INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM PETITIONS. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE GATHERING. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

Authorizes electronic signature gathering for initiative and referendum petitions. Requires county elections officials to establish a digital platform to accept and process registered voters’ digital signatures, scanned thumbprints, and personal identification numbers for use in signing petitions. Prohibits election officials from discriminating between handwritten or electronic signatures. Permits proponents, at their own cost, to translate and circulate petitions in any language. Requires legislators to pay, from personal funds, the same fee to introduce legislation as proponents pay to obtain a title and summary from the Attorney General. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased costs to state and local governments to administer the initiative process. These costs include (1) one-time costs—possibly tens of millions of dollars—to state and local governments to develop new information technology systems and (2) ongoing costs to local governments of possibly millions of dollars each year. Ongoing fiscal effect on state government is not certain and depends on future decisions and actions by lawmaker