California Native American tribes are getting another two months to gather signatures on their sports betting ballot initiative.
Judge James P. Arguelles of the California Superior Court in Sacramento granted the petitioners’ request to extend the deadline another 62 days. The deadline for signature submission is now Dec. 14.
The court set a hearing on the matter for Oct. 9. But the petitioners came to an agreement with the California Secretary of State to jointly file for the extension.
Tribes are seeking to qualify the initiative for the 2022 ballot, or possibly a special election held prior.
“We’ve continued to face strong headwinds created by COVID,” said Jacob Mejia, spokesman for the coalition of tribes backing the initiative. “That more than 1.2 million Californians have signed the petition is a testament to the strength of the proposal. The Court’s decision will allow Californians to exercise their democratic right to bring this issue to a vote.”
Long path of CA sports betting ballot initiative
Tribal leaders introduced the ballot initiative in November 2019 with the intent of making this year’s election.
The initiative amends the state constitution to allow California sports betting. It would be legalized at California tribal casinos and California horse racing venues. The proposal does not permit mobile wagering.
In addition to sports betting, the initiative provides tribal casinos the opportunity to offer craps and roulette. There is also a clause giving tribes an opening to directly go after California cardrooms in civil action to challenge that cardrooms violate their exclusivity on house-banked games.
The initiative was on the way to qualifying for the 2020 ballot before the coronavirus derailed signature-gathering efforts. But the mere presence of the initiative helped rally tribes to defeat a legislative sports betting effort in June.
Initiatives in California have a 180-day limit to collect the needed support, in this case, 997,139 valid signatures. These signatures must be obtained in-person and cannot be collected online.
Lawsuit keeps CA sports betting initiative alive
Before the 180 days expired, the tribes filed a lawsuit requesting an extension given that restrictions issued by the state as a result of the pandemic made signature-gathering difficult. By getting the extension, they wouldn’t have to start over on the initiative process for 2022.
Judge Arguelles previously ruled that the petitioners could have until Oct. 12 to collect signatures. He retained jurisdiction on the matter so that the tribes could seek another extension if warranted.
In July, coronavirus cases grew in California and the number of counties on the state monitoring list requiring additional restrictions increased to 32.
Petitioners successfully argued that the state-imposed restrictions since the Court’s previous order have continued to interfere with their signature gathering. In the filing, petitioners indicated that they made substantial efforts to increase signature-gathering since the previous order but were only able to do so at 16% of their rate from before the stay-at-home orders.
That 16% figure was used to determine the 62-day extension. The figure is 84% of the 74-day extension originally given.
Future for sports betting in California
The original filing indicated that the tribes had gathered 971,373 unverified signatures. Mejia now reports that the initiative has more than 1.2 million signatures.
That is closing in on being comfortable that there are enough valid signatures to qualify. The coalition’s goal is to reach 1.6 million signatures.
Coronavirus conditions in the state are improving, although a large percentage of the population remains in the strictest reopening tier.
With the state going through fire season, the pandemic, and fall flu season approaching, Mejia told PlayCA that the coalition wants to wrap up the signature-gathering as soon as possible and hopes that another extension won’t be needed.
