Full opinion text
Opinion GEORGE, C. J. This case arises from a legal challenge to Proposition 77, an initiative measure that was submitted to California voters at the November 8, 2005, special statewide election. The underlying challenge to the measure was brought after circulation of the initiative petition was completed but prior to the Secretary of State’s submission of the ballot pamphlet materials to the State Printer, and sought to have the measure withheld from the ballot because of several differences between the version of the measure that was submitted to the Attorney General prior to the circulation of the initiative petition, and the version printed on the petition that subsequently was circulated for signature. The trial court and the Court of Appeal (in a two-to-one decision) concluded that the discrepancies between the two versions warranted withholding the measure from the ballot, but this court, acting on an expedited basis prior to the Secretary of State’s submission of the ballot pamphlet materials to the printer, granted review, determined that the discrepancies in question did not justify withholding the measure from the ballot, and directed the Secretary of State to include in the ballot pamphlet and on the election ballot the version of the measure that had been circulated for signature and signed by the requisite number of qualified voters. Our order granting review also stated that we would determine after the election whether to retain jurisdiction in this matter and resolve, by a full opinion, the issues presented. At the November 8, 2005, election, the voters rejected Proposition 77. Although the defeat of Proposition 77 renders moot the legal challenge to the measure, we nonetheless have concluded that we should retain this matter and issue an opinion in order to provide guidance for future cases, both with regard to the procedural question whether preelection review of this type of challenge to an initiative measure is appropriate and with regard to the substantive legal standard that is applicable in determining whether the type of discrepancy that was involved in this case warrants withholding an initiative measure from the ballot. I We begin with a summary of the principal features of Proposition 77, and then describe the events that resulted in the discrepancy between the version of the initiative measure that was submitted to the Attorney General and the version that was circulated for signature. A During 2004, petitioner Edward J. Costa, the Chief Executive Officer of People’s Advocate, Inc., submitted to the Attorney General, for preparation of a title and summary, several alternative initiative measures involving proposed changes in the redistricting process (that is, the procedure for adjusting the boundaries of election districts), including the initiative measure at issue in the present case. The initiative measure here at issue—the one that, after certification, was designated Proposition 77 on the November 8, 2005, election ballot—proposed to amend the California Constitution to transfer the power to draw election districts from the Legislature to a three-member panel of retired federal and/or state judges, who would act as special masters in developing redistricting plans for elections to the state Senate and Assembly, the Board of Equalization, and California congressional districts of the United States House of Representatives. The measure proposed the addition of new substantive criteria that the special masters would be required to follow in formulating redistricting plans, including (1) with regard to state legislative and Board of Equalization districts, a requirement that the population differences among the districts not exceed 1 percent; (2) a requirement that Senate districts be comprised of two adjacent Assembly districts, and Board of Equalization districts be comprised of 10 adjacent Senate districts; (3) a directive that all redistricting plans minimize the splitting of counties and cities into multiple districts; and (4) a limitation precluding the special masters, in drawing boundaries, from considering information relating to voters’ political party affiliation. (Cal. Const., proposed art. XXI, § 2, subds. (a)—(/)-) The measure also set forth a detailed procedure to govern the selection of the special masters. It directed the Judicial Council—the constitutional entity charged with the administration of the judicial branch (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 6)—to compile a pool of retired federal and state judges eligible and willing to serve on the panel, and then randomly to select from the pool a list of 24 judges, with the requirement that judges affiliated with the two largest political parties be equally represented on the list. Thereafter, each of the four state legislative leaders of the Senate and the Assembly (two from the majority party and two from the minority party) was to nominate (from the 24-judge list) three judges who were not members of the same political party as the leader making the nomination—creating a new list of 12 nominees. (No retired judge could be nominated by more than one legislator.) Each of the legislative leaders then was authorized to exercise one peremptory challenge against a judge who had been nominated by one of the other legislative leaders, leaving a list of at least eight nominees. Ultimately, from this reduced list, three judges (including at least one from each of the two largest political parties) were to be chosen by lot to serve as the three-judge special master panel. (Cal. Const., proposed art. XXI, § 1, subd. (c), par. (2), subpars. (A)-(F).) The measure also provided that in devising the redistricting plans, the special masters would be required to hold at least three public hearings, including one hearing after the special masters’ initial proposed plan had been submitted to the Legislature for comment. Under the proposition, the final redistricting plans for the state Senate and Assembly, Board of Equalization, and the California congressional districts were to be approved by a single resolution adopted unanimously by the three-judge panel that would become effective immediately upon filing with the Secretary of State; the districts created by the special masters’ resolution were to be used for the next statewide primary and general elections. The measure also provided that the redistricting plans created by the special masters were to be submitted to the voters at the next general election, and, if approved by the voters, the districts embodied in those plans were to continue to be used until new redistricting plans were drawn following the next decennial census. If the plans were rejected by the voters at the general election, officials elected under the rejected plans nonetheless were authorized to serve full terms, but the redistricting process was to begin again and new districts were to be prepared for use in subsequent elections. (Cal. Const., proposed art. XXI, § 1, subds. (f)-(i).) Finally, the measure provided that the initial redistricting process under the new procedure was to begin immediately upon the voters’ approval of the measure, with the selection of the three-judge special master panel to be completed within 20 days of the adoption of the measure and the panel charged with establishing a schedule and deadlines to ensure timely adoption of new districts for use at the 2006 statewide primary and general elections. (Cal. Const., proposed art. XXI, § 1, subd. (b).) B Both versions of the initiative measure that are at issue in this case contained all of the features described ante. As we shall explain, although there were some substantive differences in the two versions in question, the differences were minor in relation to the initiative measure as a whole. Because the events that resulted in the discrepancy are relevant to the resolution of the issue before us, we set forth those events in some detail. On Friday, December 3, 2004, Daniel M. Kolkey, an attorney who had been retained by Costa to assist in drafting the redistricting initiative at issue, sent an e-mail message to Costa and others, attaching Kolkey’s then most current draft of the proposed initiative measure. (For convenience, we shall refer to this draft as the December 3 version.) As we subsequently observe, the December 3 version is the one that ultimately was set forth in the petition that was circulated for signature and signed by the required number of eligible voters, was printed in the ballot pamphlet, and was submitted to the voters at the November 8, 2005, election. On Monday, December 6, 2004, Kolkey edited the December 3 version, making a number of changes—both stylistic and substantive—which are set forth in full in an appendix to this opinion. (We shall refer to this version as the December 6 version.) The most significant of the changes made by Kolkey on December 6 involved (1) a substantial revision of the wording of the introductory section of the initiative setting forth “Findings and Declarations of Purpose” (see appen., post, pp. 1040-1041), (2) a one-day reduction in the time periods in which the legislative leaders were to make their nominations and exercise their peremptory challenges in creating the final list of judges from which the special masters were to be chosen by lot (see appen., post, p. 1042), and (3) an explicit statement that, with regard to the redistricting process, the initiative and referendum power was to be used only in the manner specified in the initiative measure (see appen., post, p. 1045). On Monday evening, December 6, 2004, Kolkey sent the December 6 version of the initiative measure to Costa by e-mail. Emily Adams, the office manager, secretary, and receptionist for People’s Advocate, Inc., was responsible for organizing and keeping track of the various versions of the initiatives on which Costa was working that had been directed to her attention. Adams’s practice was to label each version provided to her, retain it in electronic format, and mark all final versions as such. On Tuesday, December 7, 2004, Adams prepared for Costa’s signature a cover letter to accompany the submission to the Attorney General of the initiative measure here at issue. When the letter was sent to the Attorney General on that same day, it contained the December 6 version of the proposed initiative. Trida Knight, the initiative coordinator for the Attorney General, received the letter from Costa with the December 6 version of the proposed initiative on December 7, 2004, and replied to Costa that same day, acknowledging receipt of the submission and explaining that the Attorney General’s office had sent copies of the proposed initiative to the Legislative Analyst and the Department of Finance for an estimate of fiscal impact, and that these entities had 25 days in which to return the estimate. Knight’s letter stated that after the estimate was returned by these entities, the Attorney General would supply a title and summary within 15 days. The letter also advised Costa that any substantive amendments to the submitted proposed initiative measure could be accepted by the Attorney General only on or before December 22, 2004 (that is, within 15 days of the proponents’ initial submission of the measure), and that after that date any substantive amendment would have to be submitted as a new measure and the process would have to begin anew. On January 28, 2005, the Attorney General received a letter from Costa adding the names of three additional persons as proponents of the proposed initiative measure at issue. Like the December 7 letter from Costa, this letter also attached the December 6 version of the proposed initiative. On February 3, 2005, after the Attorney General’s office had completed its preparation of the title and summary of the measure, Knight sent copies of them and the December 6 version of the measure to Costa and the other proponents, and to the Secretary of State, the Chief Clerk of the Assembly, and the Secretary of the Senate. At some point after his submission of the measure to the Attorney General on December 7, 2004, but prior to his receipt of the Attorney General’s title and summary, Costa decided to have the text of the proposed initiative measure prepared for printing in order to expedite the commencement of the circulation of the initiative petitions. In a declaration filed in the underlying proceeding, Costa explained that he was concerned about fitting the text of the entire initiative on the back of a reasonably sized petition section, and wanted to have the measure laid out as completely as possible before receiving the Attorney General’s title and summary. To this end, Costa directed Adams to provide a copy of the initiative to Heath Norton, the People’s Advocate’s computer expert, who was to format the measure for submission for printing. Adams downloaded onto a floppy disk the file on her computer labeled “Dec[ember] Submission Final” and gave the disk to Norton. Although Adams was unaware of this circumstance at the time, the version that she downloaded onto the floppy disk actually was the December 3 version of the proposed initiative, not the December 6 version. Norton used the version on the floppy disk to prepare a mockup of the petition. Once Costa received the Attorney General’s title and summary for the proposed initiative at the beginning of February 2005, Costa directed Norton to add the title and summary to the formatted petition and send it to the printer. Norton did so, and the petition sections were printed using the December 3 version of the initiative measure. During the next three months, the petition sections were circulated to the public for signature, and from May 5 to May 10, 2005, signed sections of the petition were submitted to local election officials throughout the state for certification. In all, more than 950,000 individuals signed the circulated petition. Sometime in mid-May 2005, after the petitions had been submitted to local election officials but before the measure had been certified for the ballot by the Secretary of State, Costa and Kolkey learned that the text of the initiative measure on the circulated petitions was the December 3 version of the measure and not the December 6 version that had been submitted to the Attorney General. After this discovery, Kolkey reviewed the differences in the two measures and conducted legal research on the matter, but neither he, Costa, nor anyone else immediately revealed the discrepancy either to the Secretary of State or to the Attorney General. On June 10, 2005, the Secretary of State certified that the proposed initiative measure had been signed by a sufficient number of qualified voters to qualify for the ballot, and sent letters to the Chief Clerk of the Assembly and the Secretary of the Senate, pursuant to section 9034, notifying the Legislature that the initiative had qualified for the ballot. In transmitting copies of the initiative measure to the Senate and the Assembly, as required by section 9034, the Secretary of State transmitted the December 6 version of the initiative that had been submitted to the Attorney General. On June 12, 2005, Kolkey asked to meet with Undersecretary of State William P. Wood about the initiative measure. On June 13, 2005, Kolkey and Peter Siggins (who was then the Governor’s Legal Affairs Secretary) met with Wood and disclosed the problem concerning the two versions of the initiative measure. Kolkey gave Wood a lengthy memorandum, dated June 10, 2005, setting forth a detailed legal argument supporting the view that, notwithstanding the discrepancy in the two versions, the version of the proposed initiative measure that had been circulated for signature and signed by the requisite number of qualified voters should be placed on the ballot. On June 23, 2005, the Attorney General received a letter from Costa asking the Attorney General to reissue for the ballot pamphlet the same ballot title and summary that he had prepared for the proposed initiative measure on February 3, 2005. The June 23 letter from Costa to the Attorney General made no mention of the problem concerning the two versions of the text. On July 1, 2005, the Secretary of State delivered a letter to the Attorney General, advising him that “[a] situation has come to the attention of the Secretary of State’s office concerning an initiative . . . given the title ‘Reapportionment Initiative Constitutional Amendment’ by your office,” and explaining that the text of the initiative set forth in the circulated petition differed from the text that had been submitted to the Attorney General for the preparation of a title and summary. The letter asked for the Attorney General’s guidance “whether the Secretary of State has the authority to make a determination which version of the text of a measure should be placed before the voters.” The Secretary of State included with the letter a copy of the legal memorandum that had been prepared by Kolkey and given to the Secretary of State on June 13. On July 6, 2005, the Attorney General informed the Secretary of State that he could not represent the Secretary of State in this matter. On July 7, 2005, in a letter to the Attorney General, the Secretary of State stated that he had “the constitutional duty to present to the voters of California the measures that have qualified to appear on the ballot by the signatures of the people” and that he intended to do so “unless directed to do otherwise by a court.” The next day, on July 8, 2005, the Attorney General filed the underlying petition for writ of mandate in the superior court, seeking an order prohibiting the Secretary of State from placing either version of the initiative measure on the November 8, 2005, special election ballot. The Attorney General took the position that because the version of the initiative measure circulated for signature differed from the version submitted to the Attorney General for title and summary, neither version properly qualified for the ballot. In response, the proponents of the measure argued that the discrepancy was inadvertent and that the differences between the two versions were minor and did not affect the accuracy of the title and summary prepared by the Attorney General. The proponents maintained that they should be found to have substantially complied with the applicable constitutional and statutory provisions. On July 22, 2005, after expedited briefing and a hearing, the superior court entered judgment in favor of the Attorney General in the writ proceeding, directing the Secretary of State not to place any version of Proposition 77 on the ballot. Although the superior court expressly found that the discrepancy between the two versions was “the result of an inadvertent mistake,” the court determined that “the purposes of the constitutional and statutory requirements at issue would be frustrated if the court were to apply the substantial compliance doctrine to excuse the clear defects in this situation.” On July 25, 2005, the proponents of Proposition 77 filed a petition for writ of mandate in the Court of Appeal, seeking to overturn the judgment rendered by the superior court and requesting a temporary stay to permit the Secretary of State to make the Proposition 77 materials available for public examination for the requisite period before the August 15, 2005, deadline for delivery of the ballot pamphlet to the State Printer. (§ 9092.) The Court of Appeal that same day granted the requested temporary stay, and the Secretary of State’s subsequent public display of the ballot pamphlet included both the December 3 and December 6 versions of the proposed initiative, with a notation that the matter was subject to further court order. On July 27, 2005, the proponents filed a supplemental petition for writ of mandate, stating that the Secretary of State had requested the Attorney General to provide a title and summary for the December 3 version of the initiative measure that had been circulated for signature, but that the Attorney General had taken the position that he would not provide a ballot label or ballot title and summary for that version of the measure. The supplemental petition requested the Court of Appeal to direct the Attorney General to provide a ballot label and ballot title and summary for the December 3 version of the measure in order to avoid a claim of noncompliance with the requirements of section 9092 should the Court of Appeal determine that the December 3 version of the measure should be placed on the ballot. On Thursday, July 28, 2005, the Court of Appeal issued an alternative writ on the original petition, establishing an expedited briefing schedule and setting the matter for argument on August 5, 2005. On Friday, July 29, 2005, after considering opposition from the Attorney General and CFFR (see p. 999, fn. 6, ante), the Court of Appeal issued a further order, directing the Attorney General to provide a ballot label and a title and summary for the December 3 version of the proposed measure that had been circulated for signature. Pursuant to that order, on Monday, August 1, 2005, the Attorney General submitted to the Court of Appeal a title and summary for the December 3 version. Although the title provided by the Attorney General for the December 3 version substituted the word “Redistricting” for “Reapportionment,” the Attorney General acknowledged in the Court of Appeal that the substitution was made only to permit differentiation of the two versions of the title and summary; the summary provided by the Attorney General for the December 3 version did not vary in any material respect from the summary of the measure that the Attorney General had prepared for the December 6 version of the measure. Although the new summary submitted by the Attorney General to the Court of Appeal did not include an analysis of the fiscal impact of the measure, no party contends that the variations between the December 6 and December 3 versions would affect the estimate of the fiscal impact of the measure by the Legislative Analyst and the Department of Finance that was included in the Attorney General’s initial summary. The Court of Appeal heard oral argument on Friday, August 5, 2005, and issued its opinion on Tuesday, August 9, 2005. The majority opinion of the Court of Appeal, signed by two justices, concluded initially that, as a procedural matter, preelection resolution of the election-law challenge was permissible and was warranted in light of the nature of the challenge at issue in this case. Turning to the merits, the Court of Appeal majority concluded that in light of the discrepancies between the version of the proposed initiative measure submitted to the Attorney General and the version circulated for signature, the trial court correctly held that neither version should be submitted to the voters at the November 8, 2005, special election. A third Court of Appeal justice dissented, maintaining that preelection resolution of the challenge was not warranted, and further concluding that on the merits, the discrepancies between the two versions did not justify withholding from the ballot the version of the measure circulated for signature and signed by the requisite number of qualified voters. The following day, Wednesday, August 10, 2005, the proponents of the proposition filed an emergency petition for review in this court, requesting immediate consideration and a stay of the trial court’s order that prohibited the Secretary of State from taking any action to place Proposition 77 on the November 8, 2005, special election ballot. The petition for review noted that the deadline for the Secretary of State to submit the ballot pamphlet materials to the printer was the following Monday, August 15, and the petition urged this court to grant review and permit the Secretary of State to take the actions necessary to ensure that the voters would have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 77 at the November 8, 2005, election. The Attorney General and CFFR on the following day, Thursday, August 11, 2005, filed separate answers to the emergency petition for review, and the proponents filed a reply on Friday, August 12, 2005. On Friday afternoon, August 12, 2005, after considering the materials filed with the court, and taking into account the Secretary of State’s Monday, August 15, 2005, 5:00 p.m. deadline for submitting the ballot pamphlet materials to the printer (the Secretary of State having informed the court that the deadline had to be met in order to permit ballot pamphlets to be printed and mailed to the voters within the statutorily prescribed periods), this court issued an order, signed by four justices, which (1) granted the petition for review, (2) stayed the judgment of the superior court that had directed the Secretary of State not to place any version of Proposition 77 on the November 8, 2005, special election ballot, (3) directed the Secretary of State and other public officials to proceed with all the steps required to place in the ballot pamphlet and on the ballot of the November 8, 2005, election the version of Proposition 77 included in the circulated petition signed by the requisite number of qualified voters (that is, the December 3 version), and (4) provided that “[a]ny public official or other person who has not had an opportunity to revise statements or ballot arguments that have already been submitted to the Secretary of State in order to reflect the version of Proposition 77 that will appear in the election pamphlet and on the ballot shall be permitted to submit a revised statement or ballot argument to the Secretary of State no later than 3 p.m. on Monday, August 15, 2005.” The order further stated that, after the election, this court would determine whether to retain jurisdiction in this matter and resolve the issues raised in the petition. After our order issued, and prior to the Secretary of State’s submission of the ballot pamphlet material to the State Printer, the Attorney General submitted a title and summary of the December 3 version that included the identical fiscal analysis that had been included in the Attorney General’s summary of the December 6 version, and the opponents of the measure added a passage both to their rebuttal to the argument in favor of Proposition 77 and to their argument against Proposition 77, stating that “two courts and three judges have already ruled that this measure shouldn’t even be on the ballot.” No change was made to the analysis by the Legislative Analyst. As ordered by this court, the December 3 version of the measure—the version included in the petition circulated for signature and signed by the requisite number of voters—was set forth in full in the ballot pamphlet. At the November 8, 2005, election, Proposition 77 was voted upon and defeated. Although the defeat of Proposition 77 renders moot the legal challenge to the proposition, as noted at the outset of this opinion we have concluded that it is appropriate that this court retain this matter and issue an opinion to clarify (1) whether preelection review of this type of challenge to an initiative measure is appropriate, and (2) the legal standard that applies in determining whether the type of discrepancy involved in this case warrants withholding an initiative measure from the ballot. II We turn first to the question whether the type of challenge to an initiative measure raised in this case—namely, a claim that an initiative measure should not be placed on the ballot because the version of the measure submitted to the Attorney General differs from the version circulated for signature— appropriately is subject to preelection judicial review or instead ordinarily should be considered by a court only after the measure has been submitted to the voters and the election has been held. Past California decisions have observed that, as a general rule, “it is usually more appropriate to review constitutional and other challenges to ballot propositions or initiative measures after an election rather than to disrupt the electoral process by preventing the exercise of the people’s franchise, in the absence of some clear showing of invalidity.” (Brosnahan v. Eu (1982) 31 Cal.3d 1, 4 [181 Cal.Rptr. 100, 641 P.2d 200] (Brosnahan I).) More recently, however, in Senate of the State of Cal. v. Jones (1999) 21 Cal.4th 1142 [90 Cal.Rptr.2d 810, 988 P.2d 1089] (Senate v. Jones), we noted that decisions after Brosnahan I “have explained that this general rule applies primarily when a challenge rests upon the alleged unconstitutionality of the substance of the proposed initiative, and that the rule does not preclude preelection review when the challenge is based upon a claim, for example, that the proposed measure may not properly be submitted to the voters because the measure is not legislative in character or because it amounts to a constitutional revision rather than an amendment. [Citations.]” (21 Cal.4th at p. 1153.) In the Senate v. Jones decision itself, we held that a constitutional challenge that rests upon a claim that a proposed initiative measure violates the single-subject rule may, in an appropriate case, be considered and resolved prior to the election, emphasizing that the constitutional provision establishing the single-subject limitation by its explicit terms contemplates the possibility and propriety of preelection review in providing that “[a]n initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to the electors or have any effect.” (Cal. Const., art. II, § 8, subd. (d), italics added.) The legal challenge in the present case does not relate to the substantive validity of the initiative measure but rather involves a procedural claim pertaining to the preelection petition-circulation process. Past cases establish that, at least as a general matter, this type of procedural challenge— that is, a challenge based upon an allegation that a proposed initiative measure has failed to comply with the essential procedural requirements necessary to qualify an initiative measure for the ballot (for example, an initiative petition’s alleged failure to have obtained the requisite number of qualified signatures)—may be brought and resolved prior to an election. (See, e.g., Assembly v. Deukmejian (1982) 30 Cal.3d 638, 646-654 [180 Cal.Rptr. 297, 639 P.2d 939] [preelection decision considering the effect of a variety of alleged defects in referendum petition, including claim that text of measure printed in petition varied from text of the enacted measure that was the subject of the referendum]; Epperson v. Jordan (1938) 12 Cal.2d 61 [82 P.2d 445] (Epperson) [preelection decision considering challenge to initiative measure contesting the completeness and accuracy of the Attorney General’s summary of the measure set forth in the circulated petition]; Clark v. Jordan (1936) 7 Cal.2d 248 [60 P.2d 457] (Clark) [preelection decision sustaining challenge to proposed initiative measure on ground that “short title” set forth in circulated petitions violated statutory requirement that such title accurately describe the subject to which the petition relates, and finding it unnecessary to decide additional claim that petition was not supported by the required number of signatures]; Boyd v. Jordan (1934) 1 Cal.2d 468 [35 P.2d 533] (Boyd) [preelection decision sustaining challenge to proposed initiative based on misleading short title].) As these and similar cases implicitly recognize, because the question at issue in such a case is whether the initiative measure has satisfied the constitutional or statutory procedural prerequisites necessary to qualify it for the ballot, it is logical and appropriate for a court to consider such a claim prior to the election, because if the threshold procedural prerequisites have not been satisfied the measure is not entitled to be submitted to the voters. Unlike a challenge to the substantive validity of a proposed measure, it cannot properly be suggested that it would be premature to consider such a claim prior to the election, because the focus of the issue is solely upon whether the measure has qualified for the ballot, and not upon the validity or invalidity of the measure were it to be approved by the voters. Furthermore, once a measure has been placed on the ballot and has been voted upon by the electorate, California decisions have been most reluctant to overturn the results of an election on the basis of a procedural defect that has occurred at the petition-circulation stage of the process, inasmuch as such a defect ordinarily will have no effect on the material that is before the voters or on the fairness or accuracy of the election result. (See, e.g., Lenahan v. City of Los Angeles (1939) 14 Cal.2d 128, 132 [92 P.2d 1014] [challenges to form and sufficiency of recall petition held moot after recall election was held, emphasizing that none “of the alleged deficiencies or irregularities in the presentation and certification of the recall petition prevented a full and fair vote at the recall election”]; Mapstead v. Anchundo (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 246, 272-277 [73 Cal.Rptr.2d 602] [challenge to sufficiency of signatures to qualify referendum became moot once election on referendum was held]; Chase v. Brooks (1986) 187 Cal.App.3d 657, 659-662 [232 Cal.Rptr. 65] [because “[t]he ballot measure and accompanying material adequately informed the electorate of the breadth and complete contents of the challenged ordinance,” “[office the election is held and the electorate has spoken, it becomes moot whether the referendum petitions failed to comply with [former] section 4052,” which required that municipal referendum petitions contain entire text of the ordinance that is the subject of the referendum]; Long v. Hultberg (1972) 27 Cal.App.3d 606, 608-609 [103 Cal.Rptr. 19] [when election has been held and fairness of the election itself is not attacked, challenge to sufficiency of recall petitions is moot]; see also Legislature v. Deukmejian (1983) 34 Cal.3d 658, 666 [194 Cal.Rptr. 781, 669 P.2d 17] [“general rule favoring postelection review [of initiative or referendum measures] contemplates that no serious consequences will result if consideration of the validity of measure is delayed until after an election”]; Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638, 649 [“the postelection context is significantly different from a preballot-qualification setting. An election is a completed act, a fait accompli. In contrast, the circulation and qualification of referendum petitions are part of an ongoing process that portends, at most, the potential of an election”].) In light of this well-established remedial limitation regarding postelection challenges, it cannot be said that there is no harm in postponing until after the election a determination of the validity of this type of procedural challenge to the petition-circulation process, because after the election the procedural claim may well be considered moot. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court and the Court of Appeal did not err in entertaining the procedural challenge in this case prior to the election. Of course, the circumstance that a challenge involves the type of claim that properly may be considered by a court prior to the election does not establish that the claim in question is valid or that it justifies withholding the challenged measure from the ballot. Particularly when a preelection challenge is brought against an initiative measure that has been signed by the requisite number of voters to qualify it for the ballot, the important state interest in protecting the fundamental right of the people to propose statutory or constitutional changes through the initiative process requires that a court exercise considerable caution before intervening to remove or withhold the measure from an imminent election. Only when a court is confident that the challenge is meritorious and justifies withholding the measure from the ballot, should a court take the dramatic step of ordering the removal of a measure that ostensibly has obtained a sufficient number of qualified signatures. (See, e.g., Farley v. Healey (1967) 67 Cal.2d 325, 327 [62 Cal.Rptr. 26, 431 P.2d 650] [court should order removal of an initiative measure from ballot only “on a compelling showing that a proper case has been established for interfering with the initiative power”]; Zaremberg v. Superior Court (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 111, 116 [8 Cal.Rptr.3d 723] [“ ‘[t]he ballot box is the sword of democracy. A court will intervene in the . . . process only when there are clear, compelling reasons to do so’ ”].) In the present case, our grant of review did not rest upon a determination that the legal challenge in question should not have been brought or resolved prior to the election, but rather upon our disagreement with the merits of the lower courts’ conclusion that the procedural defect in this case warranted withholding the initiative measure in question from the ballot. Because we concluded that the discrepancies in question did not justify withholding the proposition from the ballot, and because time constraints precluded an adequate opportunity for briefing, argument, deliberation, and the preparation and filing of an opinion prior to the election without unduly interfering with the printing and distribution of the ballot pamphlet and the administration of the election, we granted review, stayed the judgment rendered by the trial court, directed the Secretary of State to place the matter on the ballot, and authorized public officials and other persons to submit revised statements and ballot arguments relating to the version of the measure that had been circulated for signature and that was to be placed on the ballot. Our order permitted Proposition 77 to be placed on the ballot and preserved our ability to address the issues, after the election, through an opinion prepared with the benefit of full briefing and oral argument. Ill In analyzing the legal question whether the disparities between the version of the initiative measure circulated for signature and the version submitted to the Attorney General warranted withholding the initiative measure from the ballot, we begin with the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions and then consider the judicial authorities that have addressed analogous claims in past cases. A Article II, section 8 of the California Constitution provides (in subdivision (a)) that “[t]he initiative is the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them,” and specifies (in subdivision (b)) that a petition proposing such a measure must “set[] forth the text of the proposed statute or amendment to the Constitution” that is sought to be adopted. Article II, section 10 of the state Constitution further provides (in subdivision (d)) that prior to the circulation of an initiative petition, “a copy shall be submitted to the Attorney General who shall prepare a title and summary of the measure as provided by law,” and additionally (in subdivision (e)) explicitly authorizes the Legislature to provide “the manner in which petitions shall be circulated, presented, and certified, and measures submitted to the electors.” The Legislature, in turn, has enacted numerous provisions in the Elections Code related to the initiative process. Section 9002, implementing the directive embodied in article II, section 10, subdivision (d) of the Constitution, provides that prior to circulation of an initiative petition, “a draft of the proposed measure” shall be submitted to the Attorney General with a written request for the preparation of a title and summary of the measure; that statute further provides that the title and summary prepared by the Attorney General “shall not exceed . . . 100 words.” Section 9004 directs the Attorney General, upon receipt of a draft of a petition, to prepare “a summary of the chief purposes and points of the proposed measure.” In establishing a deadline for the Attorney General’s completion of the title and summary, section 9004 implicitly authorizes the proponents of the measure to submit to the Attorney General amendments to the proposed measure (either substantive or technical) within 15 days after the initial submission of the measure, and directs the Attorney General to provide a copy of the title and summary to the Secretary of State either within 15 days after receipt of “the final version of a proposed initiative measure” or, if the Attorney General determines (pursuant to the provisions of section 9005) that the measure if adopted would affect the revenues or expenditures of the state or local government, within 15 days after the Attorney General’s receipt of the fiscal estimate or opinion that is to be prepared by the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Section 9007 further requires the Attorney General, “[immediately upon the preparation of the summary of an initiative or referendum petition,” to transmit copies “of the text of the measure and summary” to the Senate and the Assembly, and authorizes the appropriate committees to hold hearings on the subject of the measure. Section 9007 further makes clear that the provision is not intended to grant the Legislature authority “to alter the measure or prevent it from appearing on the ballot.” Section 9008 provides that with regard to every proposed initiative measure, the title and summary prepared by the Attorney General must appear in 12-point or larger roman boldface type across the top of (1) each page of the petition on which signatures are to appear, and (2) upon each section of the petition immediately preceding the text of the measure. (See also § 9001 [setting forth the general format for a proposed initiative measure].) Section 9014 provides that an initiative petition may be presented in sections (rather than in a single, statewide petition), but also establishes that “each section shall contain a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed measure” and that the text of the measure must be printed in at least 8-point type. Finally, section 9012 provides that election officials who are authorized to receive or file an initiative petition shall not receive or file any petition “not in conformity with this article.” Considering these provisions as a whole, we conclude that there can be no question but that the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions require that the version of a measure submitted to the Attorney General by the measure’s proponents prior to circulation of the petition be the same version of the initiative measure circulated for signature. As noted, article II, section 10, subdivision (d) of the California Constitution provides that prior to circulation of an initiative petition for signature, “a copy” shall be submitted to the Attorney General, who shall prepare a title and summary. Additionally, section 9004 clearly contemplates that the title and summary prepared by the Attorney General will be based upon a review of “the final version of a proposed initiative measure.” Indeed, no party in the present proceeding has taken the position that the applicable constitutional and statutory provisions do not require the proponents of an initiative measure to submit to the Attorney General the final version of the measure that the proponents intend to circulate for signature. Furthermore, although the record establishes that the proponents in this case did submit to the Attorney General the final version of the measure they intended to circulate for signature, it is undisputed that, inadvertently, the version of the measure actually circulated by the proponents for signature differed in a number of respects from the version submitted to the Attorney General. The question in dispute here is whether the inadvertent discrepancies between the two versions of the initiative measure in this case warranted withholding the measure from the ballot, notwithstanding the circumstance that the initiative petition was signed by the requisite number of eligible voters to qualify the measure for the ballot and that the version of the measure that the Secretary of State proposed to submit to the voters was the version circulated for signature. It is to this question that we now turn. B Although it has been suggested that the issue before us turns on whether the controlling decisions require “strict” or “substantial” compliance with the applicable election laws, in some respects such an approach presents a potentially misleading dichotomy. As explained post, all of our past cases emphasize the utmost importance of ensuring the integrity of the electoral process and of interpreting and applying the applicable constitutional and statutory provisions in a manner that closely safeguards the integrity of that process. In instances in which a departure from a statutory requirement has been found to pose a realistic threat to the accuracy and integrity of the process—for example, by misleading the potential signers of an initiative petition regarding a significant feature of the proposed measure through the use of a confusing or incomplete title—courts have not been tolerant of such departures from procedural safeguards and have rejected claims that those who signed the petition could have avoided confusion by relying upon the full text of the measure included in the petition. At the same time, as we shall see, the governing cases also have recognized that an unreasonably literal or inflexible application of constitutional or statutory requirements that fails to take into account the purpose underlying the particular requirement at issue would be inconsistent with the fundamental nature of the people’s constitutionally enshrined initiative power and with the well-established “ ‘judicial policy to apply a liberal construction to this power wherever it is challenged in order that the right be not improperly annulled. If doubts can reasonably be resolved in favor of the use of this reserve power, courts will preserve it.’ ” (Associated Home Builders etc., Inc. v. City of Livermore (1976) 18 Cal.3d 582, 591 [135 Cal.Rptr. 41, 557 P.2d 473]; see also Epperson, supra, 12 Cal.2d 61, 66 [emphasizing “the fundamental concept that provisions relating to the initiative should be liberally construed to permit, if possible, the exercise by the electors of this most important privilege”].) Thus, when California courts have encountered relatively minor defects that the courts find could not have affected the integrity of the electoral process as a realistic and practical matter, past decisions generally have concluded that it would be inappropriate to preclude the electorate from voting on a measure on the basis of such a discrepancy or defect. In such cases, as long as the fundamental purposes underlying the applicable constitutional or statutory requirements have been fulfilled, the decisions have concluded that there has been “substantial compliance” with the applicable constitutional or statutory provisions and that invalidation of a petition and preclusion of a vote on the measure is not warranted. Two California Supreme Court decisions, decided within three months of one another in 1934, highlight the general judicial approach that long has been followed in this area. In California Teachers Assn. v. Collins (1934) 1 Cal.2d 202 [34 P.2d 134] (California Teachers Assn.)—decided in June 1934—a registrar of voters had refused to accept and file an initiative petition based upon the petition’s ostensible failure to comply with the provisions of former Political Code section 1197b, which declared that “[a]cross the top of each page after the first page of every initiative . . . petition and section thereof . . . there shall be printed in eighteen-point gothic type a short title, not to exceed twenty words, showing the nature of the petition and the subject to which it relates.” (Italics added.) The registrar in that case had relied upon the circumstance that the short title in the petition departed from the statutory requirements in two respects: (1) it was printed in 12-point boldface type instead of the 18-point gothic type called for by the statute, and (2) it contained 24 words, instead of the maximum of 20 words prescribed by the statute. In analyzing the propriety of the registrar’s rejection of the petition, the court in California Teachers Assn., supra, 1 Cal.2d 202, began by explaining: “The requirements of both the Constitution and the statute are intended to and do give information to the electors who are asked to sign the initiative petitions. If that be accomplished in any given case, little more can be asked than that a substantial compliance with the law and the Constitution be had, and that such compliance does no violence to a reasonable construction of the technical requirements of the law.” (1 Cal.2d at p. 204, italics added.) In considering the short title’s departure from the required type size and style, this court in California Teachers Assn., supra, 1 Cal.2d 202, observed that other election-law provisions called for the use of 12-point boldface type and further noted that “[i]n actual size, there is a difference [between 12-point and 18-point type] of but six-seventy-seconds of an inch. Only one with very poor eyesight would be unable to read a line printed in twelve-point type as readily as one printed in eighteen-point type.” (1 Cal.2d at p. 204.) Under these circumstances, the court in California Teachers Assn, concluded: “[W]e are of the view there has been a sufficiently substantial compliance with the statute.” (Ibid.) In considering the objection based upon the number of words in the short title, this court indicated that this objection “presents a more serious question, but one which we believe should be resolved in favor of petitioners in the present instance.” (California Teachers Assn., supra, 1 Cal.2d at pp. 204—205.) Reasoning that “the omission in the ‘short title’ of the words ‘Constitutional Amendment’ and the phrase ‘Submitted Directly to the Electors’ would detract nothing from its descriptive feature” (id. at p. 205), this court held that “[therefore, regarding the inclusion of these words and the phrase as surplusage, we are of the view that the mandate of the legislature has been substantially complied with, and that the purpose of the ‘short title’, which is to prevent the deceiving of electors by the use of misleading pages and titles after the first page, . . . has been served.” (Ibid.) In addition, further demonstrating the practical nature of this court’s approach and its consideration of the realistic consequences of its action with an eye to protecting the people’s fundamental right of initiative, this court in California Teachers Assn, noted: “We are more strongly inclined to so hold in view of the fact that the present initiative petition was prepared and is being circulated in good faith, that many thousands of signatures thereto have already been secured, and the time is short within which the large number of required signatures can be again secured.” (Ibid.) In Boyd, supra, 1 Cal.2d 468—decided three months after California Teachers Assn., in September 1934—this court again faced a claim that an initiative petition was invalid for failure to comply with former Political Code section 1197b, the same statute that had been at issue in California Teachers Assn. In Boyd, however, the claim was that the short title formulated by the proponents of the measure and set forth at the top of every page of the initiative petition after the first page—“Initiative Measure Providing for Adoption of Gross Receipts Act”—did not adequately describe “the nature of the petition and the subject to which it relates,” as required by the statute in question. This court in Boyd initially noted that in California Teachers Assn., the court had held that “substantial compliance with this provision of said section of the code was all that was required.” (Boyd, supra, 1 Cal.2d at p. 471.) In determining whether the substantial compliance requirement was met in Boyd, this court, after considering the Attorney General’s summary of the measure and its own examination of the petition, noted that “the proposed amendment to the Constitution provides for a tax to be levied upon gross receipts of money from all sources, with certain exceptions therein specified, sufficient in amount to meet and pay expenses of maintaining the state government and all political subdivisions of the state; all existing tax laws are repealed[;] an entirely new set of officers are provided for the levy and assessment of the proposed tax; and the offices of assessor and tax collector of every county in the state are abolished.” (1 Cal.2d at pp. 471-472.) The court in Boyd then stated: “The short title used in this petition makes no reference to a tax or to the fact that the proposed amendment is a revenue measure. We think it is clear that the short title neither shows the nature of the petition, nor does it show the subject to which it relates. There is nothing in this short title which informed the elector who was asked to sign it that the proposed measure provided for the levy of any tax whatever. He was informed that the petition provided for the adoption of a gross receipt act, but no information was given him as to the character of the proposed legislation regarding that subject. ... In our opinion, this vital defect in the short title vitiates the whole petition and renders it inadequate for any purpose.” (Id. at pp. 472-473.) Because the short title at issue in Boyd did not adequately reveal the nature of the initiative measure or the subject to which the petition related, the court concluded it did not “amount to even a substantial compliance with the requirements of section 1197b of the Political Code, and for that reason we are constrained to hold that the proposed measure set out in the said petition is not entitled to be submitted to the electors of the state.” (Boyd, supra, 1 Cal.2d at pp. 474-475; see also Clark, supra, 7 Cal.2d 248, 252 [“A title which tells the prospective signer that certain taxes are abolished, without telling him that a portion of the abolished taxes are imposed on real property, is definitely misleading. While we are of the opinion that statutes dealing with the initiative should be liberally construed to permit the exercise by the electors of this most important privilege, we are also of the opinion that statutes passed for the purpose of protecting electors from confusing or misleading situations should be enforced”].) As the contrast between the results in the California Teachers Assn. and Boyd decisions illustrates, in determining whether a departure from statutory requirements imposed on initiative or referendum petitions by election-law provisions should be viewed as invalidating a circulated petition, past California decisions have been most concerned with departures that affect the integrity of the process by misleading (or withholding vital information from) those persons whose signatures are solicited. Nearly 50 years after the California Teachers Assn, and Boyd decisions, this court, in Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638, considered a preelection challenge to a referendum measure circulated against a reapportionment statute that had been enacted by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. After the referendum petition had been circulated and certified as having obtained a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot, a preelection judicial challenge was brought based on a variety of statutory defects in the referendum petitions. After analyzing the most serious of the defects at issue in that case and concluding, in light of the unusual circumstances present there, that the court would not withhold the referendum from the ballot on the basis of that defect even though it went “to the very heart” of the purpose of the particular statutory requirement at issue (30 Cal.3d at p. 648), this court in Assembly v. Deukmejian turned its attention to a number of other challenges to what it described as “the technical sufficiency” of the referendum petitions. We began by setting forth the standard that governs the determination whether such defects should invalidate a referendum or initiative measure, observing: “This court has stressed that technical deficiencies in referendum and initiative petitions will not invalidate the petitions if they are in ‘substantial compliance’ with statutory and constitutional requirements. (California Teachers Assn. v. Collins[, supra,] 1 Cal.2d 202, 204 [34 P.2d 134].) A paramount concern in determining whether a petition is valid despite an alleged defect is whether the purpose of the technical requirement is frustrated by the defective form of the petition. ‘The requirements of both the Constitution and the statute are intended to and do give information to the electors who are asked to sign the . . . petitions. If that be accomplished in any given case, little more can be asked than that a substantial compliance with the law and the Constitution be had, and that such compliance does no violence to a reasonable construction of the technical requirement of the law.’ (Ibid.)” (Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d at pp. 652-653, italics added.) We then went on to discuss each of the alleged defects, concluding that none of the statutory deficiencies interfered with the purpose underlying the relevant statutory provision. One of the deficiencies in the referendum petition in Assembly v. Deukmejian was somewhat similar, although not identical, to the defect at issue in the present case. The applicable statute required a referendum petition to set forth “a full and correct copy of the title and text” of the legislative measure against which the referendum was brought. (Former § 3515, now § 9014.) The referendum petition at issue in Assembly v. Deukmejian included the purported text of the challenged reapportionment statute, but in setting forth the text of that legislative measure the petition contained errors in the listing of the redistricting census tract numbers, with the result that the text appended to the petition did not replicate the text of the reapportionment statute that was the subject of the referendum petition. Despite the variance, we rejected this challenge to the referendum petition rather summarily, stating simply that “[t]he errors were so minor as to pose no danger of misleading the signers of the petitions. They, therefore, do not affect the validity of the petitions.” (30 Cal.3d at p. 653.) Over the years, numerous relatively minor departures from the constitutional and statutory requirements applicable to initiative and referendum measures have been found to satisfy the substantial compliance test, so long as the court was able to conclude that the departure in question, as a realistic and practical matter, did not undermine or frustrate the basic purposes served by the statutory requirements in ensuring the integrity of the initiative or referendum process. Recently, in MHC Financing Limited Partnership Two v. City of Santee (2005) 125 Cal.App.4th 1372 [23 Cal.Rptr.3d 622] (MHC Financing), the Court of Appeal had occasion to apply the substantial compliance doctrine in a factual setting quite comparable to the present case, in which a title and summary that was prepared on the basis of one version of a proposed initiative measure inadvertently was used on a circulated initiative petition that set forth a different version of the initiative measure. Because of the similarity of the issue addressed in that case to the issue presented here, we discuss the MHC Financing decision i