BILL ANALYSIS
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Date of Hearing: June 23, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
ACA 14 (Hernandez) - As Introduced: February 27, 2009
SUBJECT : Initiative measures.
SUMMARY : Prohibits more than five initiative measures from
appearing on the ballot at any statewide election.
Specifically, this measure :
1)Limits the number of initiative measures that may appear on
the ballot at a general election or a statewide special
election to not more than five measures.
2)Provides that priority for placement on a ballot shall be
assigned chronologically, based on the date an initiative
measure qualifies for the ballot.
3)Provides that an initiative measure that qualifies for the
ballot after the five measure limit for an election has been
reached shall not appear on the ballot at a subsequent
election, but provides that a new initiative measure
containing the same or a similar proposal may qualify to
appear on the ballot at a future election.
EXISTING LAW requires the Secretary of State to submit an
initiative measure to the voters at the next statewide election
held at least 131 days after the measure qualifies for the
ballot.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Constitutional Amendment : According to the
author:
A Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) survey in
November 2008 revealed that a majority of California voters
are overwhelmed by the number of ballot measures set before
them. The State's current initiative process puts no
limits on the number of ballot measures an election may
generate and provides little or biased information about
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the proposal.
ACA 14 places a limit on the number of initiative measures
on each statewide ballot to five. Initiative measures
would be prioritized according to the date of
qualification.
Placing restrictions on the number of measures per ballot
would allow voters an opportunity to thoroughly consider
each proposal. Since California's adoption of the ballot
initiative in 1911, over 300 ballot initiatives have been
voted on. Some of these measures have asked voters to
consider important state policy impacting property taxes,
immigration, affirmative action, definition of marriage,
term limits, etc. It is crucial for California's well-being
that voters are informed before making decisions on these
important issues.
2)Ballots Frequently Contain More than Five Initiative Measures :
Since 2000, California has held 14 statewide elections, and
have voted on a total of 63 statewide initiatives - an average
of 4.5 initiatives per statewide election. Five of those 14
elections have contained more than five initiatives - eight in
March 2000, 11 in March 2004, eight at the 2005 statewide
special election, eight in November 2006, and 10 at last
year's general election.
As a result, while the limit proposed by this constitutional
amendment of no more than 5 initiatives per statewide ballot
is roughly in line with the average number of initiative
measures that have been considered by voters at each statewide
election over the last decade, this constitutional amendment
could have significant impacts at certain elections by
delaying or preventing altogether the appearance of certain
initiative measures on the ballot.
3)No Limit on Number of Propositions : While this constitutional
amendment does propose to limit the number of initiatives that
can appear on the ballot at any single statewide election, it
does not limit the number of ballot measures that can appear
on the ballot at an election. As such, this measure would not
limit the number of constitutional amendments, bond measures,
or initiative amendments that the Legislature could place on
the ballot at any single election, nor would it limit the
number of referenda that could appear on the ballot.
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4)Crowding Out Initiatives ? Under this constitutional
amendment, when more than five initiatives qualify to appear
on the ballot at the next statewide election, the
determination of which initiatives will appear on that ballot
is based on the chronological order in which the measures
qualified for the ballot - the first five initiatives to
qualify appear on the ballot, while any initiatives that
qualify subsequent to those five do not appear on the ballot
at the next statewide election and proponents must collect
signatures again if they wish for that initiative measure to
appear on the ballot at a future election. As a result, this
system could create incentives for groups or individuals to
qualify initiatives for the ballot for the sole purpose of
preventing other initiatives from appearing on the ballot.
For instance, if four initiatives had already qualified for
the ballot at the next statewide election and an individual
submitted an initiative for title and summary that was
vehemently opposed by a specific industry, that industry could
prevent the initiative from appearing on the ballot by
submitting their own initiative and collecting signatures more
quickly, or by funding a signature gathering drive on any
other initiative that had already been submitted.
5)Increasing Initiative Costs ? In addition to potentially
creating incentives for groups and individuals to support
initiative measures simply for the purpose of crowding out
other initiative measures, this constitutional amendment could
significantly increase costs for gathering signatures on
petitions for elections where a large number of initiatives
are attempting to qualify for the ballot. For instance, if
there are 12 initiatives for which petitions are circulating,
this constitutional amendment would put pressure on the
proponents of each of those 12 measures to qualify their
measure for the ballot before the five-initiative limit was
reached. This could benefit the initiative proponents who
were able to pay the highest amount to signature gatherers,
while disadvantaging grassroots or lower-budget initiative
efforts.
6)Arguments in Opposition : In opposition to this measure,
Capitol Resource Family Impact expresses concern that "[i]f
only 5 initiatives are allowed on the ballot, many grassroots
initiatives would rarely be on the ballot. Instead,
initiatives financed by well-funded companies or organizations
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would get their initiatives qualified first, leaving off the
lesser funded but grassroots supported measures."
7)Approval of Voters : As a constitutional amendment, this
measure requires the approval of the voters to take effect.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
Capitol Resource Family Impact
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094