On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors agreed in a 4-0 vote to opt out of printing the list of supporters and opponents for local measures on the county ballot.
If you want the list of supporters or opponents on a local measure, you will have to go online or to another location.
The move was in response to Assembly Bill 1416 which was passed by the State Legislature in 2022 with an effective date of January 1, 2023. AB 1416 adds a requirement that the supporters and opponents of each statewide measure be listed on the ballot label or that a similar description be provided on the ballot.
By taking action, it prevents the county from an anticipated increase in printing cost and mailing costs to all Contra Costa County voters due to the increased complexity, length, and size of the ballots from the increased text.
Kristin Connelly, Clerk-Recorder, told the Board of Supervisors that ballots were changing in California.
“Moving forward, all state ballot measures will have a list of supporters and opponents printed on the ballot themselves, which is different, a new move. So that happened and we will implement that,” explained Connelly who stated they want to have accurate information for voters. “The state left counties the option to participate or not. The law is written so if you take no action, then, similar to what the state will do, the county, our department, will place supporters and opponent information up to 125-words for all local measures.”
Connelly continued stating she thought it was important the Board be aware of important issues as decision makers.
“If you take action, by taking action, you would be opting out,” said Connelly. “What our staff has done is try to analyze what the impacts would be from cost and how we would go about implementing that.”
According to the staff report, including the supporters and opponents of local measures increases the length of ballot measures by 40% resulting in a larger ballot and affecting the readability and useability of the ballot. To the extent that voters are interested in supporters and opponents of local measures, that information is contained in the voter information guide, which is sent to every voter.
A sample was provided of a ballot which includes the supporters and opponents vs. a ballot with it not listed.
The staff report also stated the cost of a ballot card is approximately $174k per election and one additional ballot card equates to a 20% increase in staff time needed to lay out, proof- read, translate, extract, tabulate, adjudicate, and canvass the ballots in the election. A 20% increase in storage boxes, storage space, and storage charges would also be required for 22 months following the election.
Connelly shared that the font size could shrink to as small as 8-point font just to keep a ballot measure on a single page plus translations could be an issue in sizing and space.
Supervisor Diane Burgis asked who determined the supporters and opponents who appear on a ballot because it was subjective on who gets to decide.
Connelly referred to the Election Code 9170 (D) which only non-profits and businesses who have been around more than 2-years will be considered supporters and opponents which she said the elections office will make that determination, along with other provisions to help them determine calling this one area right for litigation.
Connelly stated that of the 58 counties, 9 counties have taken action or will shortly to opt out.
“A lot of counties are siting on the sidelines because they don’t know how this is going to play out,” said Connelly who added the voter guide also has a page in that shares the county shares the measures, statements, text and arguments as they are submitted.
Burgis asked if they could opt back in at a future date in which Connelly said they could while saying the state could choose to mandate it in the future.
Supervisor Ken Carlson stated if people were looking for this information on a ballot when you are looking to vote, he called it “a little late”.
“When it comes to the ballot, all of this information is in the voter guide,” stated Carlson. “Hopefully, that is leading people to find the information beyond the voter guide as to make the right choices for them. I just think this is an additional burden on top of what the election office is already doing. Its duplicative and wasteful.”
Connelly added Butte County recently took it to their board who opted out. She shared that Inyo, Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara does not intend to go to their board of supervisors to opt out.
She said 10 counties are in the process of opting out which include: Butte, Colusa, Imperial, Kern, Mendocino, Mono, Napa, Placer, Plumas, and Yuba.
“A lot of counties have not got there yet, but we thought it was important to bring it to you because of the budget implications because of the budget hearings next week,” said Connelly. “It’s a great intent to think about how to give voters the best information possible.”
Supervisor Candace Andersen said she was all about transparency but had to be balanced against unfunded state mandates and whether or not the information is readily accessible which is still available, even if not printed on the ballot—suggesting people could go online to see who is supporting it and is opposed to it.
“I don’t wait to see the ballot statement. I don’t wait to see who has signed on,” said Andersen. “It’s a prudent measure and appreciate we can always revisit this measure because it is very costly. It seems pretty minimal in terms of transparency because we can still have access to that information and seeing it on their ballot isn’t going to be helpful as costly.”
Supervisor Federal Glover stated he was for transparency but reading ballots today was an issue because these things in fine print (8-pt font) is not going to be read. He agreed with the opt out.
After public comments, Supervisor Burgis said this was something they could revisit and counties are going to opt in by not doing anything—they will get to see what the actions cost or do not cost.
The board then voted 4-0 to support the measure to authorize the elections office to not print the list of supporters and opponents for local measures on a county ballot.
County Staff Report – Click Here
Dec. 3, 2022: Contra Costa County Elections Certify November 8 Election
5 comments
Shucks, I guess that means that George Soros as a proud sponsor of DA Diana Becton and countless other pro-criminal district attorneys will be opted out…just around the time that the general populus starts getting a whiff of the smell of justice decay that many of us have known for a very long time.
Gonna hit your nightmares……BOO! George Soros, George Soros, George Soros….BOO!
Whenever a proposition appears on my ballot, the first thing I look for is the lists of who;s supporting and who isn;t. Follow the money. Why hide this information???
They just want to give each measure some “feel good title” and hope the folks all go for it.
This is so they can be less transparent. They rely on uninformed, low IQ voters. They know, most of said voters will not do the research.
Comments are closed.