California Electronic Signatures for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall Initiative (2020)
| California Electronic Signatures for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Direct democracy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The California Electronic Signatures for Initiative, Referendum, and Recall Initiative (#19-0009) was not on the ballot in California as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.
The ballot measure would have allowed campaigns to collect signatures electronically via the secretary of state's website for initiatives, referendums, and recall petitions.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The official ballot title was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Authorizes Electronic Signature Gathering For Initiative, Referendum, And Recall Petitions. Initiative Statute.[3] |
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Petition summary
The summary provided for inclusion on signature petition sheets was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Requires Secretary of State to develop a system that allows voters to view state and local initiative, referendum, and recall petitions on Secretary of State’s website and to sign them electronically directly on the website, or to download, print, and sign the printed petitions. Requires Secretary of State or local elections official to verify these signatures. Requires Secretary of State to invite arguments for and against petitions, and to post submitted arguments on website. Requires Secretary of State’s website to include ongoing tally of each measure’s signatures received electronically or on downloaded petitions.[3] |
” |
Fiscal impact
The fiscal impact statement was as follows:[2]
| “ |
One-time state and local government costs in the millions of dollars or more to develop an online system for electronic petition signature gathering. Potential net costs or savings due to changed state and local government processes for verifying petition signatures.[3] |
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Full text
The full text of the ballot measure is available here.
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
On August 19, 2019, Michael Liddell filed the ballot initiative. On October 23, 2019, Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) released ballot language for the initiative, allowing a signature drive to begin.[1] On May 4, 2020, the secretary of state announced that no signatures were filed.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 California Attorney General, "Initiative #19-0009," August 19, 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.
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