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Supervisor of Elections warns new state petition-notice law will raise verification costs
Summary
Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan told the July 9 budget workshop that House Bill 1201 imposes a new mailing requirement for validated initiative petition signers; the county elections office said the change will substantially increase petition‑verification costs and asked the board to allow fee revenue adjustments later in the budget process.
Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan briefed the Board on July 9 about her proposed FY2026 budget and the financial impact of recent state legislation on initiative-petition processing.
Swan said her office historically receives thousands of petitions in large election cycles; in 2024 her staff validated more than 13,000 initiative-petition signatures. She explained that House Bill 1201, recently signed into law, adds a new requirement: for validated initiative petitions the elections office must send an affordable‑mail notice with a prepaid, preaddressed response card to each signer giving them an opportunity to report alleged forgery or misrepresentation.
Swan said the new notice obligation raises petition‑verification costs sharply. Where her office historically charged 25 cents per petition for verification services, she said implementing the new mailing requirement will increase that charge substantially (she estimated new fees around $3.20 per item to cover postage and response handling). Swan requested the board approve the offices proposed $2.421 million budget and indicated she would return later to formally request that the county roll the petition fees into her budget once the higher fee structure was finalized.
The board did not take a separate vote on fee changes at the workshop; commissioners asked staff to accept Swan's proposed operating budget for FY2026 and to expect a follow-up agenda item to align fee revenue and budget authority after finalizing the new statutory requirements.
