ELE §13307. (a) (1) Each candidate for nonpartisan elective office in any local agency,
including any city, county, city and county, or district, may prepare a candidate’s statement
on an appropriate form provided by the elections official. The statement may include the
name, age, and occupation of the candidate and a brief description, of no more than 200
words, of the candidate’s education and qualifications expressed by the candidate himself
or herself. However, the governing body of the local agency may authorize an increase
in the limitations on words for the statement from 200 to 400 words. The statement shall
not include the party affiliation of the candidate, nor membership or activity in partisan
political organizations.
This means different counties apply different standards above and beyond this, which sometimes come into conflict with the law. For instance, in Santa Clara you must indent paragraphs but not have spaces between them. You also cannot have more than 22 lines. Other counties format the statements themselves and don't worry about the lines. In Marin County, you may not indent and you must have no more than 4 paragraphs. If you have more, they simply run a few together.
Most Counties prohibit italics, all CAPS, highlighting and bullet points. But even within counties, different standards prevail depending on the election and the official administering it, from what I gathered looking over some recent published statements.
This can be confusing to a novice, or even experienced, candidate, who try to submit a carefully worded statement only to find he has run afoul of some arcane rule or another.
I think it might be time for some uniform rules for all Counties to follow. Until then, know the rules in your County well ahead of time, then craft your statement accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment