Courts says lawmakers can't write their own ballot language

Courts says lawmakers can't write their own ballot language

kyamamura@sacbee.com

Published Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011

A state appellate court told lawmakers Thursday to stop writing official ballot language for measures they want voters to pass, a practice the Legislature has used in recent years to cast its proposals in a favorable light.

The decision by the Sacramento-based 3rd District Court of Appeal would prevent lawmakers from sugarcoating ballot descriptions for tax-hike extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown wants to put before the electorate in June.

Should it stand, the ruling also is likely to erase ballot labels, titles and summaries that lawmakers wrote last year for a water bond and a rainy-day fund measure slated for the 2012 ballot.

Instead, the court said in a unanimous three-judge decision, the state attorney general should craft the official language for the ballot, as prescribed by the state's Political Reform Act of 1974. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office would still provide its voter guide analysis.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association raised the issue in 2008 when lawmakers wrote the ballot label, title and summary for a $9.95 billion High-Speed Rail Authority bond.

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