Dick Spotswood: State proposition ballot summaries need neutral language
California voters will soon deal with an onslaught of state ballot propositions on November’s ballot. In addition to Marin-based measures to increase sales taxes, impose local rent control stricter than the state already mandates and infrastructure bonds, there are 10 statewide measures.
There appears to be little rhyme or reason behind the numbering scheme. Why there’s no Proposition 1 is anyone’s guess. Voters will face propositions numbered 2 through 6. Then, there’s an odd gap before propositions 32 through 36.
State law requires each proposition be accompanied by a short ballot title and summary, which is theoretically vetted to be neutral by California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Bonta’s neutrality is suspect. The one-time Contra Costa County legislator is running for governor in 2026. Many ballot proponents are major financial players in state Democratic politics. A politically ambitious attorney general might tweak the wording of ballot summaries in a way that would be advantageous to businesses and unions behind the propositions.
Example No. 1 would be Proposition 5 which, “Allows local bonds for public housing and public infrastructure with 55% voter approval.”
While what the Bonta-approved ballot summary says is true, it’s not the whole truth.
In what I suspect to be intentional, Bonta did not use the short summary to include that Proposition 5 will cut the current 66.67% supermajority needed to pass nonschool-rated infrastructure bonds down to 55%. That’s a misleading omission. How many unaware voters would still cast yes ballots if they knew about the safeguards in the current law that will be gutted if the measure passes?
Mill Valley Mayor Urban Carmel is no right-wing anti-tax crusader. Yet, he opposes Proposition 5 saying it will lead to a series of unneeded “junk taxes.”
Having voters decide a long list of state propositions every two years is unique to California. It’s the result of early 20th century reforms that introduced “direct democracy.”
The idea was to curb the power of powerful special interests. It was aimed at the San Francisco-based Southern Pacific Railroad, which controlled California legislators of both parties. The reforms allowed citizens to gather signatures to qualify initiatives that passed or repealed laws without the involvement of the corrupt legislature.
In the ensuing 100 years, special interests across the ideological spectrum learned how to game “direct democracy” for their financial benefit.
That manipulation led to the logical practice that, if voters don’t understand what a proposition is about, just vote no. Voters are slowly learning that a measure might even have been written to be, at best, confusing or, at worst, misleading.
There are propositions on November’s ballot that are straightforward. They include propositions 3 and 36. The first will appeal to liberals and the second to conservatives. Fellow centrists see merit in both.
If passed, Proposition 3 will amend the California Constitution to formally “recognize the fundamental right to marry, regardless of sex or race. It removes language in Califoinia’s constitution stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman.”
The measure is on the ballot due to fear that the Republican majority U.S. Supreme Court may invalidate the court rulings behind same sex marriages. The same logic could repeal laws that banned miscegenation, which prohibited the marriage of people of different races. In 1948, California was the first since Ohio in 1887 to repeal laws making interracial marriage illegal. Alabama didn’t take that step until 2000.
Proposition 36 “allows felony charges and increased sentencing for certain drug and theft crimes.” It reverses the voter initiative that downgraded to misdemeanors those theft and drug crimes involving property worth less than $950. It would restore charging those crimes as felonies but only if “the defendant has two prior drug or theft convictions.”
Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.