9300-9323
ELECTIONS CODE
SECTION 9300-9323
9300. In addition to any other method provided by law, ordinances
may be enacted by any district pursuant to this article, except that
this article shall not apply to irrigation districts, to a district
formed under a law that does not provide a procedure for elections,
to a district formed under a law which does not provide for action by
ordinance, to a district governed by an election procedure that
permits voters, in electing the district's directors or trustees, to
cast more than one vote per voter, or to a district in which the
directors are empowered to cast more than one vote per director when
acting on any matter.
9301. Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the governing
board of the district by an initiative petition filed with the
district elections official. Signatures to these petitions shall be
obtained in the same manner as set forth in Section 9020. Affidavits
shall be attached to each petition section in the form and in the
manner set forth in Section 9022.
9302. Before circulating an initiative petition in any district,
the proponents of that measure shall publish a notice of intention.
The notice shall be accompanied by a printed statement stating the
reasons for the proposed petition. The printed statement shall not
exceed 500 words. The notice shall be signed by at least one, but not
more than five, proponents, and shall be in substantially the
following form:
"Notice of Intention to Circulate Initiative Petition
Notice is hereby given of the intention of the persons whose names
appear hereon of their intention to circulate the petition within
the ____ district for the purpose of ____. A statement of the reasons
for the proposed action as contemplated in the petition is as
follows:"
9303. A notice of intention and statement as referred to in Section
9302 shall be published or posted, or both, as follows:
(a) If there is a newspaper of general circulation within the
district, as described in Section 6000 of the Government Code, the
notice and statement shall be published therein at least once.
(b) If the petition is to be circulated in a district in which
there is no newspaper of general circulation, the notice and
statement shall be published at least once in a newspaper of general
circulation within the county in which the district is located, and
the notice and statement shall be posted in three public places
within the district.
9304. Within 10 days after the date of publication or posting, or
both, of the notice of intention and statement, the proponents shall
file a copy of the notice and statement as published or posted, or
both, together with an affidavit made by a representative of the
newspaper in which the notice was published or, if the notice was
posted, by a voter of the district certifying to the fact of
publication or posting. The affidavit, together with a copy of the
notice of intention and statement, shall be filed with the district
elections official.
9305. After the publication or posting, or both, of the notice of
intention and statement, the petition may be circulated among the
voters of the district for signatures by any person who is a voter or
who is qualified to register to vote in the district. Each section
of the petition shall bear a copy of the notice of intention and
statement.
9306. Signatures upon petitions and sections thereof shall be
secured, and the petition, together with all sections thereof, shall
be filed within 180 days from the date of publication or posting, or
both, of the notice of intention and statement. If the petitions are
not filed within the time permitted by this section, the petition and
its sections shall be void for all purposes.
9307. Each section of the petition shall have attached thereto the
affidavit of the person soliciting the signatures. This affidavit
shall be substantially in the same form as set forth in Section 9022,
except that the affidavit shall declare that the circulator is a
voter or is qualified to register to vote in the district.
9308. (a) Except as provided in Section 9309, within 30 days from
the date of filing of the petition, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and
holidays, the district elections official shall examine the
petition, and from the records of registration ascertain whether the
petition is signed by the requisite number of voters. A certificate
showing the results of this examination shall be attached to the
petition.
(b) In determining the number of valid signatures, the district
elections official may use the duplicate file of affidavits
maintained, or may check the signatures against facsimiles of voters'
signatures, provided that the method of preparing and displaying the
facsimiles complies with law.
(c) The district elections official shall notify the proponents of
the petition as to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the petition.
(d) If the petition is found insufficient, no further action shall
be taken. However, the failure to secure sufficient signatures,
shall not preclude the filing of a new petition on the same subject,
at a later date.
(e) If the petition is found sufficient, the district elections
official shall certify the results of the examination to the
governing board of the district at the next regular meeting of the
board.
9309. (a) Within 30 days from the date of filing of the petition,
excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, if, from the examination
of petitions pursuant to Section 9308, more than 500 signatures have
been signed on the petition, the district elections official may use
a random sampling technique for verification of signatures. The
random sample of signatures to be verified shall be drawn in such a
manner that every signature filed with the elections official shall
be given an equal opportunity to be included in the sample. A random
sampling shall include an examination of at least 500 or 3 percent of
the signatures, whichever is greater.
(b) If the statistical sampling shows that the number of valid
signatures is within 95 to 110 percent of the number of signatures of
qualified voters needed to declare the petition sufficient, the
district elections official, within 60 days from the date of the
filing of the petition, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays,
shall examine and verify each signature filed.
(c) In determining from the records of registration, what number
of valid signatures are signed on the petition, the district
elections official may use the duplicate file of affidavits
maintained, or may check the signatures against facsimiles of voters'
signatures, provided that the method of preparing and displaying the
facsimiles complies with law.
(d) The district elections official shall attach to the petition,
a certificate showing the result of this examination, and shall
notify the proponents of either the sufficiency or insufficiency of
the petition.
(e) If the petition is found insufficient, no action shall be
taken on the petition. However, the failure to secure sufficient
signatures shall not preclude the filing later of an entirely new
petition to the same effect.
(f) If the petition is found to be sufficient, the district
elections official shall certify the results of the examination to
the governing board of the district at the next regular meeting of
the board.
9310. (a) If the initiative petition is signed by voters not less
in number than 10 percent of the voters in the district, where the
total number of registered voters is less than 500,000, or not less
in number than 5 percent of the voters in the district, where the
total number of registered voters is 500,000 or more, and the
petition contains a request that the ordinance be submitted
immediately to a vote of the people at a special election, the
district board shall do either of the following:
(1) Adopt the ordinance, without alteration, either at the regular
meeting at which the certification of the petition is presented, or
within 10 days after it is presented.
(2) Immediately order that the ordinance be submitted to the
voters, without alteration, pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section
1405.
(b) The number of registered voters referred to in subdivision (a)
shall be calculated as of the time of the last report of
registration by the county elections official to the Secretary of
State made prior to publication or posting of the notice of intention
to circulate the initiative petition.
9311. If the initiative petition does not request a special
election, the district board shall do either of the following:
(a) Adopt the ordinance, without alteration, either at the regular
meeting at which the certification of the petition is presented, or
within 10 days after it is presented.
(b) Submit the ordinance to the voters, without alteration,
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1405, unless the ordinance
petitioned for is required to be, or for some reason is, submitted to
the voters at a special election pursuant to subdivision (a) of
Section 1405.
9312. Whenever any ordinance is required by this article to be
submitted to the voters of a district at any election, the district
elections official shall cause the ordinance to be printed. A copy of
the ordinance shall be made available to any voter upon request.
The district elections official shall mail with the sample ballot
to each voter the following notice printed in no less than 10-point
type.
"If you desire a copy of the proposed ordinance, please call the
district elections official's office at (insert telephone number) and
a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."
9313. Except as provided in Section 9314, whenever any petition is
submitted to the voters, the district elections official shall
transmit a copy of the measure to the county counsel, or to the
district attorney if there is no county counsel, of the county that
contains the largest number of registered voters of the district. The
county counsel or district attorney shall prepare an impartial
analysis of the measure showing the effect of the measure on the
existing law and the operation of the measure. The analysis shall be
printed preceding the arguments for and against the measure. The
analysis shall not exceed 500 words in length.
In the event the entire text of the measure is not printed on the
ballot nor in the voter information portion of the sample ballot,
there shall be printed immediately below the impartial analysis, in
no less than 10-point bold type, a legend substantially as follows:
"The above statement is an impartial analysis of Ordinance or
Measure ____. If you desire a copy of the ordinance or measure,
please call the district elections official's office at (insert
telephone number) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."
9314. (a) Whenever any petition is submitted to the voters of a
water district, the district elections official shall transmit a copy
of the measure to the legal counsel for the water district, or to
the county counsel if there is no legal counsel for the water
district, of the county that contains the largest number of
registered voters of the water district. Except as otherwise provided
in subdivision (b), if there is a legal counsel for the water
district, he or she shall prepare, subject to review and revision by
the county counsel, an impartial analysis of the measure showing the
effect of the measure on the existing law and the operation of the
measure. The analysis shall be printed preceding the arguments for
and against the measure. The analysis shall not exceed 500 words in
length.
In the event the entire text of the measure is not printed on the
ballot nor in the voter information portion of the sample ballot,
there shall be printed immediately below the impartial analysis, in
no less than 10-point bold type, a legend substantially as follows:
"The above statement is an impartial analysis of Ordinance or
Measure ____. If you desire a copy of the ordinance or measure,
please call the district elections official's office at (insert
telephone number) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."
(b) If there is no legal counsel for the water district, or if the
legal counsel for the water district and the county counsel so
agree, the county counsel shall prepare the impartial analysis.
(c) As used in this section:
(1) "Legal counsel for the water district" means the attorney
designated under the district's conflict of interest code as its
legal officer pursuant to Section 87300 et seq. of the Government
Code.
(2) "County counsel" means the district attorney if there is no
county counsel.
(3) "Water district" means a water district as defined in Section
20200 of the Water Code.
9315. The persons filing an initiative petition pursuant to this
article may file a written argument in favor of the ordinance. The
district board may submit an argument against the ordinance. Neither
argument shall exceed 300 words in length, and both arguments shall
be printed and mailed to each voter with the sample ballot for the
election.
The following statement shall be printed on the front cover, or if
none, on the heading of the first page, of the printed arguments:
"Arguments in support of or in opposition to the proposed laws are
the opinions of the authors."
Printed arguments submitted to voters in accordance with this
section shall be titled either "Argument In Favor Of Measure ____" or
"Argument Against Measure ____," accordingly, the blank spaces being
filled in only with the letter or number, if any, designating the
measure. At the discretion of the district elections official, the
word "Proposition" may be substituted for the word "Measure" in the
titles. Words used in the title shall not be counted when determining
the length of any argument.
9316. Based on the time reasonably necessary to prepare and print
the arguments and sample ballots, and to permit the 10-calendar-day
public examination as provided in Article 4 (commencing with Section
9380) for the particular election, the district elections official
charged with the duty of conducting the election shall fix and
determine a reasonable date prior to the election for the submission
to the district elections official of an argument in favor of and
against the ordinance, and additional rebuttal arguments as provided
in Section 9317. Arguments may be changed or withdrawn by their
proponents until and including the date fixed by the district
elections official.
9317. (a) When an argument in favor and an argument against a
measure have been selected for publication in the voter information
pamphlet the elections official responsible for conducting the
election shall send copies of the argument in favor of the measure to
the authors of the argument against the measure and copies of the
arguments against the measure to the authors of the argument in
favor. The authors may prepare and submit rebuttal arguments not
exceeding 250 words, or may authorize in writing any other person or
persons to prepare, submit, or sign the rebuttal argument. The
rebuttal arguments shall be submitted to the elections official
conducting the election no later than a date designated by the
elections official.
(b) Rebuttal arguments shall be printed in the same manner as the
direct arguments. Each rebuttal argument shall immediately follow the
direct argument that it seeks to rebut and shall be titled "Rebuttal
to Argument in Favor of Measure (or Proposition) ____," or "Rebuttal
to Argument Against Measure (or Proposition) ____," the blank spaces
being filled in only with the letter or number, if any, designating
the measure. Words used in the title may not be counted when
determining the length of any rebuttal argument.
9319. Any number of proposed ordinances may be voted upon at the
same election.
9320. If a majority of the voters voting on a proposed ordinance
vote in its favor, the ordinance shall become a valid and binding
ordinance of the district. The ordinance shall be considered as
adopted upon the date the vote is declared by the district board, and
shall go into effect 10 days after that date.
9321. If the provisions of two or more ordinances adopted at the
same election conflict, the ordinance receiving the highest number of
affirmative votes shall control.
9322. The enacting clause of an ordinance submitted to the voters
of a district shall be substantially in the following form:
"The people of the ____ District do ordain as follows:"
9323. No ordinance proposed by initiative petition and adopted
either by the district board without submission to the voters or
adopted by the voters shall be repealed or amended except by a vote
of the people, unless provision is otherwise made in the original
ordinance. In all other respects, an ordinance proposed by initiative
petition and adopted shall have the same force and effect as any
ordinance adopted by the board.