Citizens in California may:

• Amend their constitution through initiative.
• Adopt a new state statute through initiative.
• Overturn legislation passed by the state legislature in the process known as a veto referendum.
• Recall politicians at the state and local level.

The steps in the process of qualifying an initiated state statute or an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot are as follows:

1. The first step in the process of qualifying an initiated state statute or an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is to write the text of the proposed law. Proponents may seek assistance from the Legislative Counsel in drafting the measure. To do so, proponents must present the idea for the proposed new law and a request for a draft--signed by 25 or more electors--to the Legislative Counsel. If the Office of the Legislative Counsel determines that there is a reasonable chance that the proposed law will eventually be submitted to the voters, they will prepare a draft of the proposed law.
2. The draft of the proposed measure must then be submitted to the Attorney General, along with a written request that a ballot title and a summary of the proposition's chief points and purpose be prepared. According to Section 9002 of the California Elections Code, the title and summary cannot exceed 100 words. The proposition's proponents must pay the Attorney General a fee of $200 at this stage. (This fee is refunded if the initiative qualifies for the ballot.) The Attorney General provides the Secretary of State with a copy of this title and summary within 15 days of the receipt of the final version of the measure, unless its proponents submit amendments during this period, or unless a fiscal analysis is required, in which cases the deadline is extended.
3. If the Attorney General determines that the measure requires a fiscal analysis, the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee are asked to prepare an analysis within 25 working days from receipt of the final version of the proposed initiative. The fiscal analysis estimates the increase or decrease in revenues or costs to the state or local government. If, in the opinion of the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, a reasonable estimate of the net impact of the proposed initiative cannot be prepared within the 25-day period, the Dept. of Finance and the Budget Committee shall instead, within the 25-day period, give the Attorney General their opinion on whether a substantial net change in state or local finances would result from adoption of the proposed initiative. The fiscal analysis is then included in the official summary. (If a fiscal estimate is required, the Attorney General shall prepare the title and summary within 15 days of receipt of the estimate.) When the official summary is complete, the Attorney General sends it to the proponents, the Senate, the Assembly, and the Secretary of State.
4. Proponents may begin circulating petitions once they receive the official summary from the Attorney General. This usually happens in 30-45 days after first submitting the initiative. The Legislature may conduct public hearings on the proposed initiative, but it cannot amend it. Along with an official summary, the proponents of any proposition also are given an official summary date from the Secretary of State. The official summary date is the date that the Secretary of State's office uses to calculate the unique set of filing deadlines that will apply to that particular proposition. Petitions may not be circulated prior to their official summary date.
5. Proponents have 150 days from the date the official summary is issued to complete signature collection. Each qualified initiative is placed on the next statewide general or special election ballot that is not sooner than 131 days after the initiative qualifies. California signatures can be checked by random sampling or by a full count, depending on the outcome of the random sample check. If the signatures go to the full check method, more time is required. In 2008, for example, the deadline for submitting signatures for the November ballot was April 21. However, if a full check was required, the operative deadline was in February.
6. Sections 9030-9035 of the California Elections Code govern the process of filing signatures. Once signatures have been collected, they must be filed with the county elections officials in the county where they were collected. Some of the rules for signature filing are:
   • All the petition sections submitted in a single county must be filed at the same time.
   • Once filed, petitions may not be amended except by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
   • Only the proponent(s) of an initiative measure, and persons authorized in writing by one or more of the proponents, may file initiative petitions.
7. Once the signatures are filed, county election officials have eight working days to:
   • Determine the total number of signatures submitted in their county.
   • Report the total to the Secretary of State.
8. After the Secretary of State has collected reports from the counties around the state where signatures were filed, he or she must determine whether the raw count of signatures as provided by county officials adds up to at least 100% of the required number of signatures. If the raw count does not total the minimum number of required signatures, the Secretary of State is required to immediately notify the appropriate county officials that the initiative has failed and that they need take no further action on it.
9. If the raw count of signatures does equal 100% (or more) of the total number of signatures needed to qualify the proposition, the Secretary of State notifies county officials that they are to inspect some of the signatures in their care for validity within 30 working days. Specifically, the county officials are to use a random sampling procedure to choose the greater of 500 signatures or 3% of the signatures filed in their county; and they then must determine how many of those signatures are valid. (In counties where 500 or fewer signatures were submitted, the county must inspect all the signatures for validity.) Once a county election department has inspected the required number of signatures, they are to report to the Secretary of State the percentage of valid signatures they discovered. For example, if a county inspects 500 signatures and determines that 400 of those signatures are valid, they would report that they had found a validity rate of 80%.
10. After the Office of the Secretary of State has collected information about validity rates from all counties where signatures were filed, the office applies a formula to determine the statewide total of valid signatures.
    • If this calculation determines that the number of valid signatures is less than 95% of the number of required signatures, the Secretary of State issues a "failure notice", which declares that the proposition has failed to qualify for the ballot.
    • If the calculation determines that the number of valid signatures is greater than 110% of the required number of signatures, the Secretary of State as per Section 9030 and 9033 determines that the proposition has qualified for the ballot "without further verification".
11. However, if the calculation by the Secretary of State determines that the number of valid signatures on the petition falls somewhere between 95%-110%, the Secretary of State then must direct election officials in counties where signatures were filed to inspect every single signature filed in their county for validity. This process if known as the "full check". County election officials are required to complete the full check within 30 working days of the time that they receive a notification from the Secretary of State saying they need to perform a full check.