded by the National Science Foundation. District- wide televoting went on for seven months during the 1973- 74 school year. A committee of students, staff, parents and others met weekly to decide communication priorities. Others could suggest additional issues or answers by calling a special hotline.

When the committee had stated the issues well and fairly, information was mailed to all televoters and given to the media. Potential televoters were required to register by phone, by mail or by returning forms to a school. Registrations were solicited mainly through school newsletters and occasional public service an announcements on radio and TV. Every person who registered received a unique televoter number and brief instructions on how to televote.

During the seven months there were nine televotes which included 30 specific questions about 14 issues. One of the briefer issues is shown below:

LEARNING OUTSIDE SCHOOL

In some communities high school students are getting part of their instruction outside the school building. Examples: learning as they work at a regular job; field trips; helping with a community project; tutoring younger children; observing and participating in local government; study in a museum or gallery; developing a skill or craft not offered at school. The extra costs of such programs often include transportation, insurance, special consultants, equipment and supplies. The gains or savings sometimes include freed class room space and the services of volunteers. How much do you think the high schools should involve students in out- of- school learning activities? (Choose one answer)

859 Quite a lot. Experience in the outside world should be a large part of high school education for all students. It could prepare students for a career and for adult life. They may find such activities more interesting and therefore learn more. If their work is useful, students may feel more like worthwhile members of the community.

961 Very little. Students should spend nearly all school time in school. Films, guest speakers, laboratories, and other experience in school can bring the real- life element into learning more efficiently. Out of school learning is harder to control and coordinate so that students really learn from it.

313 Other.

A three digit number was printed beside each alternative answer, plan or policy. A televoter studied the alternatives, then indicated his or her preference by calling the televote line, dialing his or her own televoter number, and dialing the numbers beside the answer preferred. Televotes were processed by computer, and all information from an individual was kept confidential.

Results of the televote were given to all interested individuals and groups and to the media a day or so later. Televote counts were broken down by school area, sex and other group differences as will be shown later for the vocational school issue.

SAN JOSE RESULTS

Televote results were used in four educational decisions, particularly in the choice of new courses for a three million dollar program of the Regional Vocational Center. The courses corresponded closely to the preferences of televoters.

Over 5,500 persons voluntarily registered as televoters (total population of the district is approximately 180,000 persons), and most of these participated in one or more televotes. An average of about 700 persons voted on a given issue. This rate of participation is better than usually received by traditional methods. Yet the potential number of citizens who might participate is much greater. Participation in the televote system led to greater awareness of school issues and better relations between citizens and the school district, according to survey results.

All groups questioned about the value of televoting evaluated the system favorably on the whole. Half of the random sample of San Jose citizens surveyed said they would be willing to pay at least 25 cents per year, the amount needed to operate a televote system. Apparently most residents who are told about televoting think it has value for the community and are willing to pay the small cost of operation.

ILLUSTRATION OF TELEVOTE USE

Following is a description of how educators used televote to plan a new program for the San Jose Regional Vocational Center.

The Regional Vocational Center prepares high school juniors and seniors to enter certain occupations after graduation or to continue in more advanced occupational training beyond high school. The Center serves thirty high schools in six different school districts in the greater San Jose area Students attend the Center half the day and their regular high school the other half.

Demand for vocational education has been increasing for several years in the San Jose area. As a result, the Center planned to expand their program of offerings from thirteen occupational areas to eighteen or nineteen. Since the number of occupational areas in which new courses might be offered is very large, narrowing the selection down to those few which would be of greatest advantage to students and the community was an important and difficult decision. Center staff began with a survey of industry to determine the marketability of graduates in each occupational area. This narrowed the choice down to fourteen occupational courses for which job prospects looked good in the near future.

Next a survey of sophomore high school students was conducted to determine student preferences among these areas. The major gap in knowledge at this point was information as to the preferences of parents and other adult citizens.

In mid- October 1973 the Center director found the planning process to be in a typical time bind: more information needed but too little time to get it. It was important from the standpoint of funding and community support that the new program offerings be in active operation by September 1974. In order to provide adequate time for course preparation, the decision as to which courses would be offered needed to be made in early December 1973. This left little time to plan, conduct, analyze and report a survey carried out by conventional means.

At this point the director proposed a televote to learn adult preferences among the vocational course offerings. Within three weeks a televote issue on vocational courses had been reviewed and approved by the issues committee and mailed out to televoters. The information given to televoters stated the purposes of the Center, its current courses, and the fourteen possible new courses with a brief description of each course. Televoters then selected up to five courses which they thought should be offered. By the third week in November the televote had been completed and the results tallied by computer and delivered to the director of the Center.

On the basis of these results, and the earlier 10th grade survey, the Center staff recommended to the participating school districts that six new courses be offered. (Data processing; air- conditioning and refrigeration mechanics; medical office and related services; industrial plastics; advanced secretarial; and heavy duty equipment mechanics.) The six courses recommended included four of the five courses most preferred by televoters.

Since these results correspond with student preferences, it was evident to both the Center staff and the school boards that the courses recommended had the support of the adults of the community as well as students. The courses recommended were unanimously approved by the six participating school districts.

IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE TELEVOTE FURTHER:

Based on the initial San Jose tryout and work sessions with several public agencies, Televote, we believe, is a workable, economical and effective communication system. There are many ways to adapt a televote system to particular communities. Please contact us to discuss how televoting may fit the needs of your community or government, and how you might implement a televote system. A detailed report (The Televote System for Civic Communication: First Demonstration and Evaluation) is available on request describing the San Jose tryout and evaluation.

For current information on TELEVOTE, contact Vincent Campbell at 208-340-7253 E-Mail: vincecampbell@cableone.net

MT&T’s televote system worked ‘flawlessly’ in B.C

British Columbia’s Liberals let their fingers do the voting — and elected a new leader this weekend with the help of Nova Scotia telephone technology.

Maritime Tel & Tel’s televoting system performed well, processing 6,540 votes ‘flawlessly,’ said Don Farmer, MT&T’s vice president of operations. Former Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell took the first-ballot victory in the leadership race with 4,141 of those votes.

Televoting has “only been done (in two places) in the world, in Nova Scotia and once in British Columbia,” he said.

He added future prospects for the voting system are exciting.

Televoting was first introduced to Nova Scotians in June 1992 when the province’s Liberals were choosing a new leader. That first attempt to vote by telephone ended in a highly-publicized failure, but a second vote, held two weeks later, went off without any problems.

Since that first system was developed, the telephone company has partnered itself with IBM and has developed a “totally new system,” he said. This weekend’s vote in British Columbia was the first application of that system.

While the mechanics of the system did work well, there were some problems with voters who did not understand how the system works, said Mr. Farmer.

Some callers to a special problems’ hotline said they were unable to get through to cast their votes, but it was discovered that they were not using touch-tone phones required by the system. [Technology exists to permit voting with dial phones as well. This was used in the 1974 Televote trials -editor]

As a result, Mr. Farmer said the Liberal Party asked that the members be allowed more time to get to other telephones to cast their votes, so the first-ballot results were tabulated later than originally expected.

Mr. Farmer said both the telephone company and IBM are discussing the televoting service with organizations around the world.

THE CHRONICLE-HERALD
Monday 9/13/93 pg. A12
(Halifax, Nova Scotia)
by Kelly Shiers

Vincent Campbell

(208) 362-0855
11251 W. Goldenspire Dr., Boise, ID 83709
E-Mail: vincecampbell (at) cableone.net

EDUCATION

Ph. D. (Social Psychology), University of Colorado, 1960
M. S. (Psychology), Iowa State University, 1955
A. B. (Psychology), University of California, Berkeley, 1953

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Dr. Campbell is a research scientist, educational consultant and decision analyst. He has led many training workshops and taught several university courses, in the areas of decision science, decision support systems, education, and facilitating group meetings. He has conducted extensive research in education and social decision processes.

For the last 35 years he has been involved in developing new techniques of citizen participation in the democratic decision process. He designed and tested in San Jose, California the first automated public feedback system using telephone and computer. He has written articles, conducted research and applied new techniques, such as the televote, in town and school system governance.

From 1965 to 1972 he led the development of objectives and measures of educational achievement in the citizenship area for the National Assessment of Educational Progress. From 1969 to 1971 he served as chairman of the citizenship education committee of the National Council of the Social Studies. He was elected twice to a local school board in California, and served as chairman of the board for one year.

He has worked as a decision analyst, solving complex problems and designing systems for a variety of government and corporate clients. He has conducted more than 100 decision conferences which combined group problem solving techniques with decision analysis. Since 1990 he has consulted for schools on outcome-based assessment, and has conducted research on teaching problem-solving and decision making in secondary schools.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Decision Systems, inc. (1986 to present) – President and Chairman. Conduct research, lead training workshops, facilitate meetings and decision conferences, and consult on communication systems and education.

The George Washington University (1991 to 1993) – Visiting Associate Professor. Taught courses in decision support systems, expert systems and decision science.

Decisions and Designs, Inc. (1976-77 and 1980-86) – Senior Decision Analyst. Planned and conducted analyses for government and industry, and designed decision support systems.

Independent consultant (1977-80). Designed and conducted evaluations and decision analyses, consulted on school improvement, and conducted training workshops.

American Institutes for Research (1960-76) – Principal Research Scientist, Director of Social and Educational Research Program. Initiated and directed many research projects on improving instructional methods, measurement and evaluation, decision making, problem solving, citizenship, and community action.

U. S. Army Leadership Human Research Unit (1955-57). Conducted research on small group leadership while enlisted in Army.

CLIENTS

His clients of the past 20 years include:

  • Agency for International Development
  • Baltimore Gas & Electric
  • CSC Inc.
  • Decision Conferences Inc.
  • Decision Science Consortium Inc.
  • Department of Commerce
  • Department of Defense
  • Department of the Interior
  • Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Institute for International Research
  • KRS Associates
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Science Foundation
  • NSA
  • PRC Inc.
  • Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization
  • United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO)
  • Westinghouse Electric Corporation
  • and a number of school systems.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Just published: Democracy and Terrorism: a Vision of the Future, Authorhouse, 2003. Order at: http://tinyurl.com/263fn

Campbell, V. and Nichols, D. New ways to measure achievement: Early Work at AIR on Exercise Development in Citizenship. Chapter 5 in L. Jones and I. Olkin (Eds.) The Nation’s Report Card: Evolution and Perspectives. Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappan. (in press).

Campbell, V. and Davis, K. Teaching Decision Analysis in Science. Reston, VA: Decision Systems Inc. Final report on National Science Foundation grant No. ISI-9160333. 1992.

Campbell, V., Lofstrom, J., and Jerome, B. Decisions Based on Science. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association, 1997.

Stilson, D. and Campbell, V. A note on calculating tau and average tau and on the sampling distribution of average tau with a criterion ranking. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 1962, 57, 567-571.

Goldbeck, R., & Campbell, V. The effects of response mode and response difficulty on programmed instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology,. 1962, 53(3), 110-118.

Campbell, V. Bypassing as a way of adapting self-instruction programs to individual differences. Journal of Educational Psychology,. 1963, 54, 337-345.

Campbell, V. Research on self-directed learning in the classroom. Programmed Instruction, November, 1964, IV(2).

Campbell, V. & Chapman M. Learner control vs. program control of instruction. Psychology in the Schools, . 1967, 4, 121-130.

Campbell, V., & Nichols, D. National assessment of citizenship education. Social Education, 1968, 32, 279-281.

Campbell, V. & Markle, D. Identifying and formulating educational problems. Palo Alto: American Institutes for Research, 1967.

Nichols, D., & Campbell, V. Evaluating civic behavior. The bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, . 1969, 53, 35-42.

Campbell, V. Democracy by telephone: An alternative to revolution. Avant Garde, January, 1970.

Campbell, V. & Santos, J. Televote: A new civic communication system. American Institutes for Research. Palo Alto, CA, 1975.

Campbell, V. The televote system for civic communication: first demonstration and evaluation. Palo Alto: American Institutes for Research, 1974.

Jung, S., Campbell, V., Wolman, J. A comparative study of proprietary and non-proprietary vocational training graduates. Journal of Vocational Behavior, . 1976, 8, 1-17.

Campbell, V. & Nichols, D. Setting priorities among objectives. Policy Analysis, . Fall 1977, Vol. II(4), 561-578.

Brown, R., Campbell, V., & Repici, D. Analysis of residential fuel conservation behavior. McLean, VA: Decisions & Designs, Inc., 1977.

Campbell, V. & Seaver, D. Decision Analysis for water resource planning: the Shasta case. Falls Church, VA: Decision Science Consortium, Inc., 1979.

Campbell, V. & Bond, R. Evaluation of a character education curriculum. In D. C. McClelland (Ed. ), Education for values. New York: Irvington, 1980.

Campbell, V., Peterson, C., & Frisvold, G. Long Range Planning for Strategic Minerals. DDI/TR 82-14-196. McLean, VA: Decisions & Designs, Inc., January 1983.

Campbell, V., Kuskey, K. and O’Connor, M. Strategic plan for productivity programs:. U. S. Department of Commerce. McLean, VA: Decisions and Designs, Inc., 1983.

Campbell, V. NOA’s Ark . (a novel). Reston, VA: Decision Systems, inc., 1986.

Campbell, V. and Peterson, S. The optimal use of manpower for information resources management. McLean, VA: Decisions and Designs, Inc., 1986.

Laskey, K. & Campbell, V. Evaluation of an intermediate level decision analysis course. In J. Baron and R. Brown (Eds. ) Teaching Decision Making to Adolescents. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, 1991.

Campbell, V. & Laskey, K. Institutional strategy for teaching decision skills in the schools. In J. Baron and R. Brown (Eds. ) Teaching Decision Making to Adolescents. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, 1991.

A Tale of Four Udalls -a Senator, his Brothers & Mother

Mark Udall was my Senator in Colorado. He’s the son of Mo Udall, who was an Arizona congressman, and nephew of Stewart Udall, who was Secretary of the Interior under presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Mark’s late brother Randy ran the Community Office for Resource Efficiency in Aspen. In 2004 I asked him if he’d endorse the National Initiative for Democracy. I mentioned that its author, former Senator Mike Gravel often says “There are NO exceptions to ‘power corrupts’ including myself when I was Senator.” Randy said “Oh yes, I know that from growing up in a political family,” and signed up immediately with the endorsers of the National Initiative. In 2008, his brother Bradley, director of Western Water Assessment for CIRES at the U. of Colorado, also signed on. Both are upstanding citizens.

My story with politician Mark Udall is much different, and revealing:

I met Mark Udall at the April ’96 Boulder County Democratic Assembly, when he was just entering Colorado politics. We had breakfast awhile later and I was impressed with Mark’s compassion and his mountain climbing exploits.

In Spring of ’99 I went to then-Congressman Udall’s “town meeting” at Casey Jr. High in Boulder and said something like:

“The US Government is the main holdout to all the following international treaties:” [See the current -and longer- list] “Polls and common sense indicate that Americans are for most or all these things by a wide margin. Considering this, would you support former US Senator Mike Gravel’s proposed National Initiative for Democracy which would give us a vote on such things?”

Mark said he was a representative and supported representative government, but he would look at the proposal and give me a formal response.

Later in the meeting Mark said “Folks, I’d like to introduce my mother who’s in the audience today.” As all eyes went to her she looked straight at me and gave me a big thumbs-up. Later I went up and asked if that was for me. She said “Oh yes, I thought that was a very good question.”

I gave Mark’s people a copy of the Initiative but didn’t hear back, even after a couple of phone calls. I called into a KGNU local radio show Mark was on in the fall and asked when I’d get a response. He said “January first, 2000.”

I returned from Mexico about the 10th of January and nothing was in the mail. I called his office 3 more times about a week apart; no response.

I remembered Mrs. Udall’s friendliness and called her; I left voicemail describing Mark’s non-response. I came home to a message on my machine from one of Mark’s people that was a bit threatening. I called this person and she chewed me out, saying “You can’t call the family of a US Congressman!” I said “What country do you think this is? The hell I can’t!”, hung up and called Mrs. Udall again.

Mrs. Udall told me: “Call me anytime. I called the office not because I was annoyed but because you deserve a response. And please call me by my nickname, Sam.” It was a very nice conversation. I finally got a response from Mark soon after:

It was basically a high school level essay on the evils of democracy when exercised by people as well as representatives, never mentioning any of the particulars of the proposal.

Awhile after the 9/11 attacks I sent Mark an email asking him to reconsider. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania might have been heading for the Capitol, so wouldn’t it be good for Congress to share legislative power with the people for security?

I got back another letter -signed by Mark- which grossly misrepresents what we and Senator Gravel are proposing. Here is the misrepresentation:

“But I do not think the case has been made for abandoning the current system, with its checks and balances between state and federal authority and among the branches of the federal government. I also continue to have serious reservation about the details of the plan, which would convert the United States from a federal union of states into a unitary nation where vast effective powers would be held by a single new body (the “Electoral Trust”).”

(Email me, eravitz (at) gmail.com for Mark’s original signed email.)

There is simply no truth to any of this statement. We have never proposed to change any branch of government at any level, we just add another method for legislating, much like initiatives existing in 24 States, but better. Anyone can see this at www.evanravitz.com/vote, or from all the brochures, etc. I’ve produced in 20 years of promoting this concept.

The difference here between Mark and his brothers is that his brothers are citizens who believes in “Government by the People” (the dictionary definition of democracy) and Mark is a politician who believes in government by him. He blatantly misrepresents our proposal to keep all that power. In historical perspective, he is merely another aristocrat who has usurped the power of the people for himself.

Until my longtime friend and now Congressman Jared Polis came along, ALL my representatives since the 1980s claimed that we want to “replace” representative government with initiatives! They must have agreed on that party line. Ironically, that party calls itself “Democratic.” Jared Polis is the exception to all rules, and has committed to introducing a bill for national ballot initiatives later in 2009.

Mark Udall has also disgraced the legacy of his famous environmentalist father and uncle by coming out for offshore oil drilling, free CO2 pollution permits for coal generating plants and increased subsidies for nuclear plants. See here for links to mainstream news reports.

Evan Ravitz

Jack Abramoff

There’s lots of data showing that buying (or renting) Congress is the world’s best investment, often paying off at 1000 to 1 or better. Jack Abramoff, famed lobbyist convicted of bribery, boasts in this Washington Post story (in the 3rd paragraph) that he can get tax breaks worth billions for mere millions.

Grassroots ballot initiatives do better at the polls than big-money initiatives

Press release: Initiative Process: Money Doesn’t Buy Success at Ballot Box

Study: Interest Group Influence in the California Initiative Process

Book: The Populist Paradox: Interest Group Influence and the Promise of Direct Legislation

A news article in a similar vein:

CU Journalism School Dean Paul Voakes’ article debunks myths about initiatives:

August 13, 2000, The Oregonian

FOR EVERY INITIATIVE, THERE’S A MYTH.
A REVIEW OF THE OREGON BALLOT SINCE 1976 REVEALS THAT LITTLE OF WHAT’S BEEN SAID ABOUT THE CITIZEN-DRIVEN PROCESS IS TRUE.

So you think you’ve heard it all about Oregon’s initiative system? Try this true-false quiz:

  • Initiatives have been passing like crazy the last few years.
  • Spending on initiatives has skyrocketed.
  • Initiatives are an easy way for wealthy individuals to make their pet ideas law.
  • Conservatives are more successful with initiatives than liberals.

All true?

In fact, only one claim — that spending has skyrocketed — holds up.

The test is for fun. But at a time when Oregon seems to have gone initiative wild, it shows that there is much to learn — and relearn — about the century-old system of direct democracy that so dominates our politics.

Voters will consider 18 citizen initiatives on the Nov. 7 ballot, the most since 1914, and no state has used the initiative more frequently in the last quarter-century.

The surge in popularity of the initiatives has fostered a backlash, mainly from politicians and some citizens who say it short-circuits the more deliberative process of making laws in the Legislature.

A tempest of claims and assumptions accompanies the criticism, but are many of them valid?

To find out, The Oregonian decided to look more closely at the 99 initiatives that have been on the ballot since 1976, when post-Watergate reforms ushered in laws that made campaign contributors public.

We built a database, logging such things as campaign spending, the level of big-donor support, whether each measure had conservative or liberal backing, and how many had passed.

And to help spot trends, we divided the quarter-century into periods: post-Watergate (1976-1982), the years after courts allowed paid signature gathering (1984-1990), and the years since passage of the landmark property tax limit Measure 5 in 1990.

What did we find? Here are eight often-heard observations about the initiative system — and how they hold up under historical scrutiny.

1 “Initiatives are passing like crazy the last several years.”

Not true. They actually enjoyed a greater success rate in the ’80s than in the ’90s.

In the post-Watergate period, 28 percent of the initiatives on the ballot passed. That shot up to 45 percent in the middle period but declined to 40 percent in the past four election cycles.

Of course, more initiatives are hitting the ballot than ever, so more are becoming law or part of the state constitution than ever before.

The average number of initiatives per election increased from 4.5 in the early period to 12 in the ’90s. And the pace seems to be quickening. Since 1994, we’ve averaged 14 initiatives per November election, not counting this year’s crop.

Donald Stabrowski, a political scientist at the University of Portland, sees the increase as part of a long cycle that dates back almost 100 years, when Oregon became one of the first states to adopt the initiative system.

“Usually when there’s dissatisfaction with elected officials you get this frequency,” Stabrowski says. “We go through these ups and downs, and we’re probably at a peak right now. At some point soon, it will all start seeming too expensive, and the results won’t be as satisfying as people want them to be.”

2 “Spending on initiative campaigns has skyrocketed. “

True. “Skyrocket” might be a bit strong, but there’s no doubt that campaign spending is up — way up.

Adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars, the average spent per initiative nearly doubled from $862,000 in the late ’70s to $1.7 million in the ’90s.

All political spending is up, of course. But the increase for Oregon initiatives is more dramatic. Spending nationally on congressional campaigns rose about 60 percent during the same period, as did spending on Oregon’s statewide and legislative races.

Though average spending per initiative fell slightly in 1998, to $1.6 million, no one is predicting a downward trend.

Sean Smith, a political consultant who worked on this year’s failed initiative to repeal the death penalty, said he’s surprised that spending on initiatives hasn’t risen even more quickly.

“Connecting to voters has become a lot more difficult,” Smith said. “Especially with all these initiatives, it simply costs more to be heard above the din of all the other choices voters have.”

3 “Initiatives are an easy way for wealthy individuals to turn pet ideas into state law.”

Not quite. During the last 25 years, the major financial players have been corporations, not wealthy individuals.

The Oregonian looked up each campaign donation of $25,000 or more to identify the biggest contributors, then determined whether the money came from individuals, labor unions, nonprofits or corporations. Overall, individuals accounted for only 7 percent of these big checks. Corporations accounted for 42 percent.

Wealthy individuals such as George Soros, the international financier who helped bankroll 1998’s medical marijuana measure, are usually playing offense by proposing initiatives that shake up the status quo. Corporations are typically playing defense — and these opponents are overwhelmingly the side with deeper pockets.

Over the quarter century studied, campaign committees urging “yes” votes spent $18.5 million. Committees urging “no” votes have spent nearly $68 million, and the gap has grown larger over time.

Of all those large donations made to defeat initiatives, more than half came from businesses.

4 “The courts are overturning citizen initiatives far more often.”

Not really. The rate has increased in 25 years but not drastically.

In the early and middle periods, courts overturned 20 percent of the successful measures, either in whole or in part. In the ’90s, the rate edged up to 26 percent — not much of a difference.

It’s possible that fewer initiatives will end up being challenged in the future. The reason is a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that requires the secretary of state to screen initiatives to make sure they don’t contain more than a single amendment to the constitution.

Since that ruling, about a dozen proposed initiatives have been rejected before backers could start signature gathering.

“We’re finally seeing the courts step in and put some reasonable balance into the process,” says David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, “one that will help voters know what they’re voting on.”

5 “Conservative causes are more successful with initiatives than liberal causes are.”

False.

Of the 99 initiatives since 1976, only 75 can be identified as either liberal or conservative in their leaning.

As conservative, we classified measures calling for tax reductions, stricter penalties for crimes, restrictions on abortions or unions’ political activity — or any other measure obviously funded by conservative groups.

Liberal measures included calls for new or higher taxes, stricter environmental protections, restrictions on nuclear energy, broader legal uses for marijuana or any other cause mainly paid for by liberal groups.

Liberal proposals had the upper hand in the early period, but things evened out. Overall, 36 percent of the conservative measures have won approval, and almost 40 percent of the liberal measures have won.

Even in the 1990s, as more conservative politics took hold in the Oregon Legislature, liberal initiatives enjoyed a 41 percent success rate compared with 39 percent for the conservative measures.

Moreover, when the elections are close, the conservatives get burned. Thirteen initiatives since 1976 have come within 5 percentage points of winning. Each of those narrowly losing efforts was a conservative measure.

6 “Conservative campaigns are better funded than liberal causes.”

True, but the gap has closed dramatically in recent years.

From 1976 to 1990, conservative committees outspent their liberal foes by more than 2-1. In the 1990s, though, committees backing liberal causes spent $23.7 million — not far behind the $24.6 million spent by conservative opponents.

Corporations are the big players for conservative campaigns, providing nearly two thirds of large donations. Of the large donations to liberal measures, half came from unions and 41 percent came from nonprofit groups.

The minor players: individual donors. They accounted for about 11 percent of large contributions for conservative causes and 2 percent for liberal ones.

7 “Initiatives have become longer and hence more complicated.”

Untrue.

The problem with wording, critics claim, is that measures become hard for voters to understand, that they’re so poorly written that the Legislature struggles to implement them or courts must overturn them.

The assumption about length is not really true. Since the ’80s, the average length of initiative measures has been about 1,400 words. That compares with an average of about 1,200 words in the post-Watergate period.

Statutory initiatives, which change state law, tend to be wordier than initiatives that amend the constitution. But constitutional amendments, which are immune to tampering from the Legislature, are on the rise.

In the early period, a quarter of the measures were constitutional amendments. In the mid-’80s a third were amendments, and in the ’90s more than half were amendments.

8 “Voters are turned off by too many initiatives.”

Well, if voter turnout is any indication, this just isn’t true.

One way to gauge voter enthusiasm is to compare turnout on initiatives to turnout for the presidential races every four years. Initiatives have never drawn the interest that presidential contests do, but the gap has been consistently small.

In fact, the largest difference was in 1976, when about 67 percent of Oregon’s registered voters cast ballots for initiatives and 72 percent voted for president. Ever since, though, initiative turnout has come within 3 percentage points of presidential turnout.

Librarian Lynne Palombo and editorial aide Jenna Thompson of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.

Ballot Initiatives

Initiative: “The right or procedure by which legislation may be introduced or enacted directly by the people, as in the Swiss Confederation and in many of the States of the United States;”
– Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary

Searchable Database of ALL US Initiatives and Referenda by the National Conference of State Legislatures

PAST Successes of State Initiatives

(Many were later adopted by Congress) (Mouseover)

Abolition of poll taxes

Aid to dependent children, blind, mentally ill

Animal rights

Bottle deposit bills

Clean Elections

Direct election of US Senators

Direct primaries

Environmental initiatives

Food sales tax exemptions

Legal marijuana

Medical marijuana

Merit systems for civil servants

Minimum wages

Mining reclamation

Mining severance & oil extraction taxes

Nuclear Freeze

Old age pensions

Open meetings

Prohibiting cyanide mining

Renewable Energy Requirements for Utilities

Public school funding

State financial audits

Sunshine laws

Tax limits

Term limits

Victim rights

Women’s suffrage

Workman’s compensation

 

FUTURE Potential of National Initiatives

(Percentages show popular support. I’ve left in older polls to show how progressive Americans really are.)

Trade must be fair (88%)

Stronger Environmental Protection (83%)

Enforce equal pay for women (79%)

Protect roadless areas (76%)

Pay $50/yr. more to cut hunger (75%)

Re-instate limits on campaign donations (72%)

Label genetically modified foods) (68%)

Universal Health Care (67%) End foreign military aid (65%)

U.S. cut greenhouse gases now (65%)

U.S. sign 37 treaties it now blocks (various)

 

Ballotpedia has lots more!

“On the most major issues we’ve dealt with in the past 50 years, the public was more likely to be right…based on the judgment of history…than the legislatures or Congress.” -George Gallup, Sr.

Initiatives are intended “to restore, not destroy, representative government” and “In order to clean house the one thing we need is a good broom. Initiatives and referendums are good brooms.”-President Woodrow Wilson

“The cure for the ailments of democracy is more democracy.” -John Dewey

38 US-Unratified International Treaties

The US government is the major holdout to these international agreements

  1. Ottawa Treaty (the land-mine ban)
  2. Treaty on the Rights of the Child (only holdouts are the U.S. and Somalia)
  3. Protocol to enforce the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (vote was 178-1, the US the only holdout)
  4. United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
  5. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  6. Convention on Biological Diversity
  7. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
  8. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
  9. International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings
  10. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
  11. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
  12. Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes Against Humanity
  13. Forced Labor Convention
  14. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention
  15. Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention
  16. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age to Marriage and Registration of Marriages
  17. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
  18. Convention on the International Right of Correction
  19. International Criminal Court
  20. Kyoto Accords (greenhouse gas reductions)
  21. UN Convention on Biological Diversity (regulating genetic engineering)
  22. UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  23. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty [prohibiting programs like “Stars Wars”]
  24. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
  25. Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
  26. International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries
  27. International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
  28. Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
  29. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
  30. Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers (prohibiting sale of arms to human rights violators & aggressors)
  31. Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
  32. Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, and Other Related Materials
  33. UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (bans toxic waste dumping, etc.)
  34. UN Moon Treaty [declaring the moon part of the Common Heritage of Mankind]
  35. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
  36. UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
  37. Protocol to enforce the Convention Against Torture
  38. United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

Polls (and common sense) indicate that the vast majority of the American people support these things, in spite of the President and the Senate, which ratifies treaties.

Now you can do something so that soon the People will have the power to vote on such treaties or any serious policy proposed by citizens –like ballot initiatives now in 24 U.S. states, but with many improvements. Former US Senator Mike Gravel and his nonprofit Philadelphia II have started the process of ratification of the National Initiative, much as citizens -NOT the existing colonial legislatures- ratified the US Constitution. You can read the text and vote for or against the National Initiative, at Vote.org, as well as see what state initiatives have already accomplished and what might be done with the National Initiative. Don’t let our representatives misrepresent us!

“Don’t hate the government – become the government!”

Please copy and distribute this!
(303)440-6838

Citizen Initiatives in 24 U.S. states

  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • South Dakota
  • Utah
  • Washington
  • Wyoming

Source: Initiative Resource Center, San Francisco

End foreign military aid

“…another [1975] Harris poll reported ‘65% of Americans oppose military aid abroad because they feel it allows dictatorships to maintain control over their population.'”

Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 545, On p. 558 Zinn writes that other polls showed the same.