Court Opinion

ID: 9944927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-26 18:53:07.849434+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:24:46.814749
License: Public Domain

I concur in the judgment of reversal.
The statutory scheme requires that each signer of a referendum must personally affix a printed name as well as a signature and a residence address. (Elec. Code, § 100.) If no printed name appears on the petition the signature cannot be counted valid. (Elec. Code, §§ 9020, 105.) If, however, something appears in the printed name line of the petition which has been put there by the signer of the petition the statutory requirement of providing a printed name has been met.
Apparently all of the signatures which were disqualified because they lacked a printed name did, in fact, have something inscribed in the area reserved for the printed name. There was no evidence that the clerk invalidated any of these signatures on the ground that the printed name had not been personally affixed.
Thus the clerk had no discretion to refuse the signature on the basis that the signer had failed to provide a printed name. A writ of mandate should have issued directing the clerk to count those signatures as valid, unless for some other reason the clerk was unable to verify that the signer of the petition was a registered voter.
A petition for a rehearing was denied September 15, 1995, and respondents' petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied November 22, 1995. *Page 1132