A California voter casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5)One thing about California’s lineup of looming ballot propositions: You can’t say they aren’t interesting. From school bonds to the environment to condoms to drugs to plastic bags, and more, voters already are set to vote on seven propositions on the November ballot. And many more are in the wings.
As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)To political experts up and down California, California’s new Motor Voter law is a question mark that likely will involve rethinking some practices and require a great deal of new effort. To Democrats, it’s the long-overdue removal of a barricade to full participation in California’s civic life. To Republicans, it poses a danger that a flood of illegal immigrants will start participating in political decision-making.
Tour goers flank a mannequin of Dorothea Puente at the house on F Street. (Photo: Steve Martarano)Reporter’s Notebook: “If you’re interested in bodies,” the watch commander said cryptically, “go out to 14th and F streets.” I pulled up to the curb just a heartbeat ahead of a Channel 40 van. Unbeknownst to me, Sacramento’s most sensational serial murder case had started to unfold. I walked up to the excavated mound of dirt on the side of the yard and the homicide lieutenant there met me, and quickly said police had just found what they had been digging for all day: human remains. The officer pointed to a slab of concrete covering the side yard and said they would start digging it up the next day looking for more bodies.
Voters cast ballots at the November 2014 general election in Oak View, Calif. (Photo: Joseph Sohm) We Californians justifiably become excited about our many remarkable achievements: we make terrific movies; Silicon Valley leads the planet in technological innovation; our traffic jams are world class. But when it comes to voting, we give a statewide shrug. A mere 42.2 percent of registered voters — registered voters — bothered to cast ballots in the November 2014 general election. Los Angeles County bottomed out statewide with a turnout of 31 percent. It gets even worse: The June 2014 turnout was 25.2 percent.
The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use, says it intends to put the issue before California voters on the 2016 general election ballot. The group’s decision to file a committee with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Wednesday means it may start raising funds to help finance signature gathering and qualify the measure in California.
Flanked by legislative leaders, Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill putting a $7.45 billion water bond on the November ballot. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)After five years and two postponements, state lawmakers Wednesday night approved placing a $7.45 billion water bond before voters on the November ballot. The drought-era plan, backed by Gov. Brown and the Legislature, dramatically scales back and replaces the $11.14 billion borrowing that originally faced voters. Brown signed the legislation shortly after the vote.
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.A day after Gov. Brown proposed a $6 billion water bond for the November ballot, an environmental coalition offered their own plan with a similar price-tag and with $1.5 billion for recycling and conservation, and $800 million to treat waste water and develop drinking water projects.
The dry bed of Ivanpah Lake in San Barnardino County, which had been filled by the 2004-05 rains. (Photo: Ed Berlen)The governor, up for reelection in November, announced the plan on his campaign web site in an open letter to voters. If approved by lawmakers, it would replace the $11.14 billion water bond scheduled to go before voters in November. That bond, delayed for years, was approved in a bipartisan vote in the Legizslature and signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ventura County voters go to the polls in a California general election. (Photo: Spirit of America) OPINION: I now believe the turnout this November will be closer to 45% than 50%. In the previous 8 governor primaries (1982-2010) the average turnout was 39.2% and in those eight General Elections the average turnout was 59.0%, thus, on average an increase of 19.8% from the Primary to the General.
A California voter casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5)OPINION: In some states, a narrow margin of victory triggers an automatic statewide recount at no cost to the candidate. California does not have such a provision, and I believe we need one.