As ballots continued to be counted Wednesday, initial results for California’s 10 ballot measures showed voters roundly rejected a measure to allow cities to expand rent control and approved propositions to borrow billions for climate projects, affirm same-sex marriage and extend a tax for health care programs.
They also overwhelmingly approved a high-profile initiative to toughen penalties for nonviolent theft and drug crimes. Five other measures — including a proposal to raise the minimum wage — were too close to call Wednesday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.
The results suggest that even in deep-blue California, there’s no guarantee voters will support every progressive position when it comes to ballot measures, even as they reliably choose Democrats for statewide or national office.
“When something doesn’t have an R or D next to its name, California can be very different than you’d expect from a very Democratic state,” said elections analyst Paul Mitchell.
Each of the measures on the November ballot needs a simple majority to pass. For the closest uncalled races, it could take a few days or more to declare winners and losers as millions of mail-in ballots still needed to be tallied.
Voters resoundingly approved the crime measure, Proposition 36, amid growing frustrations with what they see as a spike in retail and property crime in their communities. As of Wednesday afternoon, the initiative had 70% support.
The proposition will make it easier to charge repeat theft and drug offenders with felonies. It will also allow judges to order people convicted of multiple drug possession charges into treatment or sentence them to up to three years in prison if they decline to enter a program.
Opponents, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, described the measure as a punitive solution that would lead to overcrowded prisons and overwhelm drug treatment programs that are already struggling to meet the growing need statewide. But voters, as pre-election polling suggested, appeared unconvinced by those arguments.
“California voters have spoken with a clear voice on the triple epidemics of retail theft, homelessness and fatal drug overdoses plaguing our state,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, one of the proposition’s most vocal supporters, in a statement.
The initial results also showed voters rejected Proposition 33, which would have allowed cities to expand rent control to all types of housing and tell landlords how much they could charge new tenants upon moving in. Initial returns Wednesday showed 62% of voters in opposition.
The proposition was the costliest measure on the ballot, with the state’s largest real estate groups spending more than $94 million against it, including on a barrage of attack ads claiming expanded rent caps would kill new housing construction. It was the third time in the last six years that voters shot down a similar rent control ballot measure.
“Together, we’ve stopped the flawed initiative that would have made California’s housing crisis even worse,” the No on Prop 33 campaign said in a post on the social media platform X.
A dueling measure, Proposition 34, which was written to prevent Proposition 33’s main bankroller — the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation — from spending big on future ballot measures, was still too close to call. It was ahead with 51.5% of the vote.
Voters approved a bond measure also on the ballot to borrow $10 billion for climate projects, while a separate $10 billion school bond measure was ahead by a sizable margin.
Proposition 4, which will fund wildfire mitigation efforts, expand water projects and preserve parkland, won with 58% support, according to initial results. Meanwhile, Proposition 2, which would support building and repairing thousands of the state’s aging K-12 public schools and community colleges, was ahead with 57% support.
Proposition 3, a measure to enshrine the right to marriage regardless of sex into the state constitution, won with 61% support, according to initial returns.
The measure effectively repeals 2008’s controversial Proposition 8, which attempted to ban same-sex marriage in the state. That proposition was struck down by a federal court a few years later. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
With roughly two-thirds support, voters approved Proposition 5, a complicated proposal to extend a tax on health care plans that helps fund Medi-Cal, the state’s health program for low-income residents.
Proposition 32, which would increase the state minimum wage to $18 an hour, was too close to call. It was behind with 48% support.
The initiative, bankrolled by deep-pocketed anti-poverty crusader Joe Sanberg, comes after state lawmakers last year approved a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers and some health care employees.
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Another uncalled measure, Proposition 5, which would lower the threshold for voters to approve local affordable housing and infrastructure bond measures, was trailing with 44% support.
In the Bay Area, proponents hope the measure — which would lower the approval threshold from 66% to 55% — will help pass a proposed $20 billion regional affordable housing bond that was pulled from the November ballot, but which officials still hope to bring before voters.
Proposition 6, which would ban forced prison labor and prohibit disciplining incarcerated people who refuse a work assignment, was behind with 45% of the vote, but still too close to call.