Opinion ID: 1156913
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusive Enforcement

Text: (3) Elections Code section 304 [4] directs the Secretary of State to formulate regulations requiring counties to develop and implement voter outreach programs. It also provides for the Secretary to review the design and implementation of county outreach programs annually and to report violations to the Attorney General. County suggests that only the Attorney General has standing to bring a court action against it to enforce the statute. We disagree. First, the plain language of section 304 contains no limitation on the right of private citizens to sue to enforce the section. [5] To infer such a limitation would contradict our long-standing approval of citizen actions to require governmental officials to follow the law, expressed in our expansive interpretation of taxpayer standing (see Harman, supra, 7 Cal.3d 150, 160; Blair v. Pitchess (1971) 5 Cal.3d 258, 267-268 [96 Cal. Rptr. 42, 486 P.2d 1242, 45 A.L.R.3d 1206]; Wirin v. Parker (1957) 48 Cal.2d 890, 894 [313 P.2d 844]), and our recognition of a public interest exception to the requirement that a petitioner for writ of mandate have a personal beneficial interest in the proceedings ( Green v. Obledo, supra, 29 Cal.3d 126, 144; Bd. of Soc. Welfare v. County of L.A. (1945) 27 Cal.2d 98, 100-101 [162 P.2d 627]). In the absence of either an express limitation on citizen standing or any indication of legislative intent to confer exclusive powers on the Attorney General, we decline to impose such a limitation on citizen actions to enforce section 304 and its accompanying regulations. (Cf. People v. City of South Lake Tahoe (E.D.Cal. 1978) 466 F. Supp. 527 [conferral of enforcement power on Attorney General not determinative of exclusivity question under California law].) Second, plaintiffs' action is not based solely on section 304. To the contrary, they rely principally on section 302, which authorizes county clerks to deputize citizens as deputy registrars. It cannot reasonably be maintained that, by enacting and providing for the enforcement of section 304  which mandates the adoption of outreach programs  the Legislature intended to preclude citizens from bringing actions to enforce the provisions of section 302, a preexisting statute that governs counties' deputization of voting registrars. Were we to accept County's contention, courts would be required to consider claims alleging violations of section 302 in isolation from closely related claims alleging violations of section 304 and its accompanying regulations. Considerations of judicial efficiency militate strongly against such a result.