August 15, 2005

"Secretary of state calls for more review of initiative petitions"

"Under McPherson's plan, an additional 10-day review period would be added to the initiative process between the time sponsors submit their proposal to the state attorney general and its release to the public. It also would give the secretary of state new authority to review petitions before they are released for circulation.."

The complete article can be found here.

This proposal would mirror the process governing recall petitions, which must be approved by the Secretary of State before they are circulated, a requirement that Proposition 77 proponent Ted Costa had difficulty satisfying at the beginning stages of the Davis recall effort.

One question is what happens under Secretary McPherson's proposal if the proponent circulates a different version of the petition than that approved by the Secretary of State, but not so different that it would be "likely to have misled the persons who signed the initiative petition," the standard that the California Supreme Court apparently would apply in the Proposition 77 case. Does the circulated version go on the ballot if it receives the requisite number of valid signatures?

Posted by Randy Riddle at August 15, 2005 06:59 PM