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Appropriations Sends AB 596 to Senate Floor After Debate on Ballot Space and County Costs
Summary
AB 596, which would require listing the top three funders who paid to qualify statewide initiatives/referenda on the ballot label, cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee after supporters stressed voter transparency and clerks and business groups warned of county printing and translation costs.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to advance Assembly Bill 596, a measure that would add the top three funders (above a $100,000 threshold) who paid to qualify a statewide initiative or referendum to the ballot label.
Assemblymember Ortega, the bill’s author, said AB 596 is a “narrowly tailored” transparency measure intended to help voters immediately see who financed a petition to place a measure on the ballot; the bill directs the Secretary of State to shorten contributor names and permits registrars to reduce font size to limit added ballot length. The author and sponsors said the measure applies only to initiatives and referenda that qualify for an election and that careful name-shortening rules will keep the extra text small.
Supporters including the…
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