The proposed constitutional amendment, known by backers as the “Sunshine Initiative” won in a landslide, piling up an 83 percent to 17 percent margin with all precincts reporting.

“I am very pleased that California voters have supported Prop.59 in such overwhelming numbers. It affirms their concern about the importance of access to government meetings and records,” said Jacqueline Jacobberger, president of the League of Women Voters of California.

“Governmental bodies that have been following the rules in current statutes such as the Brown Act will continue to provide agendas and other information in a timely manner. Governmental bodies which may have been lax in observing the rules will find it more difficult to circumvent the public's right to know how business is being conducted.”

Among the 58 counties in California, Santa Cruz County had the highest rate of support at 88 percent. Kings was the lowest with 75 percent.

Proposition 59 will allow access to government records and meetings as a civil right under the California Constitution, while protecting the California Public Records Act and The Legislative Open Records Act as before.

Without this change, individuals and organizations seeking access to government information or meetings had to prove why the government should open files to them when there is a dispute. Proposition 59 shifts the responsibility to the government to prove why meetings should be closed or information denied.

Florida, Louisiana, Montana and New Hampshire already have similar laws.
Terry Francke, general counsel of Californians Aware, which backs the measure, said: “The citizen's right to know what government is doing and even considering to do is no longer a matter of legislative grace but of fundamental law. That is, for example, an action by government in needless secrecy could be challenged in court and overturned by a court, even if all the statutory ‘sunshine’ statutes in California had been repealed.”

Introduced by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, the measure passed the Senate, 34-0, and the Assembly, 78-0.

It has also gained widespread support from media organizations. “Proposition 59 on the November ballot is long overdue, and should be approved by voters,” the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote on Sep. 15.

Opponents, led by attorney Gary B. Wesley, argued the proposition “does not go far enough and its passage might prevent a stronger law from being enacted”.

“In fact, this measure only provides for a general right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business and that laws in California shall be broadly construed if it furthers the people’s right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access,” he said.

On the other hand, “Government is getting bigger and becoming more wasteful, insular, and abusive. Proposition 59 would not do much to reverse that alarming trend,” Wesley said in his argument in the voter pamphlet.