California 2005 ballot propositions

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Eight statewide ballot propositions were on the November 8, 2005, special election ballot in California. Three of the propositions proposed new amendments to the California Constitution, while five of the measures proposed new state statutes. California's voters rejected all eight of the statewide ballot propositions.

$417 million was spent on the eight statewide ballot measure campaigns.

On the ballot

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
CICA	Proposition 73	Abortion	Requires notification of a parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated pregnant minor at least 48 hours before performing an abortion; allows exceptions to this law; requires physicians to report the number of abortions performed on minors	d
CISS	Proposition 74	Education	Extends the probationary period for newly hired teachers from two consecutive school years to five and changes the process for dismissing permanent teachers who had received two unsatisfactory performance evaluations	d
CISS	Proposition 75	Paycheck protection	Requires obtaining written consent from employees before using union dues for political contributions	d
CICA	Proposition 76	Spending caps	Limits state spending to the prior year's level plus three previous years’ average revenue growth; changes state minimum funding for schools; enacts other budgetary changes	d
CICA	Proposition 77	Redistricting	Changes the redistricting process for legislative and congressional districts from the state legislature to a panel of three retired justices	d
CISS	Proposition 78	Healthcare	Establishes a state drug discount program to reduce prices for prescription drugs for Californians with an income at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level	d
CISS	Proposition 79	Healthcare	Establishes a state drug discount program to reduce prices for prescription drugs for Californians with an income at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level	d
CISS	Proposition 80	Business regulation	Places electric service providers under the regulation of the Public Utilities Commission; restricts customers' ability to switch from investor-owned utilities to other electricity providers; requires public and private electric service providers to increase renewable energy resource procurement by at least 1% each year, with 20% of retail sales procured from renewable energy by 2010	d

Getting measures on the ballot

Legislative referrals

The California State Legislature may refer constitutional amendments to the ballot with a two-thirds (66.67%) vote in each chamber.

The legislature can refer statutes and bond issues with a simple majority vote, but the governor's signature is also required.

In California, changes to voter-approved ballot initiatives need to be referred to voters for approval or rejection unless the changes further the initiative's purpose.

Initiatives

See also: Signature requirements for ballot measures in California

The number of valid signatures for citizen-initiated measures in California are based on the votes cast for governor in the last gubernatorial election, which are held every four years. Initiated constitutional amendments require 8% of that total while initiated state statutes and veto referendums require 5%. The requirements for each type in 2005 were as follows:

• Initiated constitutional amendment (ICA): 598,105
• Initiated state statute (ISS): 373,816
• Veto referendum (VR): 373,816

Cost of signatures

See also: California ballot initiative petition signature costs

Ballot measure	Subject	Signature collection company	Cost	Signatures required	CPRS
Proposition 73	Abortion	Bader & Associates, Inc.	$2,527,611	598,105	$4.23
Proposition 74	Labor	NPM, Arno and Forde	$1,514,707	373,816	$4.05
Proposition 75	Labor	NPM, Arno and Forde	$1,514,707	373,816	$4.05
Proposition 76	Spending	NPM, Arno and Forde	$2,423,529	598,105	$4.05
Proposition 77	Redistricting	NPM, Arno and Forde	$2,423,529	598,105	$4.05
Proposition 78	Healthcare	Progressive and Bader	$2,415,397	373,816	$6.46
Proposition 79	Healthcare	Kimball Petition Management	$4,635,466	373,816	$12.40
Proposition 80	Energy	Kimball Petition Management	$4,839,466	373,816	$12.95
		TOTAL:	$22,294,412

Note: The petition drives for Proposition 74, Proposition 75, Proposition 76 and Proposition 77 were conducted jointly. Three different petition drive management companies were involved. The expense reports were pooled. It is not therefore possible to determine the exact costs of each individual petition drive. The costs in this chart were derived by assuming that each signature in each of the four petition drives had the same cost. The overall cost of the four petition drives was $7,876,472.40.

Historical facts

As of the end of 2005, a cumulative total of 301 initiatives (counting citizen-initiated constitutional amendments and citizen-initiated state statutes and not counting veto referenda) had appeared on California ballots since the first initiatives in 1912.

See also

• History of Initiative and Referendum in California
• Laws governing ballot measures in California
• List of California ballot propositions
• 2005 ballot measures

External links

• California Secretary of State
• California State Legislature
• Official Voter Guide to the California 2005 ballot propositions
• Statement of vote of the California 2005 special statewide election
• Vote totals for each 2005 California proposition
• Official declaration of election results
• PDF of the mailed November 8, 2005 voter guide for Propositions 73-80