Elective office: sex offenders., the official text

An act to amend Section 20 of the Elections Code, relating to elections.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law prescribes various eligibility and procedural requirements for a person to become a candidate for elective office. A person may not be a candidate for, or elected to, any state or local elective office if the person has been convicted of a felony involving bribery, embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes.
This bill would additionally prohibit a person from being a candidate for, or elected to, any state or local elective office if the person has ever been required to register as a sex offender.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
Section 20 of the Elections Code is amended to read:
20.
(a) A person shall not be considered a candidate for, and is not eligible to be elected to, any state or local elective office in either of the following circumstances:
(1) The person has been convicted of a felony involving accepting or giving, or offering to give, any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes.
(2) The person has ever been required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Section 290 of the Penal Code.
(b) For purposes of this section, “conviction of a felony” includes a conviction of a felony in this state and a conviction under the laws of any other state, the United States, or any foreign government or country of a crime that, if committed in this state, would be a felony, and for which the person has not received a pardon from the Governor of this state, the governor or other officer authorized to grant pardons in another state, the President of the United States, or the officer of the foreign government or country authorized to grant pardons in that foreign jurisdiction.