Gage

Petitioner, a qualified elector of Los Angeles County, applied to this court for a writ of mandate to compel the Secretary of State and the Registrar of Voters of Los Angeles County to omit from any ballot at any general or special election to be held in the future, the proposed initiative constitutional amendment known as the “Retirement Life Payment Amendment,” and entitled by the attorney general, “Gross Income Tax, Warrant Credits.” Petitioner also asked that the Secretary of State be compelled *797 to correct certificates of qualification transmitted by him in June, 1943, to the county clerk or registrar of voters of each county in the state by notifying those officials that the certificates should be disregarded, that the measure has never qualified, and that it must be omitted from any future ballot.

An alternative writ issued, in return to which the attorney general filed a demurrer and answer and the sponsors of the measure also intervened and answered. There is no dispute as to the facts. The issues joined present solely the problem of proper construction and application of article IV, section 1, of the Constitution of this state, particularly the provision of the…

The vital question in this proceeding is whether an initiative petition that fails for want of enough signatures to qualify the proposed measure for submission to the voters at the next general election after the receipt of the petition by the Secretary of State, remains effective indefinitely thereafter, enabling the proposed measure to qualify for the ballot on the basis of any general election for governor that succeeds the receipt of the petition by the Secretary of State. The answer to this question turns on the meaning of the second paragraph of section 1 of article IV of the California Constitution, which provides: “Upon the presentation to the Secretary of State of a petition certified as herein provided to have been signed by quali *809 fied electors, equal in number to eight per cent of all the votes cast for all candidates for Governor at the last preceding general election, at which a Governor was elected, proposing a law or amendment to the Constitution, set forth in ftill in said petition, the Secretary of State shall submit the said proposed law or amendment to the Constitution to the electors at the next succeeding general election occurring subsequent to 130 days…

In 1911, by an amendment to the Constitution, the People of California declared that they “reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution, and to adopt or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature, ...” Election laws are to be liberally construed, and a proposed initiative measure should have a place upon the ballot unless, considering the fundamental purpose of the constitutional reservation of power, it may fairly be said that the requirements for such legislation have not been met. Indeed, courts should protect the right of the people to initiate and vote upon a measure which, in the opinion of some electors, would advance social or economic conditions, with the same regard for democratic principles as is demanded when the right of free speech is under consideration. Yet by the decision in the present case, notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution does not directly limit the time within which a petition to place a proposed measure on the ballot may be circulated, because of general provisions specifying the procedure to be followed in connection with the verification of voters’ signatures by the county election…

I concur. Under the theory advocated by respondents and interveners, a group of persons, relatively small in the total population of the state, could settle in one county, register as electors, sign sections of the petition, file it in that county, then move on to another county, register there, sign and file new sections of the petition there, and repeat the process in as many counties of the state and over such a period of time as might be necessary to reach the goal of the number of qualified signatures equal to 8 per cent of the number of votes cast for governor at some election many years subsequent to the presentation of the first section of the petition.

Although the constitutional- provision is unfortunately ambiguous, this court could not justify giving it a construction which would not only admit of, but would commit us to permit, such an absurd application of the law as that suggested above. Furthermore, to uphold respondents’ and interveners’ contentions that the constitutional provision contains no limitation upon the time within which petitions must be qualified would be tantamount to holding that the pertinent 1943 act of the Legislature (Elec. Code, sec. 1407;…

Ellis E. Patterson, John J. Taheny, Jack B. Tenney, Paul F. Fratessa, Philip C. Boardman, J. Lamar Butler and Lawrence W. Allen for Interveners.

Petitioner, a qualified elector of Los Angeles County, applied to this court for a writ of mandate to compel the Secretary of State and the Registrar of Voters of Los Angeles County to omit from any ballot at any general or special election to be held in the future, the proposed initiative constitutional amendment known as the "Retirement Life Payment Amendment," and entitled by the attorney general, "Gross Income Tax, Warrant Credits." Petitioner also asked that the Secretary of State be compelled to correct certificates of qualification transmitted by him in June, 1943, to the county clerk or registrar of voters of each county in the state by notifying those officials that the certificates should be disregarded, that the measure has never qualified, and that it must be omitted from any future ballot.

An alternative writ issued, in return to which the attorney general filed a demurrer and answer and the sponsors of the measure also intervened and answered. There is no dispute as to the facts. The issues joined present…