October 15 was the last day for California Governor Jerry Brown to sign or veto bills. Late in the evening of the last day, he vetoed SB 149, which would have required presidential primary candidates to reveal their income tax returns.

An earlier version of this post said he had allowed it to become law without his signature. That was erroneous. I was fooled because most days the Governor only issues one summary of what he has done about bills, and the SB 149 veto was not in the day’s first batch. But he put out a second batch of news about bills after 10:30 pm but before midnight. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the accurate news.

Here is the veto message. It says, “A qualified candidate’s ability to appear on the ballot is fundamental to our democratic system. For that reason, I hesitate to start down a road that well might lead to an ever escalating set of differing state requirements for presidential candidates.”