BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 362 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 362 (Bonnie Lowenthal) As Amended March 14, 2011 Majority vote ELECTIONS 5-1 -------------------------------- |Ayes:|Fong, Bonilla, Hall, | | |Mendoza, Swanson | | | | |-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Logue | | | | -------------------------------- SUMMARY : Requires a write-in candidate for the office of superior court judge to include a declaration on the statement of write-in candidacy that he or she satisfies the eligibility requirements for a judge and revises the number of signatures required on a petition for a write-in campaign for this office. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires a write-in candidate for the office of superior court judge to include a declaration on the statement of write-in candidacy that he or she satisfies the eligibility requirements for a judge. 2)Requires that a petition indicating that a write-in campaign will be conducted for the office of superior court judge be signed by one-tenth of one percent of the registered voters qualified to vote with respect to the office, except that the petition must have no fewer than 100 and does not need more than 600 signatures. EXISTING LAW : 1)Prohibits a person from becoming a judge of a court of record unless for 10 years immediately preceding selection, the person has been a member of the State Bar or served as a judge of a court of record in the State of California. 2)Provides that in any county in which only the incumbent has filed nomination papers for the office of superior court AB 362 Page 2 judge, his or her name shall not appear on the ballot unless there is filed with the elections official, within 10 days after the final date for filing nomination papers for the office, a petition indicating that a write-in campaign will be conducted for the office and signed by 100 registered voters qualified to vote with respect to the office. FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS : According to the author, "AB 362 is designed to make two narrow changes to the law relating to write-in candidacies for superior court judge. First, Ýthis bill would] require write-in candidates for judge to indicate that they meet the constitutional requirements Ýto] take the bench. . . . Second, Ýthis bill would] base the number of signatures for the write-in petition on the size of the county. . . . "The low signature requirement has led to harassment of judges based upon race and ethnicity. During the 2008 June primary, a known white supremacist used this procedure to focus on six incumbent judges in Los Angeles with Spanish surnames. The person spearheading this effort published a book in 1989 calling for disenfranchisement and deportation of non-whites, and was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan in a 1989 special election race for Congress in Wyoming. The protagonist and his colleagues acknowledged that the judges were selected because of their names. "While changing the signature requirement will not insure that such harassment is not repeated, a reasonable signature requirement will help insure a seriousness of purpose in each county, based upon size, and help avoid situations where signatures are submitted merely to force judge's names onto ballots." Unlike candidates for State Legislature, incumbent superior court judges do not appear on the ballot if nobody files to run against them unless a petition is filed indicating that a write-in campaign will be conducted. In fact, candidates for superior court judge typically do not appear on the ballot, because it is fairly common for an incumbent judge to be unopposed in a re-election bid. As a result, write-in candidates for superior court judge must AB 362 Page 3 organize a write-in candidacy much earlier than a write-in candidate for other offices. While the deadline for submitting a declaration of write-in candidacy for judge is the same as the deadline for submitting a write-in candidacy for any other office (14 days before the election), a candidate who plans to run as a write-in candidate for judge against an unopposed incumbent will have to file a petition weeks earlier to ensure that the judge's name is on the ballot, and that a write-in candidacy is an option. AB 1335 (Lieu) of 2010, would have changed the number of signatures needed on a petition indicating that a write-in campaign would be conducted for the office of superior court judge from 100 signatures to a number of signatures equal to one tenth of one percent of the registered voters qualified to vote with respect to the office, except that the petition would have required at least 100 signatures and would not have exceeded 1,000 signatures. Additionally, AB 1335 would have required a write-in candidate for the office of superior court judge to include a statement that he or she satisfied the eligibility requirements for a judge on his or her declaration of candidacy. AB 1335 was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger on September 30, 2010, who expressed concern that the increased number of signatures required to conduct a write-in campaign against an incumbent judge could deter an individual from challenging an incumbent for the office of superior court judge. Analysis Prepared by : Lori Barber / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN: 0000144