Regrettably, Californians are accustomed to strange bills being introduced in the California Legislature. The designation of an official state dinosaur comes immediately to mind.

But others are not just strange, they are purposefully designed to fool the public. For example, Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 1, dealing with the peoples’ right to referendum, seeks to reverse the meaning of yes and no. Here’s the background:

As voters may recall, Senator Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys was the author of a 2018 bill (Senate Bill 10) that sought to abolish cash bail in California. Like most states, California utilizes a cash bail system to allow release of detained criminal suspects before their trials. Defendants pay a cash bond to be released from jail pending trial with the promise to return to court for trial and hearings. The cash bond is repaid to suspects after their criminal trials are completed, no matter the outcome. SB 10 would have replaced the state’s cash bail system with risk assessments to determine whether a detained suspect should be granted pretrial release and under what conditions. But bail bond companies, along with groups representing victims and law enforcement, qualified a referendum of Senate Bill 10. In a referendum, voters act on a proposal exactly like their elected representatives. A yes vote approves the legislation and a no vote rejects it. Because SB 10 was highly unpopular with Californians due to their concern with the state’s increase in crime, it was not surprising that voters rejected it.

Not content to heed the will of the voters and their desire to retain the existing cash bail system, Sen. Hertzberg now seeks to alter the very way referendum votes are counted. His SCA 1 would count “yes” votes as rejecting the law and “no” votes as approving the law. This is an obvious attempt to confuse voters.

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