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California Alimony Limited to Five Years Initiative (2020)
| California Alimony Limited to Five Years Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Family-related policy | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The California Alimony Limited to Five Years Initiative (#19-0002) was not on the ballot in California as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.
The ballot measure would have limited alimony to no more than five years.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The official ballot title was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Limits Duration of Spousal Support After Divorce or Legal Separation to No More Than Five Years. Initiative Statute.[3] |
” |
Petition summary
The summary provided for inclusion on signature petition sheets was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Prohibits courts from ordering spousal support payments lasting longer than five years after a divorce or legal separation.[3] |
” |
Fiscal impact
The fiscal impact statement was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Unknown net effect on state court costs related to future divorce and legal separation proceedings.[3] |
” |
Full text
The full text is available here.
Sponsor
CalAlimonyReform.org led the campaign in support of the initiative.[4][5]
Path to the ballot
In California, the number of signatures required for an initiated state statute is equal to 5 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Petitions are allowed to circulate for 180 days from the date the attorney general prepares the petition language. Signatures need to be certified at least 131 days before the general election. As the verification process can take multiple months, the secretary of state provides suggested deadlines for ballot initiatives.
The requirements to get initiated state statutes certified for the 2020 ballot:
- Signatures: 623,212 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline for signature verification was June 25, 2020. However, the process of verifying signatures can take multiple months. The recommended deadlines were March 3, 2020, for an initiative requiring a full check of signatures and April 21, 2020, for an initiative requiring a random sample of signatures.
Signatures are first filed with local election officials, who determine the total number of signatures submitted. If the total number is equal to at least 100 percent of the required signatures, then local election officials perform a random check of signatures submitted in their counties. If the random sample estimates that more than 110 percent of the required number of signatures are valid, the initiative is eligible for the ballot. If the random sample estimates that between 95 and 110 percent of the required number of signatures are valid, a full check of signatures is done to determine the total number of valid signatures. If less than 95 percent are estimated to be valid, the initiative does not make the ballot.
Stages of this initiative
Steve Clark filed the ballot initiative on May 28, 2019.[1] On August 6, 2019, Scretary of State Alex Padilla (D) published petition language for the ballot initiative, allowing proponents to begin collecting signatures. The deadline to file signatures was February 3, 2020. Signatures were not filed for the ballot initiative.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 California Attorney General, "Initiative 19-0002," May 28, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 California Secretary of State, "Initiatives and Referenda Cleared for Circulation," accessed June 25, 2019
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ CalAlimonyReform.org, "About us," accessed August 13, 2019
- ↑ ABC 7, "Divorced Huntington Beach dad gathers signatures to limit alimony payments in California," accessed August 13, 2019
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