Calif. Prop. 23 forces (Texas oil, polluters) set stage for post-election lawsuits

[Newsjock]

Source: Sacramento Bee

Hundreds of thousands of ballots printed in Fresno County use an incorrect ballot label to describe a statewide proposition to suspend the state's greenhouse gas emissions law, election officials confirmed today.

Ballots printed for the county's roughly 380,000 registered voters say Proposition 23 would suspend laws requiring "major polluters" to report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That language was thrown out by a Sacramento superior court judge, who ordered several edits to the original language drafted by the attorney general's office, including changing "major polluters" to "major sources of emissions."

... "Fresno County is a county of significant size in California and in a close election, its vote, now tainted by this serious error, could call into question the state results and possibly give rise to an election contest and require a new statewide election on Proposition 23," attorney Colleen C. McAndrews wrote in a letter to the Fresno elections officials.

... Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the campaign opposing Proposition 23, called the proponents' complaints a "pathetic Hail Mary pass from Texas oil companies trying to salvage the more than $10 million they sunk into this ballot measure."

Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/10/prop-23-campaign-some-absentee.html