Malick

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 1122 OPINION In this opinion we are called upon to determine the appropriate procedure for a trial court to follow when the proponent of a referendum petition challenges by petition for writ of mandate a determination by a county election department that certain persons who signed the referendum petition did not also print their names in a fashion acceptable to the election department. Here, the trial court denied the writ, finding that the procedures employed by the election officials were reasonable. We find that the trial court foreclosed inquiry into certain matters which might well have affected the court's thinking about the reasonableness of both the procedures and the specific actions of the election department. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment that upheld certain determinations by the Contra Costa County Election Department. I. THE INVALIDATION OF SIGNATURES AND THE TRIAL COURT'S REVIEW OF THAT PROCESS On September 21, 1993, the Danville Town Council adopted ordinance No. 93-8 (the ordinance). 1 Immediately thereafter, Laura Malick…

I concur in the judgment of reversal. The statutory scheme requires that each signer of a referendum must personally affix a printed name as well as a signature and a residence address. (Elec. Code, § 100.) If no printed name appears on the petition the signature cannot be counted valid. (Elec. Code, §§ 9020, 105.) If, however, something appears in the printed name line of the petition which has been put there by the signer of the petition the statutory requirement of providing a printed name has been met. Apparently all of the signatures which were disqualified because they lacked a printed name did, in fact, have something inscribed in the area reserved for the printed name. There was no evidence that the clerk invalidated any of these signatures on the ground that the printed name had not been personally affixed. Thus the clerk had no discretion to refuse the signature on the basis that the signer had failed to provide a printed name. A writ of mandate should have issued directing the clerk to count those signatures as valid, unless for some other reason the clerk was unable to verify that the signer of the petition was a registered voter. A petition for a rehearing was denied…

In this opinion we are called upon to determine the appropriate procedure for a trial court to follow when the proponent of a referendum petition challenges by petition for writ of mandate a determination by a county election department that certain persons who signed the referendum petition did not also print their names in a fashion acceptable to the election department.

Here, the trial court denied the writ, finding that the procedures employed by the election officials were reasonable. We find that the trial court foreclosed inquiry into certain matters which might well have affected the court’s thinking about the reasonableness of both the procedures and the specific actions of the election department. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment that upheld certain determinations by the Contra Costa County Election Department.

I. The Invalidation of Signatures and the Trial Court’s Review of That Process

On September 21, 1993, the Danville Town Council adopted ordinance No. 93-8 (the ordinance). Immediately thereafter, Laura Malick (appellant) began circulating a referendum petition, challenging the ordinance. Twenty-seven days later appellant submitted petitions…