BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 857
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 857 (Fong)
As Amended September 6, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |53-24|(May 29, 2013) |SENATE: |23-11|(September 10, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
SUMMARY : Makes numerous significant changes to provisions of
state law governing state initiatives. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires at least 10% of the signatures collected to qualify a
state initiative for the ballot to be collected by individuals
who did not receive money or valuable consideration
exclusively or primarily for the specific purpose of
soliciting signatures of electors on the petition, as
specified ("10% requirement").
a) Provides that signatures qualify toward the 10%
requirement if they are collected by an employee or member
of a non-profit organization (except a political party), as
specified, who receives money or valuable consideration
from the organization and as part of that employment or
membership solicits signatures, as specified.
b) Provides that signatures solicited through direct mail
do not count towards the 10% requirement unless i) every
person who organizes, pays, or arranges for the direct
mail, is eligible to solicit signatures that qualify toward
meeting the 10% requirement, or ii) an organization that
has a primary purpose other than soliciting signatures on
initiative petitions is soliciting signatures from its
members through direct mail.
2)Requires a petition section that qualifies toward the 10%
requirement to be printed on white paper. Requires a petition
section that does not qualify toward the 10% requirement to be
printed on paper of a color other than white, and to include
the following notice printed in 12-point boldface type:
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"NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC: THIS PETITION IS BEING CIRCULATED BY A
PERSON PAID TO OBTAIN YOUR SIGNATURE. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO
READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS PETITION BEFORE SIGNING."
3)Requires a person who solicits signatures that qualify toward
the 10% requirement to sign an affidavit declaring that to the
best of his or her knowledge, the signatures on the sections
that he or she circulated should count towards the
requirement.
4)Makes corresponding changes to the process for elections
officials to verify signatures submitted on a state initiative
petition.
5)Provides that the signatures on a state initiative petition
section are invalid if they are solicited and submitted by a
person who engages in intentional fraud, misrepresentation, or
other illegal conduct concerning the circulation of the
petition, as specified. Provides that the Secretary of State
(SOS), the Attorney General (AG), any district attorney, any
city attorney of a city having a population in excess of
750,000, or any elector may enforce this provision by a civil
action in which the plaintiff has the burden of showing a
violation by clear and convincing evidence. Prohibits a
petition section from being invalidated after the SOS has
certified that the measure has qualified for the ballot.
The Senate amendments :
1)Reduce the percentage of signatures on a state initiative
petition that must be collected by individuals who did not
receive money or valuable consideration exclusively or
primarily for the specific purpose of soliciting signatures of
electors on the petition, as specified, from 20% to 10%.
2)Delete provisions of the bill that would have required state
initiative petitions to include a listing of the three top
donors of $50,000 or more to the committee paying for the
petition to be circulated.
3)Delete provisions of the bill that would have required
professional petition firms (PPFs) to register with the SOS,
and that would have required PPFs to train the circulators
that they employ and to provide specified information to the
SOS about the paid circulators they employ. Delete related
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provisions that would have required PPFs to maintain records
that would have been subject to inspection by the SOS, and
that would have required county elections officials to verify
that the individuals who circulated certain initiative
petitions were on a list of trained circulators maintained by
the SOS.
4)Specify that if a person signs a petition for an initiative
both on a petition section that qualifies for meeting the 10%
requirement and on a petition section that does not qualify
for meeting the 10% requirement, the signature on the petition
that meets the 10% requirement shall count, and the other
signature shall not.
5)Exclude referendum measures from any of the provisions of the
bill.
6)Provide that a person who is paid to collect signatures on an
initiative petition is not eligible to collect signatures that
qualify toward the 10% requirement for that same initiative.
7)Permit the SOS to adopt emergency regulations for the purposes
of this bill.
8)Provide that the provisions of this bill do not apply to any
initiative measure for which the AG issues a circulating title
and summary before January 1, 2014.
9)Revise the findings and declarations.
10)Make other minor, corresponding, clarifying, and technical
changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Approximately $50,000 to SOS for revising regulations (General
Fund).
2)Unknown, probably not substantial, costs to local county
election officials (General Fund).
COMMENTS : According to the author, "AB 857 preserves the
original intent of the initiative process by ensuring that
initiative measures have broad-based community support in order
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to qualify to appear on the ballot. To achieve that goal, AB
857 requires at least 10% of the signatures gathered to qualify
a state initiative for the ballot to be collected by grassroots
signature gatherers. Additionally, AB 857 helps ensure that
measures do not qualify for the ballot due to fraudulent
activity by prohibiting fraudulently collected signatures from
being used to qualify a measure for the ballot."
Under the provisions of this bill, in order for a state
initiative measure to qualify for the ballot, at least 10% of
the signatures gathered on the petition for that measure would
have to be collected on petition sections that were circulated
by a person who does not receive money or other valuable
consideration exclusively or primarily for the purpose of
soliciting signatures of electors on the petition, as specified.
This "10% requirement" does not apply to state referendum or
recall petitions, nor does it apply to local initiatives,
referenda, or recalls.
In 1988, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado
prohibition against the use of paid circulators for initiative
petitions violated the First Amendment's guarantee of free
speech. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Stevens noted
that "[t]he State's interest in protecting the integrity of the
initiative process does not justify the prohibition because the
State has failed to demonstrate that it is necessary to burden
appellees' ability to communicate their message in order to meet
its concerns." Meyer v. Grant (1988), 486 U.S. 414. It could
be argued that the 10% requirement imposed by this bill could be
susceptible to a court challenge in light of the United States
Supreme Court's ruling in Meyer. However, the 10% requirement
in this bill is distinguishable from the law struck down in
Meyer in a number of different ways, and thus may be more likely
to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0002634
AB 857
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