With respect to any election to be held in the City and County, the Director of Elections shall prepare a voter information pamphlet. The voter information pamphlet shall contain, in addition to any other material required by the Charter or by general law, the following materials:
(a) General contents:
(1) A table of contents;
(2) An index of candidates and measures;
(3) A brief explanation of the purpose and use of the pamphlet;
(4) A summary of voters' rights, including a description of the right provided to every elector by California Elections Code sections 9295 and 13314 to seek a writ of mandate or an injunction prior to the publication of the Voter Information Pamphlet, requiring any or all of the materials submitted for publication in the Pamphlet to be amended or deleted;
(5) A brief description of the rules and procedures that govern the submission, selection and publication of ballot arguments in the pamphlet, including a statement explaining that each person entitled to submit a "Proponent's" or "Opponent's" argument is chosen pursuant to the priority list stated in Section 545 of this Code;
(6) A disclaimer that neither the Director of Elections nor any other City agency, official or employee verifies the accuracy of information contained in the ballot arguments or candidate qualification statements appearing in the pamphlet, and an explanation that any person submitting a ballot argument or qualifications statement bears the sole responsibility for claims made therein;
(7) Artwork, graphics and other material which the Director of Elections determines will make the pamphlet easier to understand or more useful to the voter;
(8) Definitions of terms appearing in the pamphlet; and
(9) A sample ballot.
(b) Contents as to candidates:
(1) The candidate qualification statement of each candidate for City elective office;
(2) A brief statement of the term, compensation, and duties of each City elective office appearing in the pamphlet; and
(3) Any notice required by the Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance or the Political Reform Act, Government Code Section 85600, informing voters whether the candidate has adopted the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling.
(c) Contents as to measures:
(1) The identification of each measure by letter and title;
(2) The City Attorney's statement or question for each measure;
(3) The digest of each measure prepared by the Ballot Simplification Committee;
(4) The Controller's financial analysis of each measure;
(5) An explanation of how the measure qualified for submission to the voters;
(A) If the measure was submitted to the voters by the Board of Supervisors, the explanation required by Subsection (c)(5) of this Section shall identify those Supervisors who voted for submission of the measure and those Supervisors who voted against submission of the measure,
(B) If the measure was submitted to the voters by four or more members of the Board of Supervisors, the explanation required by Subsection (c)(5) of this Section shall identify those Supervisors who submitted the measure,
(C) If the measure was submitted to the voters by initiative petition, the explanation required by Subsection (c)(5) of this Section shall include the number of valid signatures of registered San Francisco voters that were required to qualify the measure for the ballot, and the date on which the Director of Elections certified that the measure qualified for the ballot;
(6) The opponent, proponent, rebuttal and paid arguments, if any, for or against each measure;
(7) The full legal text of each Charter amendment to be voted upon at the election. For each Charter amendment, the Department of Elections shall cause to be printed immediately below the Ballot Simplification Committee digest, in no less than 10-point bold type, a statement substantially as follows: "The above statement is an impartial analysis of Measure ____. The full text of this measure appears at page (insert page number)."
(8) The full legal text of each measure other than a Charter amendment to be voted upon at the election, unless the legal text of the measure as submitted to the Department of Elections exceeds 100 pages. In that event, the voter information pamphlet shall contain the first 20 pages of the legal text of the measure as submitted to the Department of Elections, provided that the Board of Supervisors may adopt a resolution, effective no later than the 94th day prior to the date of the election, requiring the Director of Elections to include the full legal text of a measure in the voter information pamphlet.
(A) If the full legal text of a measure is printed in the voter information pamphlet, the Department of Elections shall cause to be printed immediately below the Ballot Simplification Committee digest, in no less than 10-point bold type, a statement substantially as follows: "The above statement is an impartial analysis of Measure ____. The full text of this measure appears at page (insert page number)."
(B) If less than the full legal text of a measure is printed in the voter information pamphlet, the Department of Elections shall:
(i) cause the full legal text to be posted on the Department's website, provided to the Main Library and every branch library of the San Francisco Public Library, and mailed to any voter upon request;
(ii) cause to be printed immediately below the Ballot Simplification Committee digest, in no less than 10-point bold type, a statement substantially as follows: "The above statement is an impartial analysis of Measure ____. An excerpt of the text of this measure appears at page (insert page number). The full text of this measure is available online at (insert website address) and in every public library. If you desire a copy of the full text of the measure to be mailed to you, please contact the Department of Elections at (insert telephone number and email address) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."; and
(iii) cause to be printed immediately below the excerpt of legal text in the voter information pamphlet, in no less than 10-point bold type, a statement substantially as follows: "The text above contains the first 20 pages of Measure ____ but does not include the remaining pages of the measure. The pages that have been excluded may include important information that could be useful to voters, and the Department of Elections encourages voters to review those pages as well. The full text of this measure is available online at (insert website address) and in every public library. If you desire a copy of the full text of the measure to be mailed to you, please contact the Department of Elections at (insert telephone number and email address) and a copy will be mailed at no cost to you."
(9) The following statement for each measure that would approve a development project or substantial land use or zoning changes on land transferred in trust to the City, acting by and through the Port Commission, under the Burton Act, Chapter 1333 of the Statutes of 1968, as it has been amended and may be amended in the future: “Measure ______ involves the San Francisco waterfront, which includes sovereign lands that the State of California has legislatively granted to the City. These waterfront lands and their resources are protected by the common law public trust doctrine and the City holds them in trust on behalf of all the People of California.”
Measures, and the material specified in this Section relating to said measures, shall be printed in the voter information pamphlet in the same order in which designated upon the ballot.
If space allows, the items specified in subsections (c)(1) to (c)(5) shall be printed together on the same page of the voter information pamphlet. This page shall be known as the “ballot measure title page.” The ballot measure title page shall also indicate: the page number at which the arguments for or against the measure are printed; and, if applicable the page number at which the definitions of terms appearing on ballot measure title page are printed.
The item specified in subsection (c)(9) shall be printed immediately preceding the legal text for the measure.
The format of the voter information pamphlet shall be determined by the Director of Elections, subject to the approval of the Ballot Simplification Committee.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97; amended by Ord. 44-03, File No. 021996, App. 4/3/2003; Ord. 183-03, File No. 030652, App. 7/25/2003; Ord. 291-06, File No. 061375, App. 11/29/2006; Ord. 179-11, File No. 101574, App. 9/21/2011; Eff. 10/21/2011; Ord. 50-13
, File No. 120899, App. 3/28/2013, Eff. 4/27/2013; Ord. 158-13
, File No. 130413, App. 7/26/2013, Eff. 8/25/2013; Ord. 120-18, File No. 180215, App. 5/17/2018, Eff. 6/17/2018)