Nishioka

The San Francisco Superior Court issued a writ of mandate prohibiting respondent San Francisco Director of Elections from qualifying an initiative measure for the ballot. The writ issued on the ground that the circulating initiative petition contained false statements intended to mislead voters and induce them to sign the petition. The three proponents of the initiative appeal from the judgment granting the writ. We affirm because an initiative petition which contains objectively inaccurate information and calculated untruths that substantially mislead and misinform a reasonable voter is unlawful under the Elections Code.

I. Facts

In a special election in June 1997, the voters of the City and County of San Francisco narrowly approved two initiative measures for the construction of a new football stadium for respondent San Francisco Forty-Niners at Candlestick Point. Proposition D authorized the City to use lease financing to borrow up to $100 million to finance the stadium. Proposition F amended the City’s land use laws to allow construction of the new stadium and an adjacent entertainment and shopping center.

In December 1997, appellant Douglas Comstock, an opponent…