The Voters Voice Amendment (VVA) to the United States Constitution

The intent of the Voters Voice Amendment is to allow registered voters to create initiatives to pass State or Federal laws without the involvement of elected representatives.

Article 1 Initiative Initiation

To place a proposed initiative on a Federal or State ballot requires:

  1. The Initiative’s title (not to exceed 40 characters in length) and the proposed law’s text are submitted to the U.S. Federal Government.
  2. The Federal Government will assign identification numbers to all Initiatives. The identification number shall start with the U.S. Post Office two-letter abbreviation and a dash for State level initiatives, e.g. “VA-“ or ”US-” for Federal level initiatives. The State or Federal initiatives will then independently include a one-up number starting with ”1” (one), e.g., “US-1” or “VA-1”, in the order of initiative submission date.
  3. The Federal Government will coordinate petition signature collection and processing for all Federal and State initiatives. Federal Government is also responsible for collecting and tracking all spending information for all Federal and State initiatives per Article 9.
  4. The Federal Government is allowed 20 calendar days for the preparation of sufficient printed petitions, including title and text, for use in all 50 states. With the petitions the initiative proponents may gather the signatures required. The proponents may make additional printed copies of the petitions as necessary.
  5. A per State fee, not to exceed Two Thousand dollars ($2,000) in 2022 U.S. dollars is allowed where initiative petition signatures are being validated.
  6. For States not currently allowing Voter Initiatives, they will allow State Level Initiatives following the same Federal process. However, only that State’s voters’ signatures need validation and the State initiative voting only occurs within that State.

Article 2 Initiative Ballot Approval

  1. Each initiative petition for each individual State must be signed by more than 2% of the total votes cast for all candidates in that State’s last gubernatorial election.
  2. Petition signatures must also include the last 4 alphanumeric values of the registered voter’s Social Security Number (SSN), or if not having an SSN, from another official U.S. or State identification document.
  3. Digital Signatures are allowed to be collected and must also include the same supporting information that is required with printed signatures as in Articles 2a and 2b. The digital voter information must be printed to be submitted using unique numbered pages in a format (multiple signatures per page) that is similar to the official printed petition forms.
  4. Once an initiative’s petitions are completed, they are filed with the Federal Government. Within 10 calendar days the Federal Government will document, and then pass along the applicable petitions to the applicable State Government(s). Each State Government will coordinate with their Voter Registration officials to perform signature validation against the registered voter roll. The Voter Registration official verification must determine a raw count (Articles 2e,2f,2g below) of the valid signatures submitted. Their findings must be reported back to the State Government.
  5. Once the required number of signatures are submitted to the State per Article 2a, the State directs the Voter Registration officials to begin a random sample verification. Voter Registration officials have 14 calendar days to complete a random sample of 3% of the initiative signatures and create a report with a valid/not valid indicator for every signature reviewed and send the report results to their State Government.
  6. If the statewide random sample total projects to exceed more than 110% of the required number of signatures, the initiative would gain that State as one of the number of States to qualify (Article 2i) for the applicable federal or state initiative ballot. If the statewide total is less than 95% of the required number of signatures, the initiative would fail to count that State in the total of approving the initiative’s total. The validation results are sent to the State Government as stated in Article 2e.
  7. If the statewide total falls between 95% and 110%, Voter Registration officials would be required to perform a full check of all signatures and report their results to the State Government within 30 calendar days. Once the statewide full count total reaches 100% of the required number of signatures, the initiative would gain that State as one of the number of States to qualify (Article 2i) for the applicable federal or state initiative ballot. The validation results are sent to the State Government as stated in Article 2e.
  8. The State Government has an additional 5 calendar days to submit the combined Voter Registration officials report materials and overall findings to the U.S. Federal Government.
  9. For a federal initiative, once the U.S. Federal Government receives notice of enough qualifying State signatures being 1/2 (50%) of the States, the Federal Government will notify all State Governments within 5 calendar days of reaching the threshold.
  10. Once a federal or state initiative has met all the criteria for being on the ballot, it must be voted on per Article 3.

Article 3 Initiative Vote Timing

  1. An initiative, that meets all ballot requirements in Articles 1 and 2 at least four (4) months prior to the next Federal election date, must appear on all ballots in all States in that election. If it is a State initiative, it must appear on that State’s ballots no later than in the next Federal election. The vote for a proposed Federal level initiative must be completed (but not started) on the same day in all the States. The Federal Government provided identifier and title of each ballot initiative must be used and all ballot initiatives must be listed together sorted first by state category then ascending numerical order. The Federal Government will supply a State unique ordered initiative list (all approved Federal and State unique initiatives) for the election to the State Government at least 110 calendar days before the election. The initiative ballots must follow the Federal Government ballot order as sent to the State Government.
  2. For every initiative, least 110 calendar days before the initiative ballot election the Federal Government will post two, a not to exceed 2,500-character text only factual articles, one for the initiative becoming law and a second article arguing against the initiative’s passage. The article for initiative passage shall be supplied by the entity or individual(s) submitting the initiative to the Federal Government. The against article shall be supplied by the entities or individuals against passage that are required to post their expenditures in Article 9, or if there aren’t any, by the Federal Government. These two articles will appear with the other initiative specific data posted on the web as indicated in Article 9f.

Article 4 Voting Intent

A vote of “yes” is a vote for the proposed initiative to become Federal or State law. A “no” vote means no change from existing law.

Article 5 Initiative Becomes Law

A minimum of 50% of the total votes cast in the affirmative makes the initiative a Federal or State law.

Article 6 Law Implementation

The approved Federal or State law will take effect no more than 120 calendar days following the date of its passage unless a later date is specified within the law’s text.

Article 7 Precedent

Federal or State laws passed with the Voters Voice Amendment takes precedence over other laws created by the legislative bodies covering the same jurisdiction, and previously passed laws under this Amendment.

Article 8 Deployment

  1. The Governments, State and Federal, shall apply a good-faith effort to meet the timelines defined for initiative initiation, validation of signatures, communication, reporting, and ballot processing.
  2. Any regulations to implement the law, funding required to support the intent of the law, plus enforcement of the law, shall be addressed by the Government agencies overseeing the areas addressed by the law’s mandate. The Government shall apply a good-faith effort and express the same expediency as laws passed by the current legislative bodies overseeing the jurisdiction.

Article 9 Funding Transparency

  1. Public disclosure of the following is required by any entity, or individual, involved in attempting to influence the outcome of an initiative either directly, or through another entity as indicated below.
  2. For an entity beginning with the date assigned in Article 9e, if their single initiative cumulative Federal spending exceeds $20,000, or if their single initiative State spending exceeds $5,000 (dollar amounts are in 2022 dollars), the spending must be reported to the Federal Government. The entity’s spending total must include pro-rated overhead expenses. The information must include entity legal name, address, tax ID, lead officer’s full name and title, including the types of specific initiative spending, such as advocate, attempt to block, phone bank, etc. The entity’s quarterly initiative funding and cumulative funding expended that relates to the proposed initiative. Additionally, the entity’s major financial sponsors, full legal name and address, if they contribute at least 5% of the entity’s total funding in that reporting period. Only the information sufficient to identify the entity and its spending will be included in the public reporting.
  3. For an individual beginning with the date assigned in Article 9e, if their single initiative Federal contributions exceed $10,000, or if their single initiative State contributions exceed $2,500 (dollar amounts are in 2022 dollars) the spending must be reported to the Federal Government. One must submit their legal name, tax ID, and full mailing address, the type of initiative specific spending such as advertising, entity contribution, education, etc. This includes money spent either via other entity(s), individuals, or funds spent independently. Only the information sufficient to identify the individual and their spending will be included in the public reporting.
  4. For both individuals and entities, the financial disclosure information is to be submitted by the 10th day of each quarter of the calendar year. The information shall cover the last quarter’s funds and the new cumulative total spent. The information shall be sent to the Federal Government that is responsible for oversight of the proposed initiative. This article applies when an entity or individual’s cumulative total related expenditures for each distinct Federal or State Initiative exceeds the amounts in Article 9b for entities or article 9c for individuals.
  5. This financial disclosure in Article 9d is required for the following timeframe, starting with the assignment of an initiative identifier by the Federal Government and ending when either the initiative is voted upon, or no State voter signature validation completion has occurred the last 3 years. The final disclosure due is after the vote on the date in Article 3. If there are no additional funds expended by an entity, or individual, since the last financial disclosure, indicating “no funds expended” is sufficient for that reporting period. Indicating “No future funds will be expended” is sufficient as a final report for entities or individuals no longer to be involved in the initiative effort.
  6. Financial disclosures submitted for each proposed initiative shall be made available at no expense to the public in a timely fashion by the Federal Government. The report shall be in a human readable report format available on a .gov Internet address. The reports shall be posted under the 1. Initiative Identifier, 2. title, and 3. by the periodic spending due dates. It shall contain a list of all entities and individuals’ expenditures and sufficient identifying information, except tax ID for entities and only list City and State for individuals. Included in the report will contain the total number of State’s that have completed validation of signatures, and an alphabetic list of all States with their status of “no activity”, “started”, “approved”, or “rejected”, and the applicable date if the initiative was started, approved, or rejected.
  7. All initiative related print, online, radio, or televised material by any entity or individual must clearly state near the beginning “Paid for by“ followed by the entity or individual’s name.

Article 10 No Foreign Influence

No money or resources from outside the United States are allowed for an initiative, pro or con, directly, or indirectly from an entity, passed through a U.S. entity, or any individual. This applies starting from initiative initiation and ends once voted on.

Article 11 Rescind the Law

Laws created by the people under this Amendment can only be rescinded:

  1. By passing a new law via a new initiative under the VVA Amendment.
  2. For Federal initiatives, if found unconstitutional by a U.S. Supreme Court.
  3. For State initiatives, if found unconstitutional under the State’s Constitution by the State’s Supreme Court.
  4. For Federal initiatives, if at least two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the House of Representatives, and 2/3rds of the Senate, vote affirmatively to repeal the law. Approval of the rescinding by the President of the United States is not required.
  5. For State initiatives, if at least two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the House of Delegates, and 2/3rds of the State Senate, vote affirmatively to repeal the law. Approval of the rescinding by the State’s Governor is not required.