Board opts to keep shorter ballots

By JP Crumrine
Correspondent

At it’s Nov. 7 meeting, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors chose not to include a list of supporters and opponents to countywide, school district or local government measures on the actual election ballot.

Assembly Bill (AB) 1416, approved in September 2022, requires this information for statewide referenda or initiatives. However, counties were given the option to include or exclude it for their local measures.

Besides including the title of the proposals, AB 1416 requires that the state ballot include a list of nonprofit organizations, businesses or individuals that support and oppose the measure.

This information is available and will continue to be included in the Voter Information Guide (VIG) mailed to voters ahead of each election.

The information the state will add to ballots is limited to a maximum of 125 characters for both supporters and opponents. This could include associations, nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals taken from the signers of the proposal or the text of the arguments in favor of or against the measure already printed in the VIG.

The county board voted unanimously, 4-0 to keep its ballots shorter. Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez (5th District) missed the meeting.

One person spoke strongly about seeing the supporters and opponents of these measures; however, he assumed this information also would be removed from all the sources.

The names of supporters, opponents, and some text of their opinions will continue to be published in the VIG and sample ballots, according to Art Tinoco, interim registrar of voters.

Tinoco also noted that he expects only one local measure on the March 2024 ballot. However, there is the possibility of 15 to 20 local measures on the November 2024 ballot. Adding more information for this many measures could increase this ballot to three cards, he told the board.