Elections: Secretary of State.

Existing law requires the Attorney General to provide a ballot label and a ballot title for each measure to be submitted to the voters at a statewide election. Existing law requires the Attorney General to prepare a summary of the chief purposes and points of each statewide ballot measure as part of the ballot title. Existing law also requires the Attorney General to prepare a circulating title and summary of an initiative or referendum measure prior to the circulation of an initiative or referendum petition for signatures. This bill would require the Secretary of State, instead of the Attorney General, to prepare the ballot label and the ballot title and summary for all measures submitted to the voters of the state and the circulating title and summary for initiative and referendum measures. The existing law provides that all judicial, school, county, and city offices, and the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, are nonpartisan. Existing law defines a "voter-nominated office" as a congressional or state elective office for which a candidate may choose to have his or her party preference or lack of party preference indicated upon the ballot, and provides a list of voter-nominated offices. This bill would provide that the office of the Secretary of State is also a nonpartisan office and would remove it from the list of voter-nominated offices. The bill would make its operation contingent upon the approval by the voters of ACA ____ of the 2013–14 Regular Session.