The people of California can use the referendum process to prevent a law from going into effect.

From the day a law is chaptered, there is a 90-day window to request title and summary from the Attorney General, print, circulate, and turn in 373,816 valid petition signatures to individual counties.

The Attorney General has 10 to 15 days to prepare the title and summary within the 90-day window. A court decision (Milanovich vs. Jones) decided that county verification was not within the 90-day window.

When the title and summary is requested, the law is stayed until the entire process is completed, including the vote (unless there are not enough signatures gathered).

County registrars have 8 working days to submit the raw count to the Secretary of State. When the Secretary of State determines 373,816 signatures have been gathered, they request the counties to begin a random sampling (an additional 30 working days to complete). This could be a total of 38 working days, unless either count is certified in fewer days.

Once random sampling verification has been completed, if the sampling formula predicts signatures were between 95-110%, there must be a full check, which takes another 30 working days. This usually doesn't happen, as signature gatherers tend to collect more signatures (700,000) thus not needing this extra 30 days.

With the random sampling, if the number falls below 95%, the referendum fails. If the number is over 110%, it qualifies.

To qualify for the ballot, the signature gathering must be completed by December 5th. You must qualify 31 days before an election according to the Secretary of State so this would put the measure on the March ballot.

Questions on the process should be directed to the Secretary of State, 916-657-2184.