California voters had to vote yes or no on 10 different propositions and measures. More than 50 percent of the vote is needed to pass and people had different opinions.
Some students could be voting for the first time and have a variety of opinions on the different propositions and measures on the ballot.
Prop. 36 would increase penalties for violent drug crimes specifically fentanyl and would also increase penalties for repeated shoplifters. It passed with the highest approval at 68.4 percent. Students say it passed due to California being soft on shoplifters.
Prop. 32 would increase the minimum wage to $18 an hour for employers that have more than 25 people. It is on the path to rejection, with a margin of 200,000 votes. One student didn’t understand why it wouldn’t pass another blamed higher taxes as a result.
Amendment 3 would repeal the same-sex marriage ban making it a fundamental right. It earned 62 percent approval. Both students praised California’s welcoming attitude to the LGBTQ community.
Business student Alison Kane says she doesn’t understand why Prop 32 wasn’t passed
Measure 2 authorizes bonds for public school facilities. It authorizes $10 billion to build and repair K-12 schools and community colleges. Students think it passed based on displeasure with the public school system.
Agriculture student J.J. Hernandez is a first-time voter and took an interest in the different propositions.
Hernandez says he works part-time but does understand why Prop. 32 didn’t pass and says why measure 2 passed.
“The minimum wage one probably didn’t pass because of fear of increased taxes and the measure about public schools shows how upset people are with our public schools, hopefully, it can be put into action,” Hernandez said.
Students feel it was needed to pass a measure to fix public schools and community colleges. Others think that some measures are less meaningful and don’t apply to working-class people.
Business student Alison Kane thinks most of the measures need to be clearer and put into law as soon as the election cycle is over.
“Some of the propositions aren’t clear at all. They use language to manipulate your vote. The best example I can think of is when California started charging 10 cents for plastic bags. It was actually a proposition, but the questions were proposed as yes meaning no and no meaning yes,” Kane said. “Some of the laws aren’t even put into place until the next year, meaning 2026. Voters like my family and I usually don’t even pay attention to the propositions until we have to fill them out on our ballot.”
Kane mentions that a close family member just checks yes for all the propositions and doesn’t even read them.
There has to be a better way of leveraging the internet to inform people about the different propositions than annoying ads that people end up skipping after five seconds.
Hernandez feels Amendment 3 and Prop. 36 needed to be passed.
“It just shows how upset Californians are that some shoplifters and violent drug criminals aren’t getting prosecuted as much as they should and I feel the amendment on same-sex marriage needed to be passed because it shows how welcoming we are to the LGBTQ community” He said
Hernandez says he works part-time but does understand why Prop. 32 didn’t pass.
“The minimum wage one probably didn’t pass because of fear of increased taxes and the measure about public schools shows how upset people are with our public schools, hopefully, it can be put into action,” Hernandez said.
