Schwarzenegger Punishes Voters in Six Vetoes

AP Photo/Jakub Mosur

Schwarzenegger has been signing and vetoing bills all week and has until the end of the day today to finish. Among the bills passed was the transportation sales tax increase proposal on to LA County's ballot and forcing fast food and chain restaurants to post calorie information. Of the bills vetoed, six of them were voter related, something Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who is the state's head election official, is not happy with.

"I'm dismayed the Governor doesn't believe it is a high priority to let voters know about their polling-place rights or if their votes were counted," said Bowen in a press release. "I understand the governor is not fond of the Legislature these days, but it's California voters who are being punished."

The laws vetoed would have "required polling place workers to inform decline-to-state voters in writing which primaries they could vote in, and a separate one that would tell permanent vote-by-mail residents whether their voters were counted and if not, why they weren't," according to PolitickerCA. "Other bills vetoed would've made it easier for voters to remove their names from ballot measure initiatives, recalls or referendums; clarified the law on how long voters can stay in the voting booth; and given vote-by-mail voters more information on when they would have to send in their ballots."