Suit says secretary of state delayed ballot initiatives

The real estate investor behind California's landmark online privacy law has sued Secretary of State Alex Padilla claiming an alleged delay to signature gathering could keep an initiative to strengthen the law off the November ballot.

Alastair Mactaggart, who is behind the initiative, had qualified a privacy initiative in 2018. But he dropped that effort as part of the negotiations that led to AB 375, the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra recently released final regulations for the law, which he is set to begin enforcing July 1.

But Mactaggart and the organization he founded, Californians for Consumer Privacy, said the law did not go far enough. So they wrote the California Privacy Rights Act, which would create new privacy protections for children and financial data. It would also establish a new entity, the California Privacy Protection Agency, to directly enforce privacy regulations.

The complaint alleges Padilla's office waited almost 23 hours to notify county registrars they could begin sampling to verify the 930,000 signatures the campaign turned in to qualify the proposed act for the fall ballot. Mactaggart alleges his campaign crossed a critical signature threshold at 5:27 p.m. on May 13 and that the law requires Padilla's office to notify counties immediately.

Instead, Padilla waited until 4:02 p.m. the next day, according to the complaint, raising the possibility the campaign will miss a June 26 verification deadline. The complaint also claims Padilla has sent out such notices to counties after 5 p.m. for three other ballot campaigns this year.

The suit was filed by partner James C. Harrison and his team at Olson Remcho LLP, a well-known political law firm in Oakland. Mactaggart v. Padilla, 34-2020-80003402 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed June 8, 2020).

"We cleared many hurdles in ensuring the signatures were safely submitted to counties during this pandemic, and want to make sure we're afforded the same treatment as other initiatives by the secretary of state," said Robin Swanson, campaign manager for Californians for Consumer Privacy.

"We are reviewing this litigation and do not have any specific comment at this time," a spokesperson for Padilla' said via email.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan