Newport Beach voters will not receive two separate ballots this year after city leaders announced they’d failed to print ballots for a special ballot an OC Superior Court judge ordered the city to create.
On Friday, city officials announced the special election is cancelled just a little over two weeks before the Nov. 3 election – which would’ve been held on the same day, but with separate ballots.
That court order for an election came after a series of delays debating whether three ballot initiatives properly qualified for the November general election, with OC Superior Court Judge Julianne Bancroft ultimately finding the city’s legal challenges against those measures could amount to obstruction and they “abused their discretion” to delay them.
The three initiatives in question were aimed at increasing transparency at city hall, implementing city council term limits and shifting the city to district elections, all of which were bankrolled with signature gathering and advertising by local developer Ken Picerne.
When city leaders tried to get the initiatives onto the November general ballot well past the deadline, they were denied by OC Registrar of Voters Bob Page, and Bancroft ordered them to host a special election themselves on the same day as the general Nov. 3 election to call the question on the initiatives.
But city leaders, who’ve repeatedly asked the courts to cancel the election over the last few weeks, now say the election cannot move forward no matter what they do because they don’t have the authority to print ballots.
“Unfortunately, the City’s ballot printer could not proceed because it did not receive the required authorization to print ballots from the California Secretary of State, or the watermark and color tint necessary to ensure ballot integrity,” wrote spokesperson Georgia Rios in a Friday news release.
The general county ballot, which includes all four city council races and another ballot initiative dubbed Measure H that would shrink the amount of new housing coming to the city, is still valid and moving forward.
Rios also noted they never received necessary confidential voter information from county registrar Bob Page, who repeatedly told city leaders he would not assist them in hosting the special election because it would detract from the countywide general election he’s responsible for.
“Despite the City’s continued efforts, its election professionals have determined that the November 3 special election cannot proceed because necessary authorizations and information were not provided by the responsible outside agencies.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
