(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), elections officials required by law to receive or file in their offices any initiative or referendum petition shall preserve the petition until eight months after the certification of the results of the election for which the petition qualified or, if the measure, for any reason, is not submitted to the voters, eight months after the final examination of the petition by the elections official.
(b) Thereafter, the petition shall be destroyed as soon as practicable unless any of the following conditions is satisfied:
(1) The petition is in evidence in some action or proceeding then pending.
(2) The elections official has received a written request from the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Fair Political Practices Commission, a district attorney, a grand jury, or the governing body of a county, city and county, or district, including a school district, that the petition be preserved for use in a pending or ongoing investigation into election irregularities, the subject of which relates to the petition’s qualification or disqualification for placement on the ballot, or in a pending or ongoing investigation into a violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 (Title 9 (commencing with Section 81000) of the Government Code).
(3) The proponents of the petition have commenced an examination pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 7924.100) of Chapter 2 of Part 5 of Division 10 of Title 1 of the Government Code, in which case the petition shall be preserved until one year from the date that the proponents last examined the petition.
(c) If a petition subject to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) is circulated in multiple counties, a county that performs an examination pursuant to this section shall inform the other counties in which the petition is circulated of the examination to facilitate compliance with that paragraph. If the petition is circulated statewide, the Secretary of State shall ensure compliance.
(d) Public access to the petition shall be restricted in accordance with Article 2 (commencing with Section 7924.100) of Chapter 2 of Part 5 of Division 10 of Title 1 of the Government Code.
(e) This section applies to the following petitions:
(1) Statewide initiative and referendum petitions.
(2) County initiative and referendum petitions.
(3) Municipal initiative and referendum petitions.
(4) Municipal city charter amendment petitions.
(5) District initiative and referendum petitions.
(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 100. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Sec. 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.)