The following is a list of California ballot propositions broken down by decade. Propositions can be placed on the ballot either through the exercise of the initiative power by the voters or by a vote of the state legislature. The state initiative power was added to the California constitution in 1911 as part of the ethics reform instituted by Governor Hiram Johnson in the early 1910s.
See main article: California ballot proposition. Ballot measures were not numbered prior to the general election of 1914.[1] Until the November 1982 general election, proposition numbers started with "1" for each election. After November 1982, subsequent propositions received sequentially increasing numbers until November 1998 when the count was reset to "1". Starting with November 1998, the count is reset in 10-year cycles.
Until 1960, citizen-led initiative measures appeared on general election ballots only. From 1960 to 2012, initiative measures appeared on primary, general, and special election ballots.[1] In October 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill (Senate Bill No. 202) which requires all future ballot initiatives to be listed only in general elections (held in November in even-numbered years), rather than during any statewide election. Two propositions had already qualified for the next statewide election (which was the June 2012 presidential primaries) prior to the signing of the law, making the June 2012 primaries the last statewide non-general election in California to have statewide initiatives on the ballot. Propositions originating in the State Legislature can still appear on non-general election ballots, as was the case with Propositions 41 and 42 in June 2014.[2]
Some notable propositions which have received a great deal of attention include:
| Proposition (year) | Status | About | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passed | Granting women the constitutional right to vote in California. | ||
| Passed | Establishing the constitutional direct democracy powers of initiative and referendum in California. | ||
| Passed | Establishing the constitutional direct democracy power of recall in California. | ||
| Passed, then declared unconstitutional | Prohibiting government agencies from denying, limiting, or abridging the right of any property owner to decline to sell, lease, or rent residential real property to any person the property owner, in their absolute discretion, chooses. | ||
| Defeated | Barring homosexuality in the public school system. | ||
| Passed | Significant property tax reduction and limits; imposing 2/3 vote requirement of the Legislature for state taxes and 2/3 voter approval requirement for local special taxes. | ||
| Passed | Notification of hazardous materials. | ||
| Passed | School funding (requires minimum percentage of budget to be directed toward education with increases based on inflation). | ||
| Mandatory sentencing for third-strike convictions | |||
| Passed, then declared unconstitutional | Denying illegal immigrants eligibility to receive public services (immediate stay was federally imposed and is still in effect). | ||
| Passed | Banning affirmative action in the public sector (employment, education, etc.) | ||
| Passed | Legalizing medical marijuana under California law. | ||
| Passed | Right to vote on local taxes; assessment and property-related fee reforms; initiative power expansion in regard to local revenue reduction or repeal. Constitutional follow-up to Proposition 13 (1978). | ||
| Passed, then declared unconstitutional | A statute banning same-sex marriage. | ||
| Defeated | Allowing voting registration on Election Day. | ||
| Passed | On the use of stem cells in scientific research. | ||
| Defeated | Parental notification before abortion. | ||
| Passed | Various restrictions of civil liberties for paroled sex offenders (Jessica's Law). | ||
| Defeated | Second attempt at Proposition 73. | ||
| Passed, then declared unconstitutional | A state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in order to override the In re Marriage Cases (Proposition 22) decision earlier that year that legalized same-sex marriage. | ||
| Passed | Establishing non-partisan blanket primaries in place of closed primaries. | ||
| Defeated | Legalization of marijuana. | ||
| Defeated | Abolition of the death penalty. | ||
| Passed | Reducing the mandatory minimum sentence's for most individuals convicted under the state's three-strikes law. | ||
| Defeated | Requiring labeling on raw or processed food offered for sale to consumers if made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in a specified way. | ||
| Passed | Redefining some nonviolent offenses as misdemeanors, rather than felonies, as they had previously been categorized. | ||
| Passed | Legalization under California law of the adult use of marijuana. | ||
| Passed | Constitutional right to reproductive freedom |