BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1094 (Hernandez) - Initiatives: petition circulators
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|Version: April 18, 2016 |Policy Vote: E. & C.A. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 2, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1094 would enact several changes to initiative
signature gathering procedures relating to qualification
requirements for the state ballot.
Fiscal Impact: The Secretary of State's Office (SOS) indicates
that it would incur one-time costs of $55,000 to revise
regulations (General Fund).
Background: The initiative process is used by the voters to
propose new statutes, changes to existing law, and to propose
amendments to the California Constitution. Generally, any
matter that is a proper subject of legislation can become an
initiative measure; however, no initiative measure addressing
more than one subject area may be submitted to the voters or
have any effect. An initiative measure is placed on the ballot
after its proponents successfully satisfy the requirements
prescribed by law.
Current law requires that a state or local initiative petition
contain a notice alerting voters that the petition may be
circulated by a paid signature gatherer or by a volunteer, and
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that voters have the right to ask if a petition circulator is a
paid gatherer or volunteer.
Proposed Law: This bill would, among other things, do the
following:
Require at least 15 percent of the signatures necessary
to qualify an initiative measure be solicited by a person
who does not receive money or other valuable consideration
exclusively or primarily for the specific purpose of
soliciting signatures of electors on the petition, as
specified.
Provide that a person who is an employee or member, as
defined, of a nonprofit organization, other than an
organization with the primary purpose of soliciting
signatures on initiative petitions, who receives money or
other valuable consideration from the organization and as
part of that employment or membership solicits signatures
for the qualification of an initiative measure shall be
deemed to be a person who, for purposes of satisfying the
15 percent requirement, does not receive money or other
valuable consideration for the specific purpose of
soliciting signatures of electors, unless the primary
purpose of that employment or membership is to solicit
signatures on an initiative petition.
Require that when determining whether an organization,
or a member or employee of an organization, has the primary
purpose of soliciting signatures on an initiative petition,
the totality of the circumstances, as defined, shall be
considered.
Provide that signatures solicited by registered voters
of, or employees of a political party or political party
committee, who receive money or other valuable
consideration from the political party or political party
committee for soliciting signatures on an initiative
petition do not count toward satisfying the 15 percent
requirement.
Provide that signatures solicited through direct mail do
not count towards the number of signatures needed to
satisfy the 15 percent requirement if the person soliciting
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the signatures through direct mail, or any other person who
organizes, pays for, or arranges for the direct mail,
receives money or other valuable consideration primarily
for the purpose of soliciting signatures of electors,
unless the person is an employee or member of a nonprofit
organization as described above.
Provides that this provision not preclude an
organization that has a primary purpose other than
soliciting signatures on initiative petitions from
soliciting signatures from the organization's members
through direct mail and relying on those signatures for
purposes of satisfying the 15 percent requirement.
Provide that a petition that contains a "volunteer's"
declaration shall be prima facie evidence that the
signatures thereon satisfy the 15 percent requirement.
Provide that nominal benefits other than money, such as
food, transportation or lodging, do not preclude that
individual from soliciting signatures toward the 15 percent
requirement.
Provide for purposes of verifying signatures under
existing law and the procedures set forth by SOS, if the
signature of a qualified voter appears once on a petition
or section of a petition submitted to satisfy the 15
percent requirement, and the same voter's signature appears
on a petition or section of a petition that does not, the
qualified voter's signature shall only be counted once and
shall be counted towards satisfying the 15 percent
requirement.
Require the circulating title prepared by the Attorney
General (AG) be in 18-point roman boldface type, and placed
in the one-inch space across the top of the first page on
each section of the petition.
Require a petition for a proposed initiative measure
that is circulated by a volunteer, be printed on white
paper in a contrasting color ink, and requires a petition
for a proposed initiative measure that is circulated by a
paid circulator be printed on paper of a color other than
white in a contrasting color ink.
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Require a petition for a proposed initiative measure
that is circulated by a paid circulator, to include the
following statement immediately prior to the portion of the
petition for voters' signatures, printed names, and
residence addresses, printed in 12-point boldface type:
"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."
Provides in addition to the information required in the
existing declaration of a circulator, a volunteer
circulator must declare all of the following: (1) the
person does not receive money or other valuable
consideration for soliciting signatures of electors, and
(2) to the best of his or her knowledge, the signatures on
the petition sections circulated by him or her should be
counted towards the 15% requirement.
Provide that an initiative petition section is invalid
if the signatures are solicited and submitted by a person
who intentionally engages in fraud, misrepresentation, or
any other improper signature-gathering behavior, or by a
person who falsely claims to have not received money or
other valuable consideration for the specific purpose of
soliciting signatures of electors as defined.
Permit SOS, the AG, a district attorney, a city attorney
of a city with a population greater than 750,000, or any
elector to enforce this provision by a civil action in
which the plaintiff has the burden of showing a violation
by clear and convincing evidence. The signatures on a
petition section shall be invalidated only upon a showing,
by clear and convincing evidence, that the person who
solicited or obtained the signatures did so through
intentional fraud, misrepresentation, or other illegal
conduct, or that the person falsely claimed to have not
received money or other valuable consideration for the
specific purpose of soliciting signatures of electors. Any
civil action brought pursuant to a violation shall have
priority over all other civil matters.
Prohibit a petition section from being invalidated after
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the SOS has certified that the measure has qualified for
the ballot.
Require that if an elections official is notified of or
discovers any illegal conduct of a person circulating a
petition, he or she must notify the SOS immediately but
does not permit the local elections official to refuse to
examine or to stop the examination of the petition or
petition sections.
Provide local election officials with two additional
days beyond the current eight day requirement to determine
the total number of signatures affixed to a petition, and
in the case of an initiative petition, the total number of
signatures submitted to satisfy the 15 percent requirement.
Also provides election officials with an additional five
days beyond the current 30 day requirement to determine
that a petition has received a sufficient number of
qualified voter's signatures and signatures that satisfy
the 15 percent requirement.
Require SOS to adopt emergency regulations pursuant to
the provisions of this bill.
Apply to initiatives that receive a title and summary
from the Attorney General after January 1, 2017.
Provide that specified provisions of the bill become
operative only if the SOS certifies that the state has a
statewide voter registration database that complies with
the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of
2002.
Related Legislation: AB 857 (Fong of 2013) was substantially
similar to this bill, but was vetoed by the Governor.
Staff Comments: Current law requires that in order for a measure
to qualify to be placed before the voters in California on a
statewide ballot, there must be sufficient signatures as
follows: (1) an initiative measure must have at least 5 percent
of the total votes cast for the office of Governor during the
preceding gubernatorial election, and (2) a proposed
constitutional amendment must have at least 8 percent of the
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total votes cast for the last election for Governor.
This bill would prohibit an initiative from qualifying for the
statewide ballot based solely on signatures collected by
individuals paid to circulate that petition.
Under current law, if the amount of raw signatures submitted
statewide totals less than 100 percent of the required amount of
signatures to qualify the initiative measure for the ballot,
then the initiative would fail to qualify. Under this bill, an
initiative measure could also fail if the proponents failed to
collect 15 percent of the required amount of signatures using
unpaid volunteers (or non-profit employees or members paid to
collect signatures), regardless of whether the total amount of
signatures collected equaled or exceeded 100 percent of the
required amount of signatures.
SOS estimates a one-time cost of $55,000 to develop regulations
related to volunteer signature gatherers.
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