New York's Senate 'Legislation Markup' (1) allows the public to comment on legislation that is under consideration. It is the virtual version of a session where legislative committees amend bill texts similar to the Federal site, www.publicmarkup.org.
The Elections Committee was first to post the text of eight bills (listed below under the category of Elections) that focus on laws and regulations governing casting a ballot and polling places....Click on a bill as listed and share your ideas and provide feedback. Your comments will be considered by Senate staff. Please be aware that posting comments at NYSenate Markup may constitute lobbying under New York State law. For more information, visit the website of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity
PublicMarkup.org, is an ongoing experiment in preparing legislation more inclusively by opening bills to online, public review.
From the website:
After preparing and drafting a comprehensive piece of legislation, Sunlight (3) decided that public input and scrutiny would refine the bill and improve its chances of garnering lawmakers' support. Rather than immediately looking for legislators who might sponsor the bill, Sunlight, therefore, created PublicMarkup.org as a place to post the bill, and to allow you to comment on and suggest edits to the substance of the legislation.
This project is not intended to be the ultimate technical solution to the challenge of drafting legislation online, but an experiment in online collaboration. By collecting legislation, summaries, resources and commentary in a single linkable location, PublicMarkup.org provides a simple, blog-like framework for soliciting feedback on this legislation.
I think that this creation of, in effect, 'a marketplace of ideas' is an exciting one. Also as a practical matter, there is so much specialized knowledge generated or developed in our society, not any one group is likely to grasp or capture it all; on-line collaboration can be one way for it to be made known and shared.
(1)http://www.nysenate.gov/legislation
(2)http://www.publicmarkup.org/
(3)http://www.publicmarkup.org/# Who is Sunlight?