California is one of the few states in which the government mails a Voters Pamphlet to all voters, a few weeks before any public election. In partisan primaries, the election law lets qualified political parties furnish an envelope to elections officials, and the elections officials then include that envelope in all the Voters Pamphlets that are going to members of that party. The purpose of the envelope is to make it easy for a voter to send a contribution to that party.
The San Diego Republican Party this year furnished not only an envelope, but a flyer, for insertion into the Voters Pamphlets that are going to Republican registrants. According to this article, the San Diego County Democratic Party sued to stop the insert, but the judge allowed the insert after he ordered some changes in the content of the insert.
The “article” appears to have been taken directly from a news release by the San Diego Democratic party.
The “obscure section” is 13305.
“Elections Codes 13305. (a) In each county, the county central committee of each qualified political party may supply to its county elections official, not less than 83 days prior to the direct primary election, a party contributor envelope or a one-page letter, in which both sides may be utilized, to be included in the mailing of the sample ballot to each of that political party’s registered voters in the county.”
There is nothing in the news release that says the that the Republican party furnished both a letter and a envelope. There is nothing that says the judge ordered a change in content. The news release says change in format, without specifying what those changes were.
It is not clear why the section is regarded as obscure. You knew about the law, but perhaps were not aware that a letter could be used instead of an envelope. If the San Diego County Democratic central committee was not aware of the law, it suggests incompetence on their part and an attempt to shift blame to the State of California.
This is a dumb law. I can see mailing a neutral and non-partisan letter — say from the League of Women Voters — but paying for the two major parties to call their opponent names, is not a great use of tax payer dollars.
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This is a dumb law. I can see mailing a neutral and non-partisan letter — say from the League of Women Voters — but paying for the two major parties to call their opponent names, is not a great use of tax payer dollars.
#2 and #4 All qualified parties are entitled to provide a letter or contribution envelope sent to their registered members. There is an option to let the county print the letter at cost to the party.
The letter may not disparage other candidates or parties. The Republican included an appeal for contributions, and includes both a mailing address and a web address, explains what the contributions will be spent for, and includes a list of the Republican candidates and their positions on various ballot measures.
The LWV is not a neutral body and does take positions on ballot measures.
#2 and #4 All qualified parties are entitled to provide a letter or contribution envelope sent to their registered members. There is an option to let the county print the letter at cost to the party.
The letter may not disparage other candidates or parties. The Republican included an appeal for contributions, and includes both a mailing address and a web address, explains what the contributions will be spent for, and includes a list of the Republican candidates and their positions on various ballot measures.
The LWV is not a neutral body and does take positions on ballot measures.