Boyd v. Jordan

CURTIS, J.

Petition for writ of mandate directed to the Secretary of State commanding him to refrain from submitting a certain purported initiative measure to the electors of the state, and not to certify said measure to the registrars of voters and county clerks of the state. Upon the filing of the petition this court issued an alternative writ directed to said officer, commanding him to refrain from committing any of the acts in the petition complained of, or to show cause to the contrary at a specified time before this court designated in said order. At the appointed time the respondent appeared and filed as an answer and return to the alternative writ a general demurrer to the petition.

The document filed with the Secretary of State purports to be a petition for the submission to the electors of the state for their approval of a proposed constitutional amendment under the initiative provisions of the Constitution of the state. It is signed by the requisite number of qualified

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electors of the state and has been filed with the Secretary of State within the time entitling it to be submitted for adoption at the coming state election, if it is otherwise found to be sufficient. The proposed amendment to the Constitution is set forth in full in the purported petition. The petitioner herein, a qualified elector and taxpayer of the state, objects to the submission of the proposed measure to the electors of the state upon the following grounds:

1. No petition for the submission of the measure has been presented to the Secretary of State as required by article IV, section 1, of the Constitution.

2. The words, “Initiative Measure Providing for Adoption of Gross Eeceipts Act”, which appear at the top of each page after page 1 of the purported petition, do not constitute “a short title . . . showing the nature of the petition and the subject to which it relates”.

The purported petition, which the petitioner attacks and contends is not a petition in any sense of the word, contains no formal petition whatever. It is not addressed to the Secretary of State and contains no request or prayer that the measure set forth therein be submitted to the electors of the state for their approval. At the top of this document, in twelve-point black-face type are printed, as required by said section of the Constitution, the words “Initiative Measure to be Submitted Directly to the Electors”. These words are followed by a summarization of the proposed measure by the attorney-general, and then the proposed measure itself. Aside from the signatures of the electors, and the verification by the solicitor or circulator of the document, the foregoing constitutes the entire contents of the purported petition. The question as to the sufficiency of such document to meet the requirements of the Constitution might present an interesting subject for discussion. But we find it unnecessary to pass upon that question as we are of the opinion that the document is fatally defective in respect to the short title printed across the top of each page after the first page. We will, however, refer to the document before us as the petition.