BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 654 (Leno) - Ballot Measure Petitions
Amended: April 1, 2013 Policy Vote: E&CA 4-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 654 requires the Attorney General (AG) to
prepare a translation of the circulating title and summary of a
proposed initiative or referendum into the languages covered by
the Federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). The bill also requires the
Secretary of State (SOS) to translate recall petitions as
specified.
Fiscal Impact:
First year costs of $94,000 and annual ongoing of $129,000
to the AG for translation services (General)
SOS costs of up to $69,000 annually dependent on the number
of recall petitions (General)
Costs to the AG's Office result from one AGPA position in the
Civil Law Division of the Department of Justice, and for two
external translation contracts. These contract cost estimates
are based on an anticipated 80 measures at $391 per measure. The
estimated costs for the SOS are based upon the highest number of
recall petitions received in one year (17 in 1989) but would
likely be less in any given year.
Background: The Federal Voting Rights Act requires
jurisdictions with sufficiently large limited English proficient
populations to provide elections materials in the group's
language. In California, this has meant that several counties
are required to provide voting materials, such as the ballot
pamphlet and sample ballot, in numerous languages. The VRA does
not extend to initiative materials prior to qualification for
the ballot.
The Secretary of State currently is responsible for contracting
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with a vendor to provide translations for voting materials that
have qualified for the ballot. It is at that time that all
ballot labels, titles and summaries for qualified initiatives
are translated along with other information in the Voter
Information Guide.
Following is a breakdown of the covered counties and minority
languages according to the Federal Register from October 11,
2011:
Statewide ballots: Spanish
Alameda: Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese
Colusa: Spanish
Contra Costa: Spanish
Fresno: Spanish
Glenn: Spanish
Imperial: Spanish
Kern: Spanish
Kings: Spanish
Los Angeles: Asian Indian (Bengali & Gujarati), Chinese,
Tagalog, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Other Asian (Thai, Khmer,
Hindi), Vietnamese
Madera: Spanish
Merced: Spanish
Monterey: Spanish
Napa: Spanish
Orange: Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese
Riverside: Spanish
Sacramento: Spanish, Chinese
San Benito: Spanish
San Bernardino: Spanish
San Diego: Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese
San Francisco: Chinese, Spanish
San Joaquin: Spanish
San Mateo: Chinese, Spanish
Santa Barbara: Spanish
Santa Clara: Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese
Stanislaus: Spanish
Tulare: Spanish
Ventura: Spanish
Proposed Law: SB 654 does all of the following:
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a) Requires the proponents of an initiative or referendum
measure to submit a list of the counties in which the
initiative or referendum petition will be circulated to the
Attorney General's Office (AG) when submitting the text of
the proposed measure for preparation of the circulating
title and summary.
b) Requires the AG to prepare a translation of the
circulating title and summary in any language covered by
the relevant minority language requirements of the Voting
Rights Act for those counties.
c) Requires the AG to provide a copy of the circulating
title and summary and its translation to the proponents and
the SOS within 25 days for a proposed initiative measure
and within 20 days after receipt of a proposed referendum
measure thereby potentially adding an additional 10 days to
the overall time permitted to prepare titles and summaries.
d) Requires the circulator of an initiative or referendum
petition to make available a copy of the translated
circulating title and summary to each person whom the
circulator solicits in that language to sign the petition,
and to provide a copy of the translated circulating title
and summary to any person upon request.
e) Requires proponents of a recall of a state officer to
include a list of counties in which the recall petition
will be circulated when filing the required copies of the
petition with the Secretary of State.
f) Requires the Secretary of State to translate recall
petitions into each applicable minority language for the
counties identified by the proponents that are covered
under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Related Legislation: SB 1233 (Padilla) of 2012 was similar to
this bill but was vetoed by the Governor who stated in his veto
message: "The provisions of this bill are well intended.
Unfortunately, however, they add substantial burdens to the
petition process without commensurate benefit. I would also
note that the vast majority of initiatives submitted to the
Attorney General's Office never get to the circulation stage."
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AUTHORS AMENDMENTS: Limit translations to initiatives that
proponents indicate they intend to circulate.