48 U.S.C. § 1593 Initiative and Recall

• Library: United States Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through P.L. 118-34 (published on www.congress.gov on 12/26/2023), except for [P. L. 118-31]
• Year: 2023
• Citation: 48 U.S.C. § 1593

(a) Grant of rights

The people of the Virgin Islands shall have the rights of initiative and recall to be exercised as provided in subsection (b) and subsection (c), respectively.

(b) Initiative

(1) An initiative may enact, amend, or repeal any law, except that an initiative shall not be used to repeal a law declared by the legislature at the time of passage to be an emergency law necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or peace.

(2) An initiative that proposes a reduction of taxes shall also provide for an equivalent reduction of expenditures or an equivalent increase in revenues from other sources.

(3) An initiative shall address one subject only and matters reasonably related to that subject.

(4) The ballot question shall be in such form that a "yes" vote is a vote in favor of the proposal and a "no" vote is a vote against the proposal.

(5) A copy of the proposed initiative petition, including a complete text of the proposed law and containing signatures equal to at least 1 percent of the voters of each legislative district or 4 percent of all voters of the Virgin Islands must be submitted to the Supervisor of Elections prior to circulation for ballot qualification. The Supervisor of Elections must determine within 10 days after the submission whether the preliminary signatures are sufficient. If so determined, the Supervisor of Elections shall refer the preliminary petition to an initiative titling board consisting of the Attorney General, the Supervisor of Elections, and the legislative counsel of the legislature. The board shall, in an open hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question, and a summary of the initiative proposal, and this preparation shall be completed within 30 days after the referral.

(6) After the ballot title has been written, proponents of the initiative proposal shall have a maximum of 180 days to circulate the petition. Petitions containing signatures equal to at least 10 percent of the voters of each legislative district or 41 percent of all voters of the Virgin Islands must be submitted to the Supervisor of Elections. The Supervisor shall have 15 days to determine that the minimum number of valid signatures are contained in the petition and he shall forward the certified proposal to the legislature which must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the initiative shall take effect in accordance with its terms. If the legislature does not approve, the initiative shall be submitted to the voters at the next general election, unless the legislature approves a special election for this purpose. The legislature may submit its own version of the initiative to the voters. Should both measures be approved by the voters, the measure receiving the higher number of votes shall prevail. The voters shall have a clear alternative of rejecting either version or the entire proposition.