Californians’ strange history with voter initiatives continues on Tuesday, as we will decide on 12 measures that range in subject matter from teen abortions and the size of animal cages to renewable energy goals and the proper tools to battle gangs.

While voters like Kevin and Cheryl Courtney — and their cats — consider these initiatives in earnest (see Kevin Courtney’s column on C1), the measures may not always be placed before us in earnest.

The strategy of what is placed on the ballot, and when may have as much or more to do with turning out voters of one political mindset or another — in the hopes there presence will influence other outcomes — as with the question in the initiative itself.

For example, the debate over same-sex marriage is obviously very hot. But one byproduct of having Proposition 8 on the presidential ballot is that it motivates voters, perhaps including some who may not have bothered to vote for their party’s presidential candidate, to get up and mail in their ballots.

Of course, a byproduct of that byproduct may be that more voters on the other side get fired up and cancel the intended effect.

So the propositions may or may not be good ideas, but they can be counted on to create political energy and money. That has become part of their purpose as the govern-by-proposition phenomenon has evolved in the decades since Prop. 13 woke everyone with a start.

Other initiatives that would fire up one segment of the electorate or the other have been circulating for a future statewide election. But according to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, they have garnered insufficient signatures or otherwise failed to qualify for the ballot. Several have the feel of wedge initiatives.

One would have sought to legalize marijuana. Never mind that marijuana possession or distribution is a federal crime, we are the independent republic of California.

Measures banning human cloning or stem cell research also failed to qualify for a future ballot in the last few weeks, although the question of cloning or fact of stem cell research cannot be contained within California’s borders.

So far, four measures have qualified for the June 2010 ballot. They are not nearly as interesting as deciding whether we are fer or agin human clones or pot smoking.

One would expand the number of buildings that qualify for property tax exemptions because state or local laws require they be retrofitted for earthquake safety.

Another represents the latest attempt to put some controls on political money.

It would allow candidates for state office to use public funds in their campaigns under certain conditions.

One measure is the ugly offspring of this year’s out-of-whack state budget. It would authorize California to borrow against future state lottery earnings to balance the budget.

Finally, there is a complicated measure meant to guarantee a balanced budget process. I could swear we already have two or three such measures in place. Apparently, they work so well we need another.