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General Election 1998
Initiative Fact Boxes

September 9, 1998

TO: California Political Reporters and Editors

FR: Jim Shultz - The Democracy Center

RE: Initiative Fact Boxes for the Fall 1998 Election

The Fact Boxes document is in PDF format and requires an Acrobat Reader for viewing. If you do not have a Reader, it is available to download for free.

With the passage of Labor Day, California's official election season starts and you begin the great challenge of trying to explain a few hundred candidates and issues to a wary electorate. No where will this be more difficult than with regard to the seven statewide initiatives on the November ballot. From horsemeat to nuclear debts - it is going to be a wild ride for everyone.

"Look, if you really want us to use these 'fact boxes', do them for us." - Journalist

Last Spring The Democracy Center suggested an addition to media coverage of initiatives - the "Fact Box". These would be simple, ongoing graphics which summarize the key points about each initiative - what it does, who is for it, who is against it and the top two contributors to each side. In an ideal world voters would read everything you write for them about initiatives. However, not all voters do. The "fact boxes" are a way to give the "skimmers" of what you write a little more help.

A number of reporters and editors told us they liked the idea of the "fact boxes" and one of your colleagues gave us this wise suggestion: "Look, if you really want us to use these boxes, do them for us." And so, we have. Attached is a full set of fact boxes for the seven initiatives on the November ballot (Propositions 4-10). Some papers may choose to use them as they are. Others will want to modify them to their own liking in terms of content and graphics. In either case we hope you will seriously consider using them in some form. The fact boxes will also be available on The Democracy Center Web site (www.democracyctr.org). Enclosed as well is a recent article I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle making the case for giving voters more basic facts this initiative season.

How the "Fact Boxes" Were Prepared

The Democracy Center designed these "fact boxes' in as nonpartisan a manner as possible. Here is the source of each of the items included in the boxes:

  • Title: Using the official summaries from the California Secretary of State, the Center identified the shortest phrase possible that identified the primary topic of the initiative.

  • What it Does: Using the official summaries from the California Secretary of State, the Center developed abbreviations of one or two sentences that we believed to be understandable, true to the spirit of the original summary, and genuinely nonpartisan with regard to content.

  • Supporters and Opponents: Using the official ballot arguments and rebuttals submitted to the California Secretary of State, the Center looked at all of the official signers and picked two opponents and two supporters. We used the same criteria that the Secretary of State uses for selecting among competing ballot arguments. First priority went to organizations with established public identities and second to well-known individuals. Where individual signers were current officers of their organizations we listed the organizations as supporters. Past affiliations are listed as past affiliations.

  • Top Yes and No Contributors: This information was developed and provided by The California Voter Foundation, drawn from each campaign's official July 31, 1998 filings with the California Secretary of State (which cover the period ending June 30, 1998). A note here - unfortunately under California law initiative committees are not required to file financial disclosure reports again until October. Some committees have clearly raised funds since their July 31 filings that are not reflected in the "fact boxes". An updated report on initiative contributions will be available on the California Voter Foundation Web site (www.calvoter.org) after the next round of required filings.

A Note About The Democracy Center

The Democracy Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in San Francisco that trains citizen groups in California and internationally how to be more effectively involved in the political process. In 1996 The Democracy Center published The Initiative Cookbook - Recipes and Stories from California's Ballot Wars, a popular citizens guide to initiative politics. Support for the Center's development and dissemination of the "initiative fact boxes" comes from a small grant by the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation in San Francisco. If you have any questions about the fact boxes or The Center please give me a call at (415) 431-2051.