Voters in California voted today in support of the first ever crowdsourced idea to be put on the ballot. Prop 54 - The “California Legislature Transparency Act” is based on an idea that was submitted by Sam Blakeslee to the Fix California Challenge, Innovate Your State’s online crowdsourcing contest with the intention of finding ideas on how to fix California’s governance problems.
Over the course of the challenge, nearly 500 ideas, over 1,100 comments, and over 8,000 votes were submitted to the website. Four ideas submitted through the challenge stood out and have since received additional support, including the “California Legislature Transparency Act.”
The California Legislature Transparency Act proposes implementing a variety of open government reforms that would allow the press and public to easily access legislative information through three main provisions;
Amend the California State Constitution to require each bill to be in print and posted online for at least 72 hours before it may pass out of either house of the Legislature
Require the Legislature to make video recordings of every official public legislative meeting available online within 24 hours
Ensure everyone has the right to record and share public proceedings to support an informed democracy
Tim Draper, founder of Innovate Your State, said “We applaud the proponents of the California Legislature Transparency Act for qualifying their winning idea for the November 2016 ballot. Our goal with the Fix California Challenge was to find ideas that would fix California’s governance challenges. This measure will help make government more accountable and responsive to the people it represents. I was pleased to contribute financially to the efforts and we look forward to Californians having a voice in November.“