Proposition 45

Legislative Term Limits. Local Voter Petitions

Background

In 1990, California voters approved Proposition 140, a state constitutional amendment that limited the number of terms that an elected state official can serve in the same office. As regards the Legislature, Proposition 140 limited Members of the Assembly to three two-year terms and Members of the Senate to two four-year terms. A legislator who has served his/her maximum number of terms in an office is considered “termed-out” and is ineligible for reelection.

Proposal

This measure allows local voters to petition the Secretary of State to permit their incumbent Senator or Assembly Member who is termed-out to run for reelection to that same office at the next election or elections (in the case of the Assembly), thereby allowing the legislator to serve up to an additional four years in office. The petition would have to be signed by registered voters residing in the legislator’s district, equal in number to 20 percent of the ballots cast for that office in the last general election. The voter petition can be used only one time to place the name of the incumbent Senator or Assembly Member on the ballot for reelection. If local voters petition in such a manner, a Senator could serve a maximum of three four-year terms and an Assembly Member a maximum of five two-year terms.

Fiscal Effect

Counties would incur unknown costs for verifying the signatures on the petitions. The magnitude of these costs is unknown, but potentially up to several hundreds of thousands of dollars every other year on a statewide basis. The state would incur little or no costs for tracking the eligibility of candidates for reelection.


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