CA Sec'y of State Says Referendum To Repeal Transgender Student Rights Measure (AB 1266, Dubbed "Co-Ed Bathroom Bill" By Opponents) Fails, Falling 17,276 Valid Petition Signatures Short of 504,760 Needed For Statewide Ballot
CA Secy of State deems invalid roughly 130,000 signatures; Referendum proponents indicate they'll challenge action in court
by Joe Mello, LBREPORT.com Community Correspondent
(Feb. 26, 2014, 11:25 p.m.) -- The CA Secretary of State's office has ruled that a petition-signature effort to enable a statewide public vote (referendum) to invalidate Sacramento legislation (AB 1266) that gave transgender public school students specific rights in sex segregated school programs and activities has failed to qualify for the ballot.
The CA Secretary of State's office deemed invalid over 130,000 signatures submitted by referendum proponents, leaving them 17,276 valid signatures short of the number needed to put the measure to a statewide vote of the people. Referendum proponents indicate they plan to challenge the Secretary of State's action in court.
The effort to repeal AB 1266 (dubbed by its opponents the "co-ed bathroom bill") began four days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure into law. Referendum proponent Gina Gleason (Watchman Ministry director and a former write-in Republican candidate for Lt. Governor) filed paperwork to pursue a statewide referendum, an effort led by groups under the name "Privacy for all Students."
State law required referendum proponents to submit 504,760 qualifying petition signatures. In January 2014, following a 90 day signature gathering period, the CA Secretary of State's office determined through statistical sampling that the proponents had fallen short by over 22,000 valid signatures but because the sample amount reached 95% of the required signatures, state law required an automatic verification of all the submitted signatures. That process was completed on Monday February 24, 2014...and the CA Secretary of State's office says it showed that 487,484 valid signatures were submitted along with 131,854 signatures deemed by the Secretary of State's office non-valid, leaving referendum proponents 17,276 valid signatures short of the number needed for placement on the ballot.
On Wednesday Feb 24, the Privacy for All Students' website questioned why some of its submitted signatures were invalidated and questioned whether some of the reasons for the invalidation would survive a legal challenge:
[Privacy for all Students website text] ...[A]t Privacy For All Students we are preparing for the next stage of the battle. After months of waiting, we now get to see why so many signatures were thrown out. Certainly some signers were not registered to vote or had moved without changing their address. But it is also certain that many of those signatures were rejected based on reasons that will not survive a legal challenge. This was not totally unexpected. We knew that we would have to fight to have every valid signature counted.
The statementfurther indicates that the group plans a legal challenge to the invalidated signatures:
[Privacy for all Students website text] ...And we have already taken the Secretary of State to court once in this process. In that case, the judge ordered that thousands of signatures be counted. While we prepare for the legal battle ahead to have invalid signatures deemed valid, we should not lose sight of what we are fighting for.
