Uhl

This is a petition for a writ of mandate to compel respondent Registrar of Voters to verify signatures on certain initiative petitions.

On September 6, 1932, and September 8, 1932, certain initiative petitions were filed with the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco, proposing amendments to its charter. Upon the filing thereof the board delivered them to respondent, who commenced the work of verifying the signatures. Prior to completion of this task a large number of the signers communicated with him requesting the withdrawal of their signatures. Respondent accordingly disregarded such names in computing the number of valid signatures. Many of the signers had also failed to affix the date of signing after their signatures, and these names were also disregarded. It is conceded that if either of these two groups of discarded signatures is left out of the computation, the petitions fail.

The first question is whether signers had a right to withdraw their names after the filing of the petitions with the board. The California Constitution, article XI, section 8, provides that a charter may be amended “by proposals therefor submitted by the legislative body of…