Comments on: California Secretary of State Slow to Announce Petition Deadline for Special US House Race http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/07/08/california-secretary-of-state-slow-to-announce-petition-deadline-for-special-us-house-race/ Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:28:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=827 By: Bob Richard http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/07/08/california-secretary-of-state-slow-to-announce-petition-deadline-for-special-us-house-race/comment-page-1/#comment-747086 Bob Richard Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:48:16 +0000 http://www.ballot-access.org/?p=7141#comment-747086 The Contra Costa County registrar of voters told one candidate that the deadline for petitions in lieu of the filing fee was July 6 -- two days ago. So the Secretary of State's office and county election officials do not appear to be singing off the same sheet of music. This issue comes up because of the way various deadlines are laid out in California law. It's possible to set the election date in such a way that there's no time at all to collect signatures in lieu of the filing fee. (I've even found one previous special election where the number of days for this was negative.) This clearly discriminates against candidates who can't pay the fee, which for member of Congress is $1,740. The deadline for paying the filing fee and submitting the 40 signatures required with the filing fee is July 20. That deadline not in dispute. The Contra Costa County registrar of voters told one candidate that the deadline for petitions in lieu of the filing fee was July 6 — two days ago. So the Secretary of State’s office and county election officials do not appear to be singing off the same sheet of music.

This issue comes up because of the way various deadlines are laid out in California law. It’s possible to set the election date in such a way that there’s no time at all to collect signatures in lieu of the filing fee. (I’ve even found one previous special election where the number of days for this was negative.) This clearly discriminates against candidates who can’t pay the fee, which for member of Congress is $1,740.

The deadline for paying the filing fee and submitting the 40 signatures required with the filing fee is July 20. That deadline not in dispute.

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