ARTICLE 3. Improper Payments to Prevent Petition Circulation and Filing [18620. - 18622.]

Cal. Elections Code - ELEC 3.

in effect

Cal. Elections Code - ELEC § 18620. Section 18620.

Every person who seeks, solicits, bargains for, or obtains any money, thing of value, or advantage of or from any person, firm, or corporation for the purpose or represented purpose of fraudulently inducing, persuading, or seeking the proponent or proponents of any initiative or referendum measure or recall petition to (a) abandon the measure or petition, (b) fail, neglect, or refuse to file in the office of the elections official or other officer designated by law, within the time required by law, the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition after securing the number of signatures required to qualify the measure or petition, (c) stop the circulation of the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition, or (d) perform any act that will prevent or aid in preventing the initiative or referendum measure or recall petition from qualifying as an initiative or referendum measure, or the recall petition from resulting in a recall election, is punishable by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

Cal. Elections Code - ELEC § 18621. Section 18621.

Any proponent of an initiative or referendum measure or recall petition who seeks, solicits, bargains for, or obtains any money or thing of value of or from any person, firm, or corporation for the purpose of abandoning the same or stopping the circulation of petitions concerning the same, or failing or neglecting or refusing to file the measure or petition in the office of the elections official or other officer designated by law within the time required by law after obtaining the number of signatures required under the law to qualify the measure or petition, or withdrawing an initiative petition after filing it with the appropriate elections official, or performing any act that will prevent or aid in preventing the initiative, referendum, or recall proposed from qualifying as an initiative or referendum measure, or resulting in a recall election is punishable by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

Cal. Elections Code - ELEC § 18622. Section 18622.

Every person who offers to buy or does buy from a circulator any referendum, initiative, or recall petition on which one or more persons have affixed their signatures is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both. This section is not intended to prohibit compensation of a circulator, for his or her services, by a proponent of the petition or his or her agent.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026