The initiative is the power of the voters to propose laws and to enact or reject them independently of the legislature. The referendum is the power of the voters to approve or reject statutes or parts of statutes passed by the Legislature.
The text of initiatives can be found in several locations:
1. Statutes of California and Digests of Measures (bound as California Statutes and Amendments to the Codes) contains the text of both initiatives and referenda in the “Propositions Submitted to the Vote of the Electors” section. A particular initiative and referendum can be found by consulting the subject index for the year in which the measure was passed by the voters.
2. West’s Annotated California Codes incorporates the text of initiative measures into the Codes. For example, the text of the Chiropractic Act is found in the Business & Professions Code. Initiatives can be found through either the general index or the indexes to the individual titles of the Code. Annotations to initiatives are included after the text.
3. Deering’s California Codes, Annotated incorporates the text of initiatives which have been codified or which affect Code sections in the main volumes of the Code. These initiatives can be found in the General Index by subject. In addition, Deering’s includes a separate volume entitled Uncodified Initiative Measures and Statutes which contains the text of uncodified initiatives except for the Chiropractic Act and the Osteopathic Act (included as appendices to the Business & Professions Code) as well as various Water District Acts. Uncodified initiatives are not included in the General Index. You must consult the index to the Uncodified Initiative Measures and Statutes in order to find the text of these initiatives. Annotations are included for both codified and uncodified initiatives.
For information on history materials for initiatives and referenda, see the library's guide to California Legislative History and Advocacy:
