"I'm a sagacious voter with political experience," said Meade. "I don't believe anything in the ads."

So he dissects ballot measures by looking at who funds them. Although Yes on Proposition 64's advertising campaign insists that the initiative will protect small businesses from "shakedown lawsuits," the long list of major corporation donors reveals higher stakes, he said.

Meade and other informed voters talked recently about how they approach the overwhelming number of statewide initiatives and local ballot measures. As Nan Wishner, a technical writer and spokesperson for a group that mobilized against cell towers on Albany schools, said, "It ain't easy."

A study by the Public Policy Institute of California revealed that almost 75 percent of Californians rely on the media, including television commercials, for their information about politics. However, many local policy advocates believe that voters need much more than partisan ads to make informed decisions.

Albany City Councilwoman Peggy Thomsen said initiative campaigns use ads because they work. "It's very hard when you're bombarded by the same message," she said. "None of us is immune to the media."

Statewide ballot initiatives are high-stakes games with deep-pocketed backers. The backers of Proposition 68 spent almost $24 million on their gambling initiative, half of it on television ads, before giving up the campaign in October. Yes on Proposition 64, a measure which would make it harder for citizens to file certain kinds of lawsuits, has spent nearly $12 million dollars. It received most of its contributions from major corporations across the country.

Many people believe that initiatives, like national politics, have been taken over by big money. "The initiative process is sort of like everything else," said James Carter, executive director of the Albany Chamber of Commerce. "They've bought our democracy."

Thaddeus Kousser, assistant professor of political science at University of California San Diego, said looking at the sponsors of an ad can help voters decide on an initiative. If a voter is a teacher, and the teacher's association supports the initiative, that voter might want to support it as well. Voting by association is hardly foolproof, he said, but it can help on complicated measures.

Kousser said he used to give talks to staff at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory about the pros and cons of each initiative. These were "people who were actually rocket scientists and didn't know what to do," he said.

Wishner, the technical writer, said that even trying to vote with intelligence can be difficult because the initiatives are unclear. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California released this month showed almost 75 percent of California residents believe the language of ballot initiatives is too complicated. Voters have trouble understanding what would happen if the initiative passed, the study said.

Wishner said she researches the initiatives that interest her. She looks up the history and other positions on the initiative's main topic. She said she needs to know the background of an initiative before she can make a good decision. "If I really don't know, I don't vote," said Wishner. "I don't take a stand."

Thomsen agreed that you have to read carefully. "Yes means no, no means yes," she said. Thomsen said she reads every initiative and its nonpartisan explanation. Still, if she arrives at her polling place and does not feel she completely understands the measure, she will not vote on it.

Robert Cheasty, a former mayor of Albany and the leader of Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, said it is important to "have a perspective on what you think is important" when it comes to ballot measures. When voters know that the environment or schools are more important to them than jails, then, he said, they have a way to evaluate the initiative's relevance.

Despite the difficulty initiatives create for voters, they're unlikely to disappear. The Public Policy Institute's study revealed that 74 percent of California residents like the initiative process. "I have a lot of faith in the initiative process and the public," said Cheasty. "I trust the voters."