In a postscript to the 2005 volume of Digest of Legislation, the Special Election called by the Governor in November 2005 was a major defeat for him as all of the initiative messages he supported were rejected. However, in the aftermath, the division which occurred in 2005 between the Governor and Legislature was healed in 2006 with more cooperation between the two branches culminating on an on-time state budget in years and a major infrastructure program to be presented to the voters at the November 2006 General Election. Legislation was enacted to cover the expenses of the Secretary of State related to the November 2005 election and for the special elections held in 2006 for a vacant state Senate and two congressional seats: SB 306 (Ackerman) appropriated $91 million to cover the costs of the Secretary of State and AB 1634 ( McCarthy) appropriated $38.8 million to cover county costs.
Other important elections legislation enacted included SB 145 (Murray) amending the Political Reform Act to allow an elected state officer to accept contributions after an election for the purpose of paying expenses associated with holding office; SB 1235 (Bowen) and AB 2769 (Benoit) clarifying that the manually tallied ballots include the absent votes ballots for randomly chosen precincts; SB 1258 (Battin) extending by five days the deadline for a congressional candidate to file nomination documents if the incumbent fails to file these documents for re-election to that office. This was in response to Congressman Elton Gallegly’s announcement that he was not going to seek re-election and incorrectly believed he would be allowed to withdraw his papers and then would automatically trigger a five-day extension of the filing period. However, the Congressman decided to run again. This already applies to other state offices; SB 1276 (Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee) extending the time interval for holding a special election to fill a vacancy, for an office in the House of Representative or the State Legislature, to between 112 days and 126 days (instead of 119 days) after the Governor issues a proclamation for the election; SB 1348 (Battin) creating a misdemeanor and a maximum fine for anyone who misrepresents themselves as having helped a person to register to vote; SB 1654 (Ortiz) expanding the list of individuals who may pick-up a ballot for an absentee voter to include family members or a person residing in the same household as the voter; SB 1747 (Bowen) allowing qualified individuals to review the preparation of tabulating devices at county places; SB 1760 (Bowen) setting standards that govern the paper used for the verified paper audit trail; AB 1207 (Yee) revising the Code of Fair Campaign Practices (a voluntary code) specifying that a candidate will not use or permit any appeal to negative prejudice based on sexual orientation or gender identity; AB 1759 (Umberg) requiring a committee that is required to file reports online or electronically to file a report online or electronically with the Secretary of State each time contributions or independent expenditures totaling $5,000 or more are made to support or oppose the qualification or passage of a single state ballot measure; AB 1799 (McCarthy) restoring the law for a year providing the state pay the costs of a special election to fill a vacancy in the State Legislature or United States Congress; AB 2275 (Umberg) requiring campaign phone calls to include a disclosure of the name of the organization who paid for or authorized the calls; AB 2430 (Umberg) requiring a local elections official that is required to provide ballot materials in a language other than English to use the translations of state measurers provided by the Secretary of State; AB 2770 (Wyland) requiring votes cast by absentee ballot and votes cast at a polling place to be tabulated by precinct; AB 3061 (Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee) requiring county election officials to provide a copy of the index of registration to the chair or vice chair of a party state central committee or to the chair of a party county central committee free of charge for any statewide special election; and AB 3062 (Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee) requiring the Secretary of State to annually provide every high school, community college, and California State University and University of California campus with a number of forms that is consistent with the number of students enrolled at each school who are of voting age or who will be of voting age by the end of the year, and requiring the Secretary of State to provide additional forms to any school, free of charge, if so requested by the school.
Vetoed legislation of note included SB 1598 (Bowen) adding state referendum and recall petitions to law requiring initiative petitions to reflect whether it is being circulated by a paid circulator or by a volunteer; AB 2386 (Oropeza) requiring the state ballot pamphlet to include the Code of Fair Campaign Practices and to indicate that a list of those who subscribe to it is available at the local elections office; AB 2771 (Leno) suspending the requirement that certain specified entities must file campaign reports online or made electronically until January 1, 2010; AB 2946 (Leno) substantively changing the signature or gathering process for initiatives, referendum, and recall; AB 2948 (Umberg) ratifying agreements among the states to elect the President by national popular vote, an interstate compact whereby the state agrees to award its electoral votes to the Presidential ticket that received the most popular votes nationwide if the state who are parties to the compact cumulatively possesses a majority of the electoral votes; AB 3024 (Wolk) allowing Solano County to conduct a pilot project whereby the county elections official would establish vote centers in lieu of polling places in each precinct.
NOTE: Proposition 89 on the 2006 November General Election ballot provides that eligible candidates for state elective office may receive public campaign contributions/expenditures limits, and increase the tax on corporation and financial industries by 0.2 percent to fund this program.
