FRIENDS OF BAY MEADOWS v. City of San Mateo

Before us are three appeals from two superior court judgments in different cases, all involving a single subject, namely, the decision of county election officials not to certify a referendum to overturn a measure adopted by the San Mateo City Council, which decision resulted from the election officials’ invalidation of a number of categories of purported voter signatures. The officials’ decision was upheld by the trial court.

The parties raise a number of claims concerning the officials’ determinations on various categories of disqualified signatures. We find it necessary to decide only one of those claims: whether the officials properly disqualified 36 signatures where the voter did not personally write out identifying information as required by Elections Code section 100. We agree that the officials acted correctly in this regard, and hold, in this case of first impression, that the deficiency could not be cured by construing Election Code section 100.5 to validate the signatures by the declaration of the petition circulator on each sheet of signatures. In light of this decision, all remaining contentions become moot because, no matter how any of the parties’ other…