In February 2009, the California legislature voted to put a constitutional amendment on the June 2010 ballot, changing the structure of California elections for Congress and partisan state office. The measure came to be known as Proposition 14. It passed on June 8 with about 54% of the vote.

Proposition 14, most accurately referred to as a "top-two" system, has already been used in Louisiana for the last 35 years, and in Washington State starting in 2008. It provides that all candidates run on the same June primary ballot, and all voters use that ballot. Then, only the two candidates who place first and second may appear on the ballot in November.

CfER was one of the first organizations to oppose Proposition 14. As a result, when the state ballot pamphlet was prepared early in 2010, CfER was one five organizations which signed either the argument against the measure or the rebuttal to argument for it.

Because CfER was listed in the voter pamphlet, reporters seeking to better understand the measure contacted us. This was especially true because the other organizations who opposed the measure tended not to have any special expertise on the matter.

CfER activists were then able to speak to reporters, and were invited to forums that discussed the measure. CfER also came to the attention of many major party office-holders and party leaders. It is probably safe to say that CfER is now better known in California than it has ever been before.

No organization that actually studied Proposition 14 came out in favor of the measure. Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of California took no position. The ACLU of both Northern California and Southern California opposed the measure, as did FairVote, the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE), and the Free & Equal Elections Foundation.

Political scientists who studied Proposition 14 and had previously studied state government and/or political parties did not support the measure. Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed University in Portland, Oregon, asked all 600 members of the Political Methodology listserv (a discussion list for political science professors and graduate students), and only found one member who believes that a top-two system is good public policy.

California's large newspapers almost unanimously endorsed Proposition 14, even though almost none of the editorial boards of these newspapers invited opponents to speak to them. The Los Angeles Times refused to print any op-ed against Proposition 14 in the year before the vote, even though it did print an op-ed in favor of Proposition 14, and ran two editorials in favor, and even though its news stories didn't mention any of the weak points of the measure. Also, proponents of the measure, aided by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, raised $4,500,000 to pay for extensive radio advertising for Proposition 14. Opponents only raised $200,000.

CfER donated $2,000 to the campaign against Proposition 14, which was used for television ads.