Last Updated May 2023
Below is a short summary of new bills introduced and amendments to existing bills. May 5 is the last day for policy committees to hear and report non-fiscal bills introduced in their house, and May 19 is the last day for fiscal committees to hear and report to the Floor bills introduced in their house.
AB 34: establishes a Citizens Redistricting Commission in Orange County.
AB 270 / SB 24: upon voter approval, allows state and local governments to offer public campaign financing programs.
AB 421: requires 10% of the signatures needed to qualify a state referendum or a state initiative that amends or repeals recently enacted legislation to be collected by volunteers or employees of nonprofit organizations, and reduces the period for collecting signatures on petitions for such a state initiative to 90 days. Requires paid signature gatherers who collect signatures on petitions for such measures to register with the Secretary of State and complete training. Provides for the disqualification of signatures on petitions for such measures due to misconduct by petition circulators and in situations where petition signers fail to provide all required information.
AB 764: makes special districts, school districts, community college districts, and county boards of education subject to similar criteria and process requirements that apply to counties and cities that are adjusting the boundaries of the districts used to elect members of their governing bodies.
AB 868 (DATA Act): requires a committee that pays for a digital advertisement on an online platform to submit specified information to the FPPC, including the name of the online platform that displayed the advertisement, the amount paid to the platform for the advertisement, and a copy of the advertisement.
AB 969: prohibits a county board of supervisors from terminating an existing voting system contract without a transition plan and a replacement contract in place.
SB 52: requires a charter city with a population of at least 2,500,000 people to establish a citizens redistricting commission.
SB 298: extends the time period for the Attorney General to provide a copy of the circulating title and summary and its unique numeric identifier to the proponents of an initiative measure and Secretary of State from 15 to 20 days after receipt of the fiscal estimate or opinion prepared by the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst.
SB 409: amended to remove the portion of the bill that required candidate ballot pamphlet statements to be physically written by the candidate without reference to outside materials in a designated place.
SB 532: amended to retain the requirement to explain the financial impacts of local tax and bond ballot measures in the ballot measure summaries (instead of in the voter guide), but allowing that information to appear without counting against the 75-word limit on such summaries.
SB 632: permits a candidate running for elective office in a multicounty district to submit their candidate statement to the Secretary of State for review and approval. Would become effective July 1, 2025.
SB 681: amended to increase the proposed 5-day period for notice to the media and interested parties of Political Reform Act bills in final form to 7 days. However, if the previous form of a bill did not amend the Act, requires bills amending the Act to be in final form at least 12 days before passage in each house.
SB 846: creates a back-end automated voter registration system for registering voters via the California New Motor Voter Program at the DMV.
SB 888: amended to include a provision requiring a member of the FPPC who declares a candidacy for elective office to resign from the Commission. Prohibits the chair of the FPPC from filing to be a candidate for elective office until at least one year after their service in this position expires. Amendments deleted the removal of the cap on the amount a candidate can loan his or her own campaign.
The following bills are not moving forward this year: AB 1170 (regarding electronic filing of a Form 700), SB 251 (prohibiting an elected officer from being employed by any other elected officer with the same constituency), and SB 573 (post-legislative employment lobbying restriction).