GPCA Poll: endorse Prop. 66?
This is the second of several statewide polls the GPCA will be
conducting of county organizations over the next few months to
determine GPCA positions on several election issues. This poll
measures county responses to a proposal to endorse Proposition 66, an
initiative on the November ballot to amend the current California
“Three Strikes” law. Please refer to the “Proposal” section of this
message for the actual language to be adopted or rejected. County
responses to this poll are due by 10:00 p.m, Sunday, August 1.
Background
The GPCA Platform calls for the repeal of the California three strikes
law, which allows persons convicted of a third felony to be sentenced
to prison for 25 years to life. The GPCA endorsed a proposal to amend
the law two years ago, but not enough signatures were gathered for
ballot placement. The current proposal has qualified for the ballot,
and would require that any “third strike” conviction would have to be
for a violent felony, only. If passed, it would also allow reviews of
third strike sentences under the previous law and allow re-sentencing
for persons convicted for nonviolent offenses. The initiative also
would increase the sentence ranges for sexual molestion of minors where
the offender is ten years or older than the victim, and it expressly
adds oral copulation as a category of sexual molestation of a minor.
Attorney General summaries of this proposal are available via the
Secretary of State’s web pages which also have links to the complete
text. Warner Bloomberg, 408-295-9353 WB4D23@aol.com, has offered to
be an information resource for anyone with questions about Proposition
66. The web page for the Secretary of State of CA is www.ss.ca.gov.
Highlight the “Elections and Voter Information–Initiatives” heading,
then click the “Qualified for 2004 General” link to see summaries of
the November 2004 initiatives.
Proposal
‘The Green Party of California endorses Proposition 66, an initiative
to amend the California three strikes laws, and urges a “Yes” vote for
this ballot measure.’
Process
Counties may use whatever internal methods are afforded by their own
bylaws to determine their vote(s) in this poll. Votes should be in the
form of “yes” to express support for the initiative or “no” to express
no support for the initiative. Votes need not be unanimous one way or
the other. Counties may cast the same number of votes as they were
allowed delegates to the last GPCA plenary. To find the number of
votes accorded to each county at the June 2004 plenary, consult the
chart found on this link:
http://www.cagreens.org/liaison/delegates.html
Or consult page 37 of the Sacramento June plenary packet.
Timeline
Polling will begin immediately and end at 10:00 p.m, Sunday, August 1.
Please be sure your results are posted to the addresses below by this
time and date.
Please email vote results to Endorsement Coordinators at both of the
following addresses:
Matthew Leslie mrl@greens.org
Michael Borenstien thebor@cagreens.org
Thank you for your cooperation,
Matthew Leslie
Michael Borenstein
