Report of Committee on Election Laws

STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN WILLIAM H. JORDAN

MR. JORDAN: Your committee on election laws beg leave to report that they had many meetings during the past year, and that some of these meetings have proved useful and some of them not. Upon occasions we have discussed politics, the welfare of the Club, the League of Nations, and many other things, except the business for which we were convened, but at other meetings we have gotten down to business and done what we believed to be good work. Many propositions to enact new laws, and others to amend the present election laws, have been debated and rejected as unwise, or visionary.

The following measures, however, all of which have originated with the committee, have met with our opproval:

1. An act to add a new section to the Political Code to be known as No. 1252a, providing for a change in the method of counting the ballots.

This proposed act, if adopted, will provide that whenever the board having charge of an election shall, twenty-five days before the holding of an election, adopt a resolution to that effect, the ballot box shall, as soon as the election is over, be securely locked and sealed, and be sent by the hand of two election officers to the office of the county clerk, registrar of voters, or clerk of the board having charge of the election, where, in accordance with the provisions of the act, the box shall be opened and the ballots counted in the presence of the clerk, registrar, or election board, as the case may be, and in full view of the public, thus saving a very large expenditure of money, much time, and insuring greater accuracy than under the present system.

It is estimated by Mr. Zemansky, our expert registrar, that the adoption of this act will save San Francisco alone not less than $40,000 for each election where ballots are of the ordinary length, and a correspondingly larger amount when they are of excessive length.

This measure has been introduced by Senator Burnett, and is now pending before the Senate Committee upon Elections and known as Senate Bill No. 616.

2. An act amending the present election law of 1913 and providing a method for choosing the delegates for political parties to state conventions and for nominating electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, also providing for the election of party county central committees and to repeal the act approved April 7, 1911, known as the direct primary law, and also to repeal the act approved December 24, 1911.

This act re-enacts in the main the old act, but amends the san.e by providing that each section of the nomination paper, after being verified, shall be returned by the verification deputy who circulated it to the candidate by whom the said verification deputy was appointed; and in this manner all the sections circulated in any county shall be collected by said candidate and shall be by him or on his behalf arranged for filing or for examination, as provided in subdivision four of the act, and shall then be by him or on his behalf filed or left for examination and filing. It also provides that each candidate on or before the thirty-fifth day prior to the August primary election, or the May primary election, or on or before the twenty-fifth day prior to any other primary election, shall file in the place where his nomination paper is required to be filed, as provided in section six of the act, his affidavit, stating his residence, street and number, if any; his election precinct; that he is a qualified elector in the election precinct in which he resides; the name of his party and that of the office for which he is a candidate; that he is registered as intending to affiliate with said party. And it likewise provides in section nine that any candidate who has been defeated for nomination of any office shall be ineligible for nomination for the same office at the ensuing general election either as an independent candidate or as the candidate of any other party, and that any elector qualified to take part in any primary election who has, at least thirty days before the day of such primary election, qualified by registration, and by declaration of the political party with which he intends to affiliate, as provided by section one thousand ninety-six of the Political Code, shall be entitled to vote at such primary election, such right to vote being subject to challenge only as therein provided.

The chief purpose of this act is to prevent a party who has once been defeated for a nomination as a candidate of any particular party from becoming a candidate at the ensuing general election of any other party, or as an independent candidate.

This act was introduced by Senator Lyon and is known as Senate Bill No. 673, and is now pending before the Election Committee.

3. An act to promote the purity of elections by regulating the conduct thereof, and to support the free suffrage of the electors by prohibiting certain acts and practices in relation thereto, and providing for the punishment thereof.

This act presents a new law and provides that every candidate for an elective public office to be voted for at any primary, general, special, recall or other public election held within the state of California, shall, at the time he files his nomination papers, file with the same

officer with whom such nomination papers are filed the names of not less than three qualified voters as a duly authorized campaign committee, which shall conduct the elective campaign of such candidate, and within five days after its appointment such committee shall elect a treasurer, who shall receive and disburse all money or its equivalent or other thing of value contributed for, or on behalf of, the nomination or election of such candidate, and shall keep a full and true account thereof.

Neither the candidate, nor any person, firm, organization, association or corporation shall, either directly or indirectly, pay or expend any money or its equivalent or other thing of value, for, or on behalf of any candidate, whether before, during, or after an election, on account of, or in respect to, the conduct or management of such election, except that any such candidate, or any person, firm, organization, association, or corporation contributing, or desiring to contribute any money or its equivalent, or other thing of value, for or on behalf of, any candidate, shall pay over to, or deposit such moneys or other thing of value, with the treasurer of the campaign committee appointed to conduct the election campaign of such a candidate.

Not more than fifteen days, or less than ten days before the holding of any election, it is provided that the treasurer of the committee shall file an itemized statement showing in detail the moneys received, expended, paid, loaned or contributed to the committee, up to and including the tenth day before the election, giving the names of the various persons who paid, loaned, contributed, or otherwise furnished such moneys, and the names of the various persons to whom such moneys were loaned, or paid, the specific nature of each item, the services performed, by whom performed, and the purpose for which the money was expended, contributed, or loaned, and that the candidate shall also file a certified statement setting forth that he has examined the treasurer's statement and that it is true and contains a correct statement of all moneys and contributions made to his campaign, or contributed for or on his behalf.

It likewise provides that within ten days after the holding of any election, the treasurer shall file a supplemental statement showing in detail all moneys received and expended subsequent to the former statement, and that every claim payable by a committee in the matter of expenses incurred in the conduct and management of an election held within this state, or on behalf of the candidates which such committee represents, must be presented to the committee within ten days after the day of election; otherwise they shall not be paid, and no action at law shall be commenced to enforce payment, and that all expenses incurred shall be paid within fifteen days after the election.

The act likewise provides that the Superior Court of the county in which such candidate resides may, on the application of either the committee or candidate, or a creditor of either, allow any claim not in excess of the maximum amount allowed by the act, to be presented and paid after the time limited by the act, and that no payment of any money shall be made by a committee or candidate for the rent of any premises to be used as a committee room or headquarters, or for holding a meeting, or for the purpose of promoting the election of a candidate, or on account of, or in respect to the conduct or management of, an election, where intoxicating liquors are sold for consumption on the premises, or where intoxicating liquor is supplied to members of any club, society, or association; provided that nothing in the section shall apply to any part of such premises which is ordinarily let for the purposes of offices, or for holding public meetings; and that every bill, placard, pamphlet, or other printed matter having reference to an election, or to any candidate, shall bear upon the face thereof the name and address of the printer and publisher thereof, and no payment there for shall be made or allowed unless such address is so printed; and that no person shall ask, demand, solicit or invite from a person who seeks to be nominated or elected to public office, or any representative of said candidate, any payment or contribution for any organization or cause, whether political, social, religious, charitable or other purpose, or shall receive money for such organization; and that no person shall ask, demand, solicit or invite any candidate for public office, or any representative of such candidate, to subscribe to the support of any club or organization, or to buy tickets for ball or card party or reception or any form of entertainment whatever, or to procure or display banners, or shall receive money from such candidate or his representative for any such purpose; and that no person shall demand, solicit or ask any candidate for public office to pay for space in any book, programme, periodical or other publication for the purpose of advertising his candidacy for office, or shall receive money for such purpose; but the act excepts from that provision the soliciting of any advertisement of such candidate's ordinary business for insertion in a publication in which said candidate was regularly advertising prior to his candidacy. or in any newspaper or periodical of general circulation which has secured second class postal rates from the United States postoffice department, at least six months prior to said publication.

It is also provided that no person who seeks to be nominated or elected to public office shall pay or promise to pay money, or any other valuable thing to any person, organization, caucus or conven

tion as a precedent to putting his name on any ticket or nomination paper, or to furnishing support of any sort for nomination or election to office. The act then provides suitable penalties for a violation of these provisions.

This act has been introduced by Senator Lyon and known as Senate Bill No. 675, and is now pending before the Election Committee.

Whether either of these acts will ever get out of the Election Committee of the Senate it is difficult to tell. As we all know, the Legislature is now upon its last lap and very little seems to have been done to promote the passage of these acts. Your committee, owing to what we believe to be a flaw in the construction work of this Club, has been unable to do more than present the acts to the Legislature. Unfortunately, we have no power as a committee to appear before the Legislature, or any committee thereof, and advocate the passage of any bill in the name of this Club, since that could not be done until the Club itself had approved of the measures and authorized the committee to act. It would certainly be putting the committee in a very unhappy position to go to Sacramento and recommend the passage of a measure in the name of this Club, and then have the Club at a subsequent meeting repudiate the action of the committee and disavow responsibility for the proposed measure. It seems to your committee that the only way to obtain any effective work in matters of this sort would be either to authorize the Board of Governors to approve or disapprove of legislative measures, and make provision for the appearance of your committee before the Legislature and advocate the passage of such measures, or else to provide that all acts intended for Legislature consideration shall first be presented to the Club for its approval at a meeting to be held prior to the convening of the Legislature.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLIAM H. JORDAN,

Chairman of Committee on Election Laws.

March 19, 1919.

Remarks by William H. Jordan

MR. JORDAN: Of course, in preparing this, I did not know what was in the President's mind or that he would likewise submit a suggestion along the same line.

Now, as to what shall be done with these measures I have this to say: I do not think it is worth while for this Club to approve or disapprove of anything your Election Laws Committee has done, because