Initiatives: paid circulators.

Existing law regulates the process of proposing initiative measures to the people and sets forth qualifications for persons who circulate initiative petitions in the state. This bill would require a firm that engages in the business of paying individuals to circulate petitions and gather signatures for state or local ballot initiatives to register with the Secretary of State and pay a registration fee to be established by the Secretary of State. Failure to register would be punishable by a fine, as specified. The bill would require the Secretary of State to use the fees collected to maintain a directory of these firms on its Internet Web site, as well as to defray costs associated with other requirements of the bill, as specified. This bill also would require a member of the firm to review the law relating to obtaining petition signatures with each paid petition circulator before the paid petition circulator obtains any signatures for the firm, and to submit to the Secretary of State a statement signed by each petition circulator and the member who conducted the review that the petition circulator has received the review, as well as a copy of the training materials provided to the petition circulator in connection with the review. Failure to submit the required training or verification materials would be punishable by a fine, as specified.