Voters Sound Off on State Propositions

Californians voted to toughen penalties on retail and drug crime, put marriage equality in the state constitution, build more schools and parks, and fight climate change, according to early results in the election held last Tuesday, November 5. 

With a bit less than half the state’s ballots counted, voters also sounded off against making it easier to pass bonds for affordable housing and infrastructure, against ending forced work for prison inmates, against raising the minimum wage and against letting cities enact more rent control if they chose. 

The two most contentious decisions at the ballot were Proposition 33, which sought to repeal a law that blocks much local rent control, and Proposition 36, which partially rewrote the earlier Prop 47, which had eased penalties on retail theft and on illegal drug possession.

In recent years, rents have soared, along with retail thefts and drug overdose deaths. Each set of problems was blamed at least partly on the previous laws, according to backers of Prop 33 and Prop 36, respectively. Proposition 33 trailed by 31 to  69 percent, while Proposition 36 led by 70 to 30 percent.

Also on voters’ approved list, Proposition 2, which bonds for the state’s share of public school and college facility construction, was passing statewide by 57 to 43 percent, while Proposition 4, bonds for water projects, wildfire prevention and climate change protection, also passing by a similar 58 to 42 percent margin. 

Proposition 5, however, affecting bonds for affordable housing and infrastructure, was losing 44 to 56 percent. It did not commit any additional money to those concerns but would have made it easier to pass future such bonds by lowering the needed vote in favor from two-thirds to 55 percent. 

With Proposition 3, California voters cleared up anxiety about the future status of gay marriage in California by embedding it in the state constitution by a vote of 62 to 38 percent. While the U.S. Supreme Court has legalized gay marriage nationwide, some were concerned that a future court might reverse course.

California had never officially removed Proposition 8’s language in the state constitution banning gay marriage after it was thrown out by the courts, and supporters of marriage equality thought doing so was a wise precaution. 

Some prison reform advocates were surprised by the apparent defeat of Proposition 6, losing by 46 to 54 percent, which would have removed the ability of prison authorities to force work by inmates at wages that would be considered very low outside prison walls. California is one of 15 states that still allow the practice, the only form of “involuntary servitude” states could allow after slavery was banned.  Opponents of Proposition 6 said, though, it was rarely imposed. 

Proposition 32, which would increase the state’s minimum wage to $18, and link it to inflation in future years, appeared to have lost by a 52 to 48 percent margin, though uncounted votes still could affect that result. 

Proposition 34 was leading by 51 to 49 percent. That margin is close enough that so-far-uncounted votes might also affect its passage or defeat.

Voters also approved two less-noticed measures. Proposition 35 made permanent a temporary funding source for Medi-Cal. Proposition 34 restricted spending of prescription revenues by healthcare providers and was said by opponents to target a single Southern California nonprofit that had angered landlord groups by supporting expanded rent control.

In contrast to statewide voters, Alameda County supported raising the minimum wage, Prop 6’s ban on forced labor by prison inmates, and Prop 5’s lowering the threshold for approving affordable housing and infrastructure bonds.