Cal. Const., art. XI, § 3 · Article XI. LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Cal. Const., art. XI, § 3
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) For its own government, a county or city may adopt a charter by majority vote of its electors voting on the question. The charter is effective when filed with the Secretary of State. A charter may be amended, revised, or repealed in the same manner. A charter, amendment, revision, or repeal thereof shall be published in the official state statutes. County charters adopted pursuant to this section shall supersede any existing charter and all laws inconsistent therewith. The provisions of a charter are the law of the State and have the force and effect of legislative enactments.
(b) The governing body or charter commission of a county or city may propose a charter or revision. Amendment or repeal may be proposed by initiative or by the governing body.
(c) An election to determine whether to draft or revise a charter and elect a charter commission may be required by initiative or by the governing body.
(d) If provisions of 2 or more measures approved at the same election conflict, those of the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail.
Notes and commentary — not constitutional text
History
Subdivision (a) amended Nov. 5, 1974, by Prop. 2. Res.Ch. 81, 1974. Other Source: Entire Sec. 3 was added June 2, 1970, by Prop. 2; Res.Ch. 331, 1969.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CONS§ionNum=SEC.%203.&article=XI
- Text hash
- sha256 97a5d39c2cce962b125500b27aa7af95f6696457d5fabb15c86d0f363cfa43d1
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 5 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Cal. Const., art. XI, § 3. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
California Constitution
Elections Code
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