California's political and election laws have been in place for decades and there is an extensive number of statutes and appellate court decisions in these areas. The state's political laws began in earnest with the voters' adoption of Proposition 9 in 1974, which established the Political Reform Act (PRA) in the Government Code. California's elections laws are contained in their own volume of the Codes – the Elections Code – with hundreds of sections.
In putting together this casebook, like in other areas of California law, there are just too many topics to cover. While most of the PRA and Elections Code provisions are covered in this casebook, some areas of those laws are not discussed in depth. And, of course, there are hundreds of appellate court decisions related to these two areas of law, which means many of those decisions cannot be included in a casebook. Lastly, because I have earlier published a casebook on the three forms of direct democracy in this state, those chapters and cases in this casebook are limited because they can be covered in the separate casebook and its own course.
This casebook attempts to explain most of the statutory provisions of the Elections Code and Political Reform Act, and utilizes appellate court decisions that provide assistance in understanding these laws. I have tried to include cases that are well written and explain areas of the laws for the reader's further understanding of the application of the statutes in political and election laws in California.
