Gebert v. Patterson

Opinion

ANDERSON, P. J.

The issue here presented for the first time in California is whether a local regulation which requires the proponent of a ballot argument to pay a fee before it is published in the voter’s handbook is constitutional.

Stony Gebert (appellant) was the indigent proponent of the Marijuana Privacy Act Initiative (Prop. G) on the November 1985 ballot for the City and County of San Francisco. In August 1985, he submitted to Jay Patterson, the San Francisco Registrar of Voters (respondent) a ballot argument in favor of Proposition G—the Marijuana Initiative Fund measure—together…