Only Gavin Newsom’s Chief of Staff responds to inquiries about CIRRRA

A group calling itself “V.O.T.E.” (Voters Organized to Engage) recently began circulating an initiative petition to give California voters the right to sign such petitions, and referendum and recall petitions too, online.  You can learn more about this campaign for the "California Initiative, Referendum and Recall Reform Act of 2016" ("CIRRRA of 2016") here.

Etopia News has asked these public officials to comment on this measure:  Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, Alex Padilla, Robert Hertzberg, and Adrin Nazarian.

Of all these, the most fulsome response has come via Rhys Williams, the wily and terse Chief of Staff of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.  Here’s the entirety of the e-mail message he sent to Etopia News:  

“Hasn’t taken a position.”

V.O.T.E.'s efforts to bring in an electronic signature gathering process marks a revival of the “Smart Initiatives” proposal of 1996 to let people use digital signatures to sign official petitions, about which you can read more here.