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Campaign Financing
Elections
Political Reform

 

 

 

Campaign Financing

SB 717 (Karnette-D) California Election Campaign Fund

Extends the Election Campaign Fund income tax check-off from 1997 through 2001. Discontinues the check-off if it does not generate at least $250,000 in contributions starting on or after January 1, 2000.

Vetoed by the Governor

AB 674 (Leonard-R) Campaign contributions and expenditures

Places an alternative package of campaign finance reforms on the ballot for voter approval in order to make corrections to Proposition 208 of 1996.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

Elections

SB 7 (Kopp-I) Elections: voting

Permits, for purposes of a voter to vote absentee, the office of an election official to include satellite locations, according to the selection criteria developed by the election official. Extends the prohibition on electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place on election day to include any time a voter may be casting his or her ballot in an election officials' office. Revises provisions of law concerning the delivery of ballots to persons ill, disabled, or physically handicapped.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SB 22 (Johnson-R) County offices: term limits

Permits the voters to impose prospective term limits upon any elective non-judicial county office, including, but not limited to, District Attorneys, Assessors, Clerk Recorders, and Sheriff. Permits these term limit proposals to be placed on the ballot by the county board of supervisors or by the voters through the initiative process, and provides that, in either case, the proposals cannot become operative until approved at a regular election. Permits the repeal of the term limits upon voter approval.

(Failed passage in Senate Elections and Reapportionment; reconsideration granted)

SB 36 (Vasconcellos-D) Primary election: task force

Creates the Task Force on Statewide Primary Elections to study the establishment of a statewide primary in September of each even-numbered year. Requires the task force to issue findings and recommendations by January 1, 1999.

Vetoed by the Governor

SB 59 (Kopp-I) Mail ballot elections

Allows San Mateo County to conduct a single, countywide mail ballot special election, provided it is authorized by the Board of Supervisors, as specified. Requires a report to the Legislature, the Secretary of State, and the Governor on the cost, participation, the number of ballots not counted because of lack of signatures on the identification envelope or late return of the voted ballot, and any other special circumstances involved in implementing this bill.

Vetoed by Governor

SB 241 (Knight-R) Absentee ballots: challenges

Prohibits the inclusion of any information regarding political party affiliation on an absentee voter's identification envelope, or on the list of absent voters required to be produced for purposes of challenging ballots. Applies these provisions to general elections. Prohibits the absentee voter's partisan affiliation from being made visible to non-elections officials while signatures are compared.

(Failed passage in Assembly Appropriations Committee; reconsideration granted)

SB 242 (Knight-R) Elections: absentee voters

Requires election officials to mail, within 90 days after the election, a notice to each absent voter whose voted absentee ballot is rejected, stating the reasons for rejection.

(In Senate Appropriations Committee)

SB 269 (Karnette-D) Voter registration materials

Requires (1) the governing board of school districts to distribute registration forms to each 12th grade pupil at the start of the school year, and (2) the governing board of each community college district to include voter registration forms in each student's registration materials.

Vetoed by the Governor

SB 287 (Karnette-D) Elections

Adds 2 additional pieces of information to the absent voter identification envelope: a warning that the ballot shall not be counted if the envelope is not signed, and a statement that the envelope must be received by election officials by 8:00 p.m. on election day. Requires that laws governing provisional ballots be liberally construed in favor of the voter.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SB 444 (Knight-R) Voter registration

Redesigns the voter registration card, particularly the affidavit portion that is completed by the voter. Requires the voter to individually initial specified declarations on the card, as well as signing the card. Requires naturalized citizens to include on the affidavit their naturalization certificate number and date of naturalization. Removes the requirement that political parties appear in the affidavit portion of the card. Requires that any affidavit that lacks the voter's signature, or any of the 4 sets of required initials be rejected and returned to the voter. Requires elections officials, when returning the affidavit, to notify the affiant why the card was rejected, and to include a new voter registration form.

(Failed passage in Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee; reconsideration granted)

SB 490 (Lewis-R) Absentee ballots: counting

Requires county elections officials, when any absentee ballot cast at an election is not counted due to a successful challenge or for any other reason for which the voted ballot may not be counted, to notify the absent voter in writing, not later than 180 days after the date of the election, that the absentee ballot was not counted, and the reason or reasons why.

(In Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

SB 520 (Brulte-R) Elections: telephone advocacy

Prohibits a candidate, committee, political organization, independent expenditure committee, or other organization from using campaign funds to pay for telephone calls that advocate support or opposition to a candidate, ballot measure, or both, unless the call includes disclosure of the organization paying for the call. Applies to calls similar in nature and that aggregate more than 1,000. Exempts telephone calls made by the candidate, campaign manager, or volunteers from these provisions.

(Failed passage in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SB 627 (Karnette-D) Elections: registration

Specifically applies the rights and procedures of a superior court to compel qualified electors who claim to have registered to vote through the State Department of Motor Vehicles or any other specified public agency, but whose registration has not been acknowledged by the county elections officials.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SB 671 (Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee) Elections

Makes technical, clarifying, conforming and nonsubstantive changes to the Elections Code. Allows, rather than requires, the Secretary of State to compile local election returns. Extends the time county officials have to verify statewide initiative petition signatures.

Vetoed by the Governor

SB 918 (Rainey-R) Election: direct primary

Provides that any candidate or state officer, Senate or Assembly, in a primary election, who receives a majority of the votes cast for a particular office shall be deemed elected and, as a result, would not appear on the subsequent general election ballot. Becomes inoperative, if specified provisions of Proposition 198 are held to be invalid by the courts.

(Failed passage in Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee; reconsideration granted)

SB 1077 (Schiff-D) Elections: voters: registration

Requires "bounty hunters" and their employees to identify and separate those affidavits of registration into groups that do and do not comply with voter registration laws and attach a signed acknowledgment to each group to identify whether or not they comply. Establishes penalties for "bounty hunter" failure to comply with the requirements of this bill, and requires employers of errant "bounty hunters" to be notified by election officials if 3 or more affidavits submitted do not comply. Permits the elections official to forward the noncomplying affidavits to the district attorney, who may make a determination whether probable cause exists to believe that violation has occurred.

Chapter 456, Statutes of 1997

SB 1223 (Monteith-R) Mail ballot elections

Requires elections officials, upon the receipt of a mailed ballot, to compare the signature and residence address on the envelope containing the ballot with the signature and residence address on the voter's affidavit of registration, as specified, and to verify that they are the same before depositing the ballot into the ballot container. Provides that a variation between the compared signatures by the substitution of initials for the first or middle name does not invalidate the ballot.

(In Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

SB 1271 (Kopp-I) Voter registration information

Permits an attorney, or a registered process server on behalf of an attorney, to access otherwise confidential information on a voter registration card, with some exceptions and conditions, if he or she declares that the information is necessary to represent a client in a civil or criminal action that directly involves the voter.

Vetoed by the Governor

SB 1274 (Hurtt-R) Payment for voting

Conforms state law to be federal law, prohibiting any person from receiving any valuable consideration (money, gifts, loan, office, place, or employment) in exchange for voting or refraining from voting. Exempts transportation to a polling place, which could be construed as a valuable consideration from the prohibition.

(Failed passage in Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee; reconsideration granted)

SCA 5 (Karnette-D) Initiative measures

Provides that an initiative measure embraces one subject when each provision of the measure is reasonably germane to the general objective or purpose of the measure, and each provision of the measure is reasonably interdependent with all the other provisions therein.

(In Senate Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SCA 15 (Lewis-R) Elections: Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Provides for joint election of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor.

(In Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

AB 44 (Murray-D) Digital electoral system

Requires the Secretary of State to assign a task force to study the creation of a digital electoral system and report to the Legislature, by March 1, 1999, on the results of the study.

Vetoed by the Governor

AB 73 (Bordonaro-R) Petition circulation: licensing

Requires every person who receives payment, or anything of value, for circulating for signature, or obtaining signatures to, a petition being circulated under the Elections Code, to first obtain a permit as a "Paid Political Circulator" from the Secretary of State, as specified.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

AB 188 (Murray-D) Voter registration: confidentiality

Allows voter registration information of specified police officers and their families to be declared confidential, as specified.

(In Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

AB 238 (Kuykendall-R) Absent voters

Requires any absent voter who returns the marked absentee ballot in person to surrender the marked ballot to a member of the precinct board, and permits the voter to vote only by casting a regular ballot at a voting booth at the polling place.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

AB 383 (Ackerman-R) Elections: voting identification

Requires a voter to present proof of his or her identity and residency to a member of the precinct board before receiving a ballot, as specified.

(Failed passage in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee; reconsideration granted; motion to withdraw bill from committee failed on Assembly Floor)

AB 414 (Goldsmith-R) Voter registration: affidavits of registration

Requires the residence at which a person lives to be the residence used for voter registration and voting purposes. Prohibits the use of a commercial mailbox or post office box. Allows the trier of fact to infer satisfaction of the specific intent element by the presence of the voter's signature on the affidavit. Vests in the Secretary of State concurrent jurisdiction to enforce the fraudulent voting prohibitions.

(Failed passage in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

AB 430 (Baldwin-R) Election Day procedures

Requires the elections official to provide signs to the precinct board stating, among other things, as follows: "In order to vote in any city, county, state, or federal election, you must be a United States citizen, a resident of California, not in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18 years of age at the time of the election." Requires that these signs also be provided in as many non-English languages as the elections official determines are needed. Requires the precinct board to post, in a conspicuous location at the polling place, the English-language sign and any sign or signs in non-English language provided by the elections official.

(Failed passage in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

AB 677 (Aguiar-R) Initiative measures: constitutional review

Requires that legislative measures submitted to the voters and statewide initiative measures be grouped together in the order in which they qualify for the ballot. Adds to the existing heading on the ballot, "Measures Submitted to the Voters," the captions "These Measures Were Placed On The Ballot By The Legislature" or "These Measures Were Placed On The Ballot By The Circulation Of Petitions."

(Failed passage in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee; reconsideration granted)

AB 679 (Caldera-D) Ballot measures

Requires that legislative measures submitted to the voters and statewide initiative measures be grouped together in the order in which they qualify for the ballot. Adds to the existing heading on the ballot, "Measures Submitted to the Voters," the captions "These Measures Were Placed On The Ballot By The Legislature" or "These Measures Were Placed On The Ballot By The Circulation Of Petitions."

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

AB 935 (Vincent-D) Initiative measures

Requires proponents of a statewide initiative measure, at the time of submitting the requests to the Attorney General for preparation of a title and summary, to include a certification, in a specified format, that the proposed measure has been reviewed by legal counsel for sufficiency of legal form, clarify of language, and proper drafting style. Permits the legal certification to be done by an attorney admitted to the State Bar, the Legislative Counsel Bureau, or the Secretary of State. Requires the Secretary of State to include an analysis of the drafting style of an initiative as part of its review of the initiative prior to its circulation.

(Failed passage on Senate Floor)

AB 1233 (Granlund-R) Initiative measures

Requires any circulator of an initiative, who receives compensation in exchange for collection of signatures on a petition for placement of a measure on the ballot, to inform such potential signer of the fact that he or she is being paid, the amount, and the name of the committee or organization paying the circulator to gather the signatures. Requires any state general purpose committee to support or oppose the measure to file a campaign statement no later than 5 days after the official date of the proposed initiative measure.

(In Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

AB 1359 (Bowen-D) Initiative measures

Requires elections officials, upon the receipt of a mailed ballot, to compare the signature and residence address on the envelope containing the ballot with the signature and residence address on the voter's affidavit of registration, as specified, and to verify that they are the same before depositing the ballot into the ballot container. Provides that a variation between the compared signatures by the substitution of initials for the first or middle name does not invalidate the ballot.

(Failed passage on Assembly Floor; placed on Inactive File)

A companion measure, ACA 11 (Bowen-D), also failed passage on the Assembly Floor and was placed on the Inactive File.

Political Reform

SB 49* (Karnette-D) Political Reform: online disclosure

Enacts the On-Line Disclosure Act requiring the Secretary of State to develop a process whereby reports and statements required under the Political Reform Act can be filed on-line and viewed by the public, as specified. Appropriates $1 million.

Chapter 866, Statutes of 1997

A similar bill was SB 7 (Kopp-I) before it was used as another elections issue and AB 63 (Cunneen-R).

SB 109 (Kopp-I) Political Reform: foreign entities

Prohibits contributions from a foreign government or foreign principal in connection with any state or local initiative, recall, or referendum measure, as specified.

Chapter 67, Statutes of 1997

SB 124* (Karnette-D) Political Reform: contributions and gifts

Adds to the definition of "contribution" and amends the Political Reform Act definition of "gift" to clarify that a gift is a payment that confers a personal benefit.

Chapter 450, Statutes of 1997

SB 197 (Craven-R) Political Reform: Statement of Economic Interest

Requires persons appointed to specified public offices to file an Assuming Office Statement of Economic Interest within 30 days, rather than 10 days, after the date of assuming office.

Chapter 36, Statutes of 1997

SB 244* (Sher-D) Political Reform Act of 1974: preelection statements

Requires state and county general purpose committees to file preelection statements when they receive contributions of $1,000 or more during the time period specified for the preelection statement. Expands the information that is required in a late expenditure report to include the name, street address, occupation, and name of employer (or business, if self-employed), of persons contributing $100 or more during the specified period, as well as the date and amount of each contribution during the period covered by that statement.

(Failed passage on Senate Floor; reconsideration granted)

SB 304 (Karnette-D) Political Reform: statements of organization

Requires that each elected officeholder's statements of organization designate whether they have been filed for establishing campaign committees or officeholder accounts.

(In Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee)

SB 363 (Lewis-R) Filing requirements: filings

Specifies that Political Reform Act faxed reports or statements are not to be deemed filed if the faxed reports or statements are not true and correct copies of the originals. Amends the definition of "contribution" to allow for specified types of payments to candidates or officeholders that are to be presumed to be for either election related purposes or for purposes other than a candidate's candidacy for elective office. Double-joined to SB 124 (Karnette).

Chapter 394, Statutes of 1997

SB 561* (Burton-D) Political Reform Act of 1974: slate mailers

Provides that slate mailers which contain any candidate or ballot measure recommendation, as specified, must disclose that the recommendation is not the official position of the party that the mailer appears to represent.

Vetoed by Governor

SB 946* (Maddy-R) Political Reform: revisions

Makes various changes in the Political Reform Act of 1974 concerning disclosure and gift limit exemptions, and deletes various obsolete code references regarding conflict of interest codes developed by agencies. Changes the definition of "income" to exempt loans which are secured by the principal residence of the official and loan payments received from relatives from being reported in the Statement of Economic Interest.

Chapter 455, Statutes of 1997

SB 949 (Schiff-D) Public officials and candidates

Prohibits any candidate or elected or appointed official from offering, or arranging for, any increase in the compensation or salary of a public employee in exchange for a contribution or loan from that employee to any committee controlled by the candidate or official.

Chapter 206, Statutes of 1997

SB 1097 (Kopp-I) Insurance Commissioner: contributions

Prohibits any persons regulated by the Insurance Commissioner, and persons or committees which are acting on behalf of regulated persons, from making campaign contributions to a candidate for the office of Insurance Commissioner, as specified. Provides that no private attorney or law firm that is under control or is seeking a contract to represent either the State Department of Insurance or the Insurance Commissioner in his or her official capacity or seeking advocacy fees will make such contributions, as specified.

(Failed passage on Senate Floor; placed on Senate Inactive File)

SB 1353 (Mountjoy-R) Political Reform Act of 1974: audits

Permits the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) to exempt a candidate or committee from a second random audit when that candidate or committee has been randomly selected in 2 consecutive audit cycles and no serious infractions were found in the audit conducted for the first audit cycle. States that, in such cases, the FPPC may randomly select another candidate or committee from the same audit pool.

(Failed passage in Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee)

SB 1357 (Burton-D) Political Reform Act: expenditures

Excludes from the definition of "expenditure," for the purpose of the voluntary expenditure ceiling, taxes paid on funds deposited within a candidate's campaign bank account.

(In Senate Rules Committee; awaiting referral to policy committee)

AB 627 (Scott-D) Political Reform Act of 1974: personal loans

Imposes qualifications, restrictions, and disclosure requirements upon personal loans received by state and local officials.

Chapter 638, Statutes of 1997

AB 837 (Thomson-D) Lobbyists: certification

Clarifies existing law as it relates to lobbyist ethics classes and certification.

Chapter 574, Statutes of 1997

A similar bill is SB 331 (Craven-R), which is in Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee.

AB 937 (Vincent-D) Political Reform Act

Permits individuals who are employed by a state, local, or federal agency and serve on a state advisory body to represent their employing agency in a governmental decision in an appearance before, or communication to the advisory board. Does not require an elected official who completes a term of office and within 30 days begins a term of the same office or another office of the same jurisdiction to file a new Statement of Economic Interest.

Chapter 145, Statutes of 1997

AB 938 (Vincent-D) Political Reform: administrative actions

Places a 5-year statute of limitations on administrative actions brought by the Fair Political Practices Commission, as specified.

Chapter 179, Statutes of 1997

AB 1022 (Lempert-D) Coastal Commission: gift reporting

Requires any member of the California Coastal Commission, who receives a gift of value of $10 or more, to disclose the gift to the California Coastal Commission.

Vetoed by the Governor

AB 1336 (Vincent-D) Political Reform Act: ballot measure committees

Requires all committees that are formed for the purpose of supporting or opposing the qualification, passage, or defeat of any ballot measure to file a preelection statement consistent with the current requirements for these types of committees, as specified.

(Sent to interim study in Assembly Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendment Committee)

AJR 26 (Battin-R) State Initiative Fairness Act

Memorializes Congress and the President to pass and enact the State Initiative Fairness Act, which would require an application filed in federal court to restrain the enforcement of a state law enacted by referendum to be heard and determined by a 3-judge panel in accordance with a specified provision of the U.S. Code, with any appeal therefrom made directly to the United States Supreme Court.

(In Assembly Judiciary Committee)