Sacramento is like the boy who never turns in his homework on time and expects the teacher to not mark him down for it. 

California's leaders privately seem to think there's some time and room to manuever to get measures on the ballot that are part of a deal. There really isn't. The deadline for adding measures to a supplemental ballot has already passed. So what about this deadline of midnight tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 16) you may be hearing about? That deadline is generous and aggressive  -- it is actually dependent on the legislature and governor waiving various laws and regulations, including a requirement that such ballot pamphlets be put on display for 20 days. And passing measures on Saturday -- such as changes to the state lottery and a new constitutional rainy day fund for the budget -- would put California's counties in a tough spot, almost certainly forcing them to spend more money to prepare balloots. The state is asking a lot from counties, and giving little in return. The legislature has failed to reimburse the counties for costs associated with missing previous deadlines.

In Sacramento, however, there is a sense that even this Saturday deadline can be pushed, perhaps by a few weeks. After examining the law and talking to county clerks, I'm convinced that this is not true. If there's any give in Saturday's deadline, it's only a matter of a day or two. Yes, military and overseas ballots don't go out til Sept. 5, a date that many in Sacramento are talking about. But even with an abridged timeline, there' s plenty of things that have to happen once measures pass. They must be signed by the governor; the attorney general must produce titles and summaries. There must be ballot arguments for and against. And it takes the state printer between 20 and 40 days to print a full slate of ballot pamphlets, according to the Secretary of State.

So how does the legislature respond to the Saturday deadline? By scheduling votes for Sunday--a day past the deadline. It's like sitting down with your accountant to do your taxes on April 16. On a related item, the legislature could still attempt to replace Prop 1, the high-speed rail bond, with an amended alternative--even though the original ballot pamphlet has gone to the printers. In that case, California's dysfunctional government would establish a new precedent--it would have sent to voters a ballot pamphlet with a measure that might not end up appearing on the ballot. Talk about voter confusion.

if you want to know even more about deadlines, attached to this post is a July 23 letter from Secretary of State Debra Bowen to Gov. Schwarzenegger in which she explains all the ins and outs of ballot deadlines.