Initiative petitions: electronic access.

Existing law specifies the process by which a statewide initiative or referendum measure may be qualified for the ballot, and requires the Secretary of State to prepare and provide to any person, on request, a pamphlet describing certain aspects of that process. This bill would require the Secretary of State to provide on his or her Internet Web site an electronic mail address at which the proponent of a proposed initiative or referendum measure may submit to the Secretary of State a copy of the petition for the proposed measure in portable document format. The bill would require the Secretary of State, within 2 business days of receiving a petition in this manner, to provide on his or her Internet Web site a hyperlink by which the petition is available to the public and can be downloaded and printed. The bill would require that a specified disclaimer be included on the Internet Web page that makes the petition available to the public.