Between November 10 and November 13, California Republicans submitted 710,924 signatures on a referendum petition concerning the new State Senate districts. California law requires 504,760 valid signatures on such a referendum petition. California Republicans oppose the new State Senate districts drawn up by the new redistricting commission.
If the petition has enough valid signatures, the new State Senate districts will be put to a vote of the people. It is not clear what State Senate districts the state will use, if the referendum petition does have enough valid signatures. In a normal referendum, the challenged statute can’t be implemented until the popular vote affirms the law. But California needs to have valid districts in place in time for the June 2012 primary. For more information about the referendum’s backers, see their web page, www.FairDistricts2012.com.
The petitions were turned in on Thursday, November 10, in some counties and on the deadline for filing, Sunday, November 13, in others. 710,924 is the number of unverified signatures the referendum proponents claim to have filed. Under deadlines set by the Elections Code, the official count by county elections officials and the Secretary of State will not be completed until the day before Thanksgiving, November 23. The lengthy process of signature verification will begin the following week.
#1, thanks, I’ll correct the post.
This has got to be one of THE all time MAJOR petition efforts in Western Civilization.
If the CA folks could do the petition then they certainly can do a PROPER P.R. Petition to SAVE Western Civilization from the gerrymander monsters.
Simple P.R.
Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes needed for each seat winner (IF each winner has ONE vote in a legislative body).
P.R. students can perhaps detect what to do if each winner does NOT have ONE vote in a legislative body ???
Clue – see corporation meetings of shareholders.
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Obviously the courts WILL intervene at some point to have gerrymander districts in the June 2012 gerrymander primary election — even with the useless top 2 primary.
The last time there was a referendum on district boundaries after the 1980 Census, the California Supreme Court ordered that the boundaries drawn by the legislature be used anyway, because they were closer in population than the 1970s district. This was a 4-3 decision which I suspect was on partisan lines.
After the voters voted down the districts drawn by the legislature, the legislature elected based on the overturned lines re-enacted them with an urgency clause that blocked use of the referendum. These were signed by Governor Jerry Brown the Younger.
When the Democrats were trying to defeat the initiative that gave the redistricting commission jurisdiction over congressional boundaries, they tried to use the 1980 incident to mislead voters.
It is conceivable that a court would recognize that the boundaries drawn by the commission would leave 10% of Californians without senate representation, and that it would actually be better in terms of equal protection to use the existing boundaries.
There is another referendum circulating that would overturn the law that doesn’t let the primary be used for initiative and referendum ballot measures. If it gains enough signatures, that law would be suspended, and referendums would be held next June.
The referendum petition against the new law that keeps initiatives off primary ballots has been abandoned.
How about getting “Right To Work” initiative on the ballot.