Daniel Tumpson v. James Farina (072813)

In many municipalities, citizens have the right to put to a popular vote an ordinance passed by a local legislative body. This process — known as a referendum — allows voters to have “the final say in approving or rejecting an ordinance at the ballot box.” In re Referendum Petition to Repeal Ordinance 04-75, 192 N.J. 446, 450, 931 A.2d 595 (2007). The right of referendum took root more than a century ago, during the Progressive Era, as a response to ■the increasing influence that special interests played in the passage of legislation. To counteract that influence, the right of referendum…