---
type: "Bill"
title: "County, city, and district initiative petitions."
description: "Existing law permits a proposed ordinance to be submitted to a county board of supervisors, a legislative body of a city, or a governing board of a district by filing an initiative petition with the appropriate elections official, signed by not less than a specified number of voters. Under existing law, before a proponent of a county or city initiative measure may circulate an initiative petition for signatures, he or she is required to file specified materials with the elections official, including a notice of intention to do so and the written text of the initiative. Under existing law, before a proponent of a district initiative measure may circulate an initiative petition for signatures, he or she is required to publish or post a notice of intention to do so and a statement of the reasons for the initiative petition."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 1851"
citation: "California AB 1851 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["County", "city", "and district initiative petitions."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Allen"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 25
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2012-02-22"
last_action: "2012-09-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f973e11c-d617-47b6-b657-1a9b7276d797"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851"
source_hash: "24926639fb47bde6e8a87a8973503886fc78c384f6686449c1780c83bc79798a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1851 (20112012) — County, city, and district initiative petitions.

Existing law permits a proposed ordinance to be submitted to a county board of supervisors, a legislative body of a city, or a governing board of a district by filing an initiative petition with the appropriate elections official, signed by not less than a specified number of voters. Under existing law, before a proponent of a county or city initiative measure may circulate an initiative petition for signatures, he or she is required to file specified materials with the elections official, including a notice of intention to do so and the written text of the initiative. Under existing law, before a proponent of a district initiative measure may circulate an initiative petition for signatures, he or she is required to publish or post a notice of intention to do so and a statement of the reasons for the initiative petition.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/22/12 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185199INT)
2. **04/10/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185198AMD)
3. **04/24/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185197AMD)
4. **08/06/12 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185196AMD)
5. **09/07/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185194CHP)
6. **AB1851** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851)
7. **08/16/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1851&version=20110AB185195ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1851 ALLEN Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar 2nd — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1851 ALLEN Consent Calendar Second Day — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations Recommend Consent. — **5–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Allen — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2012-02-22** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2012-02-23** From printer. May be heard in committee March 24.
- **2012-03-01** Referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2012-03-27** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2012-04-10** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on E. & R. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-04-11** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2012-04-23** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 17). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-04-24** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-04-25** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2012-05-02** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 2). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-05-03** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-05-10** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 4785.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-05-10** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2012-05-24** Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2012-06-14** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2012-07-05** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: to consent calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (July 3). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-08-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2012-08-06** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2012-08-07** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-08-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 4445.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-08-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 11 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2012-08-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 5902.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2012-08-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 5 p.m.
- **2012-09-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-09-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 240, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f973e11c-d617-47b6-b657-1a9b7276d797`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).