Voter Guide 2020

As always there are too many items on the ballot. And this year there’s more urgency than ever to vote early. So here are all of our voting recommendations, with brief descriptions, packed in to one post! You’ll notice we’ve taken some liberties with some of the proposition titles to help convey our stance on the issues. 

We also recommend the following excellent voter guides. We don’t always agree on every issue, but they are all thoroughly researched and well reasoned:

• LA Podcast Voter Guide

• KNOCK.LA Los Angeles Progressive Voter Guide

• Courage California Progressive Voter Guide

• LA Progressive Voter Guide

• ACLU Southern California 2020 Ballot Guide

• Westside Activists 2020 Voter Guide

Prop 14 - Stem Cell Research Bond - Yes

Stem cell research should ideally be funded by the federal government, but that’s not happening anytime soon thanks to the unending hypocrisy of Republicans (that experimental COVID treatment Trump received was derived from fetal stem cells). In the meantime, Californians should continue to fund this research with the potential to develop new life-saving treatments. 

Prop 15 - Restore Funding for Essential Public Services - YES

Prop 15 tries to bring some sanity back to California’s property tax system. Currently, property taxes are assessed based on the sale price at the time of purchase, rather than the current value. As a result, some commercial property owners pay taxes based on decades-old property values, raking in huge profits, while new owners of neighboring properties pay tax rates based on today’s inflated property values. Prop 15 addresses this disparity by assessing tax rates for all large commercial and industrial properties (over $3 million in value) at their current values rather than at their original sale price. This would bring tax assessments in line with the value and profit that owners get from commercial and industrial properties, while protecting small businesses from steep and sudden tax hikes. The funding created by this reassessment would provide a much-needed life line to local government services that are largely or exclusively funded by property taxes, especially our chronically underfunded school systems. While we firmly believe that the quality of essential public services like schools shouldn’t be based on the value of the surrounding property, Prop 15 is a step toward a more equitable property tax system.  Vote YES.

Prop 16 - Diversity Consideration - YES

You may have seen a recent tweet that has gone viral showing that the "Cops" urge Californians to vote No on Racial Equality. While the "Cops" behind that voter guide are unknown, their call to vote against racial equality is telling.  Prop 16 amends the state's constitution to repeal prop 209, the now infamous initiative voters passed in 1994 that ostensibly banned affirmative action. When affirmative action is mentioned, many folks think of racial quotas, however the two are not the same, in fact the US Supreme Court banned racial quotas, so passing prop 16 will not bring quotas back. What Prop 16 will do, is allow race and/or gender to be considered when conduction a holistic assessment of a job applicant for state jobs or student for admission to our state's public universities. If you have been paying attention to 2020, then you know that racial disparities continue to plague our society, and the #metoo movement shows us that gender-based discrimination continues to persist. While we want to live in a world where these laws aren't needed, we need these tools now to make that a reality.

Prop 17 - Restoring Voting Rights - YES

Prop 17 would restore voter rights for parolees who have served their time and paid their debt to society to vote. Most other US states already restore voting rights to parolees.  Vote YES on 17. 

Prop 18 - Primary Voting for 17-year-olds - YES

Prop 18 would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will be 18 by the time of the general election. If a voter will be eligible to vote in the general election, they should also be eligible to vote in the primary. It’s simple. Vote YES on 18. 

Prop 19 - Property Tax Fuckery - Nah

This is an attempted re-do of Prop 5 from 2018 (which I wrote about here), but with some key changes in an attempt to make it more it palatable. It has some good aspects (including scaling back some of the most egregious giveaways of the current property tax structure) and some bad aspects (tax breaks for an already relatively wealthy group), but at the end of the day it’s just a manipulation of the property tax system to try and boost real estate transactions. It’s about increasing the number of commissions for real estate agents, and unless you are a real estate agent it provides almost no discernible benefit to society. We need real reforms to our property tax system (see Prop 15), not giveaways to real estate agents. Vote NO on 19. 

Prop 20 - Put More People in Prison - NO!!!

This is a cold-hearted attempt to roll back some of the criminal justice reforms voters passed overwhelmingly with Prop 47 in 2014. California jails are criminally overcrowded (literally, the US Justice Department has had to intervene more than once). Rather than find ways to keep people out of prisons, Prop 20 would restrict access to parole and allow felony sentencing for nonviolent offenses currently treated as misdemeanors. This proposition will unnecessarily put more people in prison for longer sentences, only exacerbating the many problems with the state’s prison system. We need to keep people OUT of prisons, not make lame excuses to put more people in them. Vote NO on Prop 20.

Prop 21 - Local Rent Control - YES

Local governments should have control over how rents are regulated in their jurisdictions. They shouldn’t be subject to arbitrary limitations imposed by the state 25 years ago. This is similar to Prop 10 from 2018 (which I wrote about here), but with a few extra parameters on how cities can regulate rents. Vote YES on 21. 

Prop 22 - Forever Exploitation of App Drivers - NO!!!

This one has a long and complicated backstory that won’t fit here. Suffice to say, California lawmakers think that app-based services like Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Doordash, and Instacart should pay their drivers—who are the literal backbone of their operations—something more than starvation wages, and provide the requisite benefits they are entitled to as employees. The apps, on the other hand, would like to continue treating their frontline workers like serfs, and they want your approval to make that situation virtually permanent. (This proposition requires an obscene 7/8 majority vote in the legislature to amend it, which would be a horrifying provision even if this proposition did something good.) So while their six- and seven-figure salaried employees are working safely from the comfort of their homes, Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Doordash, and Instacart are spending $200 million (yes, $200 million, the most expensive proposition campaign in California history) to convince you to let them continue exploiting their most essential workers—the drivers. These drivers deserve much better than the lies and naked power grab from the app companies. Despite the techno-futurist dreams of the app companies, their services still depend on the labor of humans, and that labor deserves to be compensated humanely. Vote NO on Prop 22. 

Prop 23 - Dialysis Clinics - Yes

Yet another do-over from two years ago (see our discussion of 2018’s Prop 8, here), this time around Prop 23 would set higher standards for dialysis clinics across the state, including requiring a physician on site, prohibiting discrimination based on payment source, and requiring more robust reporting on infection rates at clinics. Although the details of the measure have changed, the bigger questions around this issue haven’t. As we said in 2018: “Opponents of the measure seem to make the argument that we must accept poor quality healthcare, or have no healthcare at all. We believe we should demand better health care.” Prop 23 is an effort at providing higher quality care.  Vote Yes.

Prop 24 - Gimmicky Consumer Privacy Law - No

This measure claims to advance online consumer privacy with additional protections, and the creation of a digital privacy agency. But it also includes some strange giveaways to big tech including, as the KNOCK.LA voter guide describes, it “allows companies to offer loyalty discounts in exchange for tracking permission (bad).” (KNOCK.LA’s guide ultimately supports the Proposition, albeit “as tepid a recommendation as we can give”.) Many other local progressive organizations are opposed to Prop 24 for this very reason. Consumer privacy and protection are important matters in our increasingly online world. California has already made great strides in this arena with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Let’s continue to push for further substantive privacy protections, rather than half measures with loopholes. We (tepidly) recommend a No vote on Prop 24.

Prop 25 - Money Bail - reluctantly, frustratingly, no

Getting rid of bail and the bail bond industry would be an unquestionable good for society. Bail is a racist system that has spawned an entire unnecessary system of predatory lending practices that should rightfully be banished from the world forever. But prop 25 represents both the failures of our legislature, and the worst aspects of our direct democracy process. A Yes vote on 25 would uphold a law passed by the legislature that eliminates the money bail system.  Unfortunately, in doing so, the legislature bowed to pressure from law enforcement interests and replaced it with a “risk assessment” algorithm that reinforces all of the worst racist outcomes of our criminal justice system, and leaves no recourse for those deemed “high risk”. Many criminal justice reform advocates view the risk assessment algorithm as even more dangerous than the bail system it’s intended to replace, resulting in an awkward alliance of justice advocates, law enforcement interests, the Republican Party, and the bail bonds industry in supporting a No vote on 25. Given that the California Supreme Court recently ruled that judges must consider a defendant’s ability to pay when setting bond amounts, ostensibly limiting the financial disparities posed by the bail system, and making the current status quo bail system “less bad” than this proposed risk assessment algorithm. As loathe as we are to recommend anything supported by California Republicans AND the bail bonds industry, we are reluctantly and frustratedly recommending a No vote, to prevent the potential long-term harms of a poorly executed algorithm, and in the hopes of a more just elimination of money bail in the future. The political fallout presents risks on both sides, but our hope is, in combination with a No vote on Prop 20, criminal justice reform advocates will be able to continue to push for a more equitable system. 

LA County Measure J - Reimagine Los Angeles - YES!!!

Events of this summer have made the need for reforming our criminal justice system difficult to ignore. If the idea of defunding the police seems too radical for you, you should recognize Measure J as a sensible step towards providing resources to our most vulnerable people, the unhoused and those dealing with mental illness. For too long, Los Angeles has criminalized poverty and homelessness, often responding with lethal force when humane, low-cost, and more effective interventions could have been used. Measure J commits the county to provide 10% of its general fund budget (though this can be reduced during fiscal emergencies) toward community investment and incarceration alternatives which would actually address the challenges of homelessness and poverty. Vote YES on Measure J.