Posted on 07/21/2005 5:19:19 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Superior Court judge on Thursday kicked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure off the special election ballot, ruling that supporters violated California's constitution by using two versions of the initiative in the qualifying process.
"The differences are not simply typographical errors," Judge Gail Ohanesian said. "They're not merely about the format of the measure. They are not simply technical.
Instead they go to the substantive terms of the measure." The proposal, Proposition 77, is one of three initiatives that the Republican governor is supporting in the Nov. 8 special election. It would take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature and give it to a panel of three retired judges.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the judge to order the measure off the ballot because its supporters used two versions - one to gather voter signatures and another that they gave to him to prepare a title and summary of the proposal to use on petitions.
Daniel Kolkey, an attorney representing the measure's author - Ted Costa - argued that the differences between the two version were minor and stylistic.
Kolkey said that holding initiative proponents to a requirement that there be no differences between what is submitted to the attorney general for review and what is circulated to voters could invalidate a measure for a simple printing error.
Kolkey said he will appeal the ruling.
The ruling is a big setback for Schwarzenegger, whose ballot agenda has languished in the polls under almost constant criticism from rival Democrats and labor groups who are opposing his proposals.
If the judge's ruling stands, Schwarzenegger and his supporters will be forced to go before voters with just two ballot measures: a complex plan for imposing new limits on state spending and a proposal that would lengthen the probationary period for public school teachers before they are granted tenure.
Some critics have said that the proponents of the redistricting measure should have more quickly disclosed the problems with the two versions of the petition.
"If you read the declarations carefully ... the proponents deliberately ran the clock out," said Deborah Caplan, an attorney representing the initiative opponents, who noted that the measure's backers knew for almost a month about the discrepancies.
Oh well. see ya next June at the ballot box.
boy, you really hafta dot your t's and cross your i's around liberals, huh?
Or will the GUB.. SUE SUE SUE!!!
LOL
Importing illegal aliens is actually raising the overall intelligence level of the state's population above that of most Californian voters.
Hopefully McPherson waits to pull it until all appeals have been exhausted.
So now the left doesn't even have wait for one of their judges to overturn the voters. We won't get to vote in the first place.
From Grovelnator to Flubinator in one swell foop.
----
I can hardly wait for the sequel. :-)
no doubt the u.s. is enlarging its gene pool,
while fotress japan and europe are generally not interbreeding.
fortress
I'm not sure what you're trying to suggest. Do you think illegal aliens are stupid? If so, why?
I believe you're a bit of a younger one here at FR and I admire your spirit, so watch close the next few weeks.
You're gonna see how the FoXes really still do run the hehouse in StinkyMento. They already got another hugh leap in spending and got the Gub to sign off..
It's gonna take a fed sweep and RICO charges to clean out the corrupt side of the state legislature and HaZMat crew to clean out Lockyer's office, nothing less, imo.
1) A sound ruling. Costa's group screwed up and got caught.
2) Schwarzenegger isn't at fault here. He did not write the initiative. He supported it, as if was submitted.
3) Initiatives submitted by the electorate are oft times flawed. This wasn't and shouldn't have been.
i'm not qualified to comment on this.
if it would work, why not?
the democrats are always playing destroyers.
No .
I'm saying the average voter that got us in this me$$ are not the brightest bulbs around and the illegals who now come here in hordes are smarter than quite a few of those who voted in California the last 20 years and who have allowed socialism to become the order of the day in this state..
Why are so many voters disconnected from the political side of things and can't make intelligent decisions in the polling booth is due to many thaings?? Try the educational system, the political and legal systems, the media, the politicians ,, for starters. etc
I am and will.
The executive can and has ignored the judicial since the judicial lacks an essential element to enforce its decisions: a standing army.
It would have been nice if the AP had described the differences.
This reminds me of the Anti-16th Amendment people who say the 16th Amendment (Income tax) was not ratified because some states removed commas from what Congress passed. Small errors shouldn't matter.
The judge is politically motivated. The wording changes were NOT substantive.
This is a scandal. The political establishment in Kalifornia is really getting desperate.
But this is another example of how our courts, staffed by dishonest judges, manipulate our government. There are plenty of similar examples in Florida and New Jersey, and probably in many other states.
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