Measures ranging from a $9 billion school bond to a condom requirement for actors in pornographic movies are set to join the presidential candidates on November’s California ballot, with plenty more still to come. Battle lines are being drawn in what could be one of the busiest — and most expensive — initiative seasons in California history. “It’s likely to be a very long ballot,” said Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog, a progressive group that’s sponsored a number of consumer-oriented initiatives over the years. Besides the seven measures that have already qualified for the ballot — including one of nationwide interest that would cut prescription drug prices for state agencies — supporters of others are out on the streets, haranguing passersby in an effort to collect enough signatures to go before the voters next year.
These include proposals for tax increases, campaign finance reform and marijuana legalization, all of which may or may not make the ballot.
… Because the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot is a percentage of the number of votes cast in the most recent governor’s race, 2014’s dismal turnout means the 2016 bar for making the ballot is the lowest in at least 25 years. It now takes 585,407 valid signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot and 365,880 to qualify a regular statute.
With just a couple days left in 2015, 83 measures have been approved for circulation this year, the most since a record 109 in 2005. Last year, the number was 34.
Full Article: Low turnout prompts initiative extravaganza for November ballot – San Francisco Chronicle.