Initiative and referendum petitions: verification of signatures.

Existing law requires local elections officials to perform various duties with respect to statewide initiative and referendum petitions, including determining the total number of signatures affixed to the petitions, transmitting that information to the Secretary of State, and performing a random sampling technique for verification of signatures on specified petitions. If the sampling shows that the number of valid signatures is within 95 to 110% of the number of signatures of qualified voters needed to declare the petition sufficient, existing law requires election officials or the registrar of voters to examine and verify each signature filed. This bill would require the elections official or registrar of voters during the examination of the signatures to submit one or more reports to the Secretary of State showing the number of signatures that have been verified as of that date. The bill would require the Secretary of State to maintain a list indicating the number of verified signatures based on the most recent reports and, if the Secretary of State determines that based on the list the petition is signed by the requisite number of voters, the bill would require the Secretary of State to notify the elections official or registrar of every county or city and county of that fact. After receipt of the notification that the petition has obtained the requisite number of verified signatures, this bill would require the elections official or registrar of voters to immediately transmit to the Secretary of State the petition and an amended certificate showing the results of the examination and would permit the elections official or registrar to suspend the signature verification until the Secretary of State transmits a certificate to terminate the verification or provides other instructions. Existing law prescribes the procedure for determining the total number of valid signatures affixed to a county initiative petition and requires the county elections official, if the initiative petition contains more than 500 signatures, to verify signatures using a random sampling method. If the sampling shows the petition contains 95 to 110% of the number of valid signatures to qualify the petition, the county elections official is required to verify each signature filed. This bill would permit the elections official to terminate the verification of the remaining unverified signatures if he or she determines, prior to completing the examination of each signature filed, that the petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified voters to declare the petition sufficient. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 9031 of the Elections Code proposed by SB 1253 that would become operative only if SB 1253 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. By increasing the duties of the local elections officials and registrars of voters, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.