BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1233 HEARING DATE:
4/19/12
AUTHOR: PADILLA ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 3/27/12
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Initiative and referendum petitions: translation of
circulating title and summary
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires the proponent of a proposed
initiative or referendum to submit the proposal to the
Attorney General (AG) who must prepare a circulating title
and summary of its chief points and purposes. The AG must
provide a copy of the title and summary to the Secretary of
State (SOS) within 15 days after receipt of the final
version of a proposed initiative measure, or if a fiscal
estimate is to be included, within 15 days after receipt of
the fiscal estimate prepared by the Department of Finance
(DOF) and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) who
have 25 days to prepare the fiscal estimate. The AG must
provide a copy of the circulating title and summary of a
proposed referendum measure to the proponents of the
measure and the SOS within 10 days after receipt of the
proposed referendum.
Existing law , pursuant to the federal Voting Rights Act
(VRA), as well as conforming state law, requires certain
jurisdictions with significant populations of voting-age
citizens who belong to a language minority community to
provide voting materials in languages other than English.
This requirement does not currently extend to initiative or
referendum materials prior to qualification for the ballot.
This bill would provide for translations of initiative and
referenda circulating titles and summaries, as specified.
Specifically, this bill would provide for all of the
following:
Require the proponents of an initiative or referendum
measure, at the time of submitting the text of the
proposed measure to the AG, to submit a list of counties
in which the initiative or referendum petition will be
circulated that are covered by the minority language
provisions of the VRA.
Require the AG, upon submission of the list, to prepare
a translation of the circulating title and summary in
any language covered by the relevant minority language
requirements of the VRA for those counties.
Require the AG to provide a copy of the circulating
title and summary and its translation to the proponents
and the SOS within 25 days, as specified, 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.
Require a copy of each applicable translation to be
attached to the initiative or referendum petition prior
to circulation.
Require 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.
BACKGROUND
The VRA outlawed discriminatory voting practices and
outlined a number of provisions aimed at providing all
eligible voters with the opportunity to exercise their
right to vote free from discrimination or intimidation. To
this end, Section 203 of the VRA as well as conforming
state law requires jurisdictions with sufficiently large
limited English proficient populations to provide elections
materials in the group's language. In California, this has
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meant that several counties provide voting materials, such
as a ballot pamphlet and sample ballot, in numerous
languages (see below). The VRA currently does not extend
to initiative materials prior to qualification for the
ballot.
Below is a breakdown of the covered counties and minority
languages according to the Federal Register from October
11, 2011.
Statewide: 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
Note: Although Spanish translations are a statewide
requirement (e.g., the statewide ballot pamphlet), if the
minority language group within a certain county doesn't
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meet the population requirements, then Spanish translations
aren't required to be provided.
COMMENTS
1.According to the author , the VRA protects the rights of
limited English proficient (LEP) voters by providing
language accessible election materials (i.e., official
state voter's guide and sample ballot) in their language.
In California, the languages covered by the VRA include
Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and
Tagalog among others.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2009, 58.7%
of the California foreign born population was LEP and
46.5% of naturalized citizens age 5 and older were LEP.
Among the foreign born, 74% of those who spoke Spanish at
home were LEP and 57.5% of those who spoke Asian and
Pacific Island languages were LEP.
By failing to provide language appropriate petitions, LEP
voters are left out of the process of determining which
initiatives qualify for the ballot. As the initiative
system continues to play an important role in setting
policy in California, it is imperative to provide
initiative material in languages set by the VRA.
Providing ballot initiative petitions in the appropriate
language will allow LEP voters to become more engaged in
determining which issues initially will appear on the
ballot. Circulating initiatives and referenda are not
currently made accessible to voters who are limited
English proficient since they only come in English. This
excludes about 6.1 million LEP California residents from
the initiative process. SB 1233 seeks to remedy this
through requiring translations of circulating initiative
and referendums under the VRA.
2.Costs . Current law requires initiative measures to be
translated in their entirety, including title and
summary, for the official state voter information guide,
if it qualifies for the ballot. Therefore, measures that
qualify for the ballot do not present an additional cost
to the state; SB 1233 would simply require the
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translation of title and summary to occur earlier in the
initiative process.
However, translations for initiative and referendum
measures which do not qualify for the ballot will
represent new costs. According to the Office of State
Publishing which translates and prints the official state
voter information guide for the SOS, the following
figures from 2010 illustrate the costs incurred for
translation services:
Spanish: 31 cents per English word ($31 for 100
word title/summary)
Japanese: 26 cents per English word ($26 for 100 word
title/summary)
Chinese: 28 cents per English word ($28 for 100
word title/summary)
Vietnamese: 20 cents per English word ($20 for 100
word title/summary)
Korean: 27 cents per English word ($27 for 100
word title/summary)
Tagalog: 20 cents per English word ($20 for 100
word title/summary)
Should the current $200 fee for submitting a proposed
initiative measure to the AG for title and summary be
raised commensurately to cover the additional costs of
translations?
3.Attach and Provide Translations ? This bill requires that
a copy of each applicable translation to be attached to
the initiative or referendum petition prior to
circulation and also requires the circulator of an
initiative or referendum petition to provide a copy of
the translated circulating title and summary to any
person upon request. If the translation is already
attached, why does the circulator have to provide a copy
upon request?
POSITIONS
Sponsor: The Greenlining Institute
Support: Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action
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California Church IMPACT
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
FAME Corporations
First AME Church of Los Angeles
Hmong American Political Association
Mission Language and Vocational School
National Council of La Raza
United Hmong Mutual Union, Inc.
Oppose: None received
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