On April 24, the California Senate passed SB 205, which makes it illegal to pay voter registration workers on a per-registration card basis. All the newly-qualifying parties in California since 1970 have qualified for the ballot by persuading voters (equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote) to register into the party. All of these efforts have involved paying workers a certain amount of money for each voter registration for that party. If this bill is signed into law, that method for getting on the ballot will be illegal. SB 205 passed on a party-line vote, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.”
On May 9, the California Senate passed SB 168, which makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis, if they are working on initiative, referendum, or recall petitions. On the same day, the Senate passed SB 448, which forces circulators of those kind of petitions to wear a button that tells whether they are paid or volunteer. These bills also passed on party line votes, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.”