Purpose, Method and Warning			00.00 10/12
	Purpose.  Let's be clear on what we are doing.  When we pass initiatives, we change California law, with the possibility of profoundly affecting the lives and fortunes of 38 million other residents of the state.  We should not do this lightly or for emotional reasons, based on the latest television attack ad, but rather because we have thought about the matter and understand what the consequences of our vote will be. The first step to achieve that is to know what each of the initiatives actually says.  These pages have been created to assist in that.
	Method.  We provide the content for each of the initiatives, in decreasing order of complexity and detail. We first give a link back to the original text, either the final submitted version of the initiative, or, in the case of initiatives originating with the Legisature, the Bill from which the initiative content came.  Anyone can do this:  Initiative content is maintained online by the Attorney General.  Bill content is also online at the Legislature's site, given the number of the Bill. Next, in our Extracts, we condense the original, removing repetitive phrases and legalistic jargon.  Where there are references to other parts of law, we look those up and describe them for you.  You can do the same; code lookup is available online.  We keep the same paragraph numbering as in the original.  If you doubt the accuracy of our Extract, this gives you a pointer to allow checking the original version yourself.  The Extracts also contain contact information for the supporters and opponents of each measure, and sometimes information on the submitter. We go back over the Extract and pull what we think are the significant points into a smaller Summary. And last, we get to have a little bit of fun, giving a libertarian perspective and Opinion of the content of the bill.
	Warning.  The authors of these pages are no more expert on any aspect of state law than you are.  We have simply done what everyone should do; we have read and tried to understand the law that we are being asked to make.  It is possible that we have erred in that understanding; if you believe we have done so, please let us know.
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