On July 2, a California state trial court extended ballot access relief to two statewide initiatives. In Macarro v Padilla, Sacramento Superior Court Judge James P. Arguelles extended the deadline for an initiative related to sports gambling from July 20 to October 12. The initiative no longer hopes to be on the November 2020 ballot; instead it will hope to qualify for 2022. California law requires statewide initiatives to collect all their signatures within six months, but that law is now suspended for statewide initiatives that had collected a number of signatures equal to at least 25% of the legal requirement before the health crisis hit. This relief means that this particular initiative won’t have wasted all the resources it expended already. The judge suggested he might extend the deadline further in the future if the committee needs more time.

Here is the order in Macarro v Padilla, 34-2020-80003404.

The other initiative, involving plastics, had its deadline extended from July 6 to September 28. Sangiacomo v Padilla, 34-2020-80003413. As in the other case, the initiative backers do not expect to qualify for the 2020 ballot, but hope to qualify for 2022, and this similar order means their resources won’t have been wasted either. Thanks to AroundtheCapitol for the links.