LOS ANGELES - The California Court of Appeal has backed the city of Redondo Beach against the state of California in a dispute over a state voting law.
The California Voter Participation Rights Act (VPRA) was enacted by the legislature in 2015 in an effort to combat low voter turnout in off-cycle municipal elections, those which are held on different dates from statewide elections.
The VPRA requires local elections to be held on the same day as statewide elections in jurisdictions where turnout has fallen 25 percent below the average turnout for the previous four statewide elections.
Redondo Beach challenged the law, claiming the California Constitution allowed charter cities to schedule their own local elections. The appeals court sided with Redondo Beach, ruling that the Legislature was vague about whether the law applied to charter cities.
“We affirm the judgment to the extent it restrains the Secretary of State from enforcing the VPRA against the City on the ground the Legislature failed to clearly provide the VPRA applies to charter cities,” the court ruled March 23.
The law states that “a political subdivision shall not hold an election other than on a statewide election date, if holding an election on a nonconcurrent date has previously resulted in a significant decrease in voter turnout.”
The California Attorney General, on July 11, 2017, issued a ruling that the law applies to charter cities such as Redondo Beach and school districts governed by the city charter.
But the appeals court noted that VPRA clashes with the home-rule authority granted to charter cities under the state's constitution.
The California Legislature “deliberately left unresolved the question whether the VPRA applies to charter cities, placing on the courts the responsibility to divine intent from ambiguous language,” the Appeals Court held.
“Where the Constitution confers plenary authority on charter cities to set the timing of their elections, we will not infer an intent to contravene that authority without more explicit guidance from the Legislature."
City of Redondo Beach v. Alex Padilla, as Secretary of State, California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Seven B294016