California Redistricting Plan Removed From Ballot

This just in from The San Diego Union-Tribune...

Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure ordered off ballot

By Steve Lawrence
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:59 p.m. July 21, 2005

SACRAMENTO – A Superior Court judge on Thursday kicked
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure off the special election
ballot, ruling that supporters violated California's constitution by using two
versions of the initiative in the qualifying process.

"The differences are not simply typographical errors,"
Judge Gail Ohanesian said. "They're not merely about the format of the measure.
They are not simply technical. Instead they go to the substantive terms of the
measure."

The proposal, Proposition 77, is one of three initiatives
that the Republican governor is supporting in the Nov. 8 special election. It
would take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from
the Legislature and give it to a panel of three retired judges.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the judge to order the
measure off the ballot because its supporters used two versions – one to gather
voter signatures and another that they gave to him to prepare a title and
summary of the proposal to use on petitions.

Click here to read the entire article at The San Diego Union-Tribune