SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Supporters of an effort to repeal California's new law requiring mandatory vaccines for schoolchildren faced a Monday deadline to turn in enough signatures to qualify a ballot initiative asking voters to repeal the law.
The group had until the end of the day to submit the needed 366,000 signatures to county clerks to ask California voters to repeal SB277, which struck down the state's personal belief exemption for immunizations, a move that requires nearly all public schoolchildren to be vaccinated.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB277 into law earlier this year amid fierce opposition from some parents rights groups who argue the state should not force their children to be vaccinated. He said the science is clear that vaccines "dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases."
It's unclear whether supporters have enough signatures to make it to the ballot and it might not be known until next week, when clerks face a deadline to report how many signatures they received. The leading proponent of the effort, former Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, said in an email Monday that volunteers were coerced and threatened while collecting signatures.
Donnelly did not return repeated messages inquiring about the effort's chances, but said in his email that he was proud of the volunteers who worked on the campaign "whatever the outcome is."