As reported earlier, California Assemblymember Kristin Olson and Senator Anthony Cannella have introduced ACR 145. The text is now available. It would ask the Legislature to resolve that the Secretary of State print an “advisory ballot” listing all presidential candidates whose names are already on the ballot of one of the already-existing presidential primaries. The ballot would be intended for the voters who don’t want to choose one of the partisan primary ballots.

This year, six parties have partisan presidential primaries in California, with a total of 43 different presidential candidates on the six ballots. Also this year, independent voters are offered a Democratic, Libertarian, and American Independent Party ballot, if they wish to use them. But independents cannot obtain a Republican, Green, or Peace & Freedom presidential primary ballot, unless they join one of those parties by May 23.

If Assemblymember Olson and Senator Cannella were serious about this idea, they would have introduced a bill, not a resolution. The proposal would be expensive, and the Secretary of State has no authority to tell county election officials to spend public funds, in the absence of a law.