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Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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July 28, 2005

Prop. 77 chicken scratch

This amazing document, posted on the Secretary of State's web site, has become the subject of a legal dissing match between Attorney General Bill Lockyer and supporters of Proposition 77.

Lockyer's lawyers and spokesman have claimed that the document, which is almost illegible through a series of edits and proofreading remarks scrawled all over it, is a copy of the initiative circulated by proponents of Prop. 77 to gather signatures for their measure. He's now citing the mess as another reason why he refuses to write a new title and summary for the version of the initiative that was circulated to voters.

Ted Costa, the chief sponsor of the measure, says the document is not what he circulated. He says he is not sure where the document came from but he insists his group circulated a clean, typewritten copy of its initiative, albeit a slightly different version than the one submitted to Lockyer for review.

Anyway, it's worth taking a peek at the document to see what they are fighting over.

UPDATE: An alert reader (aren't they all?) points out that all of the initiative meaures have at least a few chicken scratches on them. Indeed, these appear to be marks from the legislative counsel's office. Some are printing instructions, like spacing for paragraphs, while others are small changes in code sections and other legal matters. Beyond that, the Prop. 77 version also includes handwritten changes that reflect the now famous differences in the versions submitted to the AG and circulated to the voters. It's still a mystery though, as to who wrote those changes in. Costa says it wasn't him.