It was a constitutional amendment that effectively transformed California's non-presidential elections from first-past-the-post to a nonpartisan blanket primary (a two-round system).

It consolidated all partisan primaries for a particular office into an election with one ballot that would be identical to all voters, regardless of their party preferences.

Proposition 14 was a proposal to amend Sections 5 and 6 of Article II of the California State Constitution relating to elections.

[1] The proposition was publicly backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of a deal in which Maldonado agreed to support his proposed 2009–2010 state budget, and was opposed by political parties.

[4] Instead of allowing each political party to hold a partisan primary open to just its members (and independent voters, if the party chooses to do so) to determine its candidate for the general election, Proposition 14 proposed to create a single primary ballot that would be identical for all voters.

"[13] Election-law expert Richard L. Hasen, although an opponent of the suit, agreed, writing that the award was "absolutely outrageous.