Featured

Voters Deliver a Mixed Bag in Decisions on State’s Propositions

Published

5 years ago

November 5, 2020

Post Staff

Courtesy The Guardian

So far, they decline employee status for gig workers, stricter parole rules and restoring Affirmative Action.

Much was at stake for Californians in this year’s statewide initiatives – strengthening rent control, ending cash bail, providing labor rights for gig workers, ending the state’s ban on diversity and making billionaires pay increased property taxes

That’s why businesses spent so much to try to make sure the results would be favorable to their bottom line. At the top of this year’s spending is Proposition 22 on Tuesday’s ballot, funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others, a measure designed to override a new state law that requires these companies’ ride-hailing and delivery drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors.

In this race, spending on both sides reached new heights – a record total of $202 million.

While 2020’s results are not yet final, as of Wednesday afternoon, 72% of the estimated vote total (11.8 million votes) has been tallied, and results in many of the races are clear. Late-arriving mail ballots and provisional ballots will be counted in the days and weeks after the election.

Here is where the measures stand:

· Proposition 14 – Medical research bonds. Passing with 51.1% “yes” votes.

· Proposition 15 – Change Commercial Property Tax. Failing with 51.7 “no” votes. The proposition would tax properties based on current market value rather than purchase price and increases property taxes on commercial properties for funding to local governments and schools.

Though the measure is trailing, it could receive a boost from about 1 million uncounted ballots in heavily Democratic Los Angeles.

· Proposition 16 – End diversity ban. Failing with 56% “no” votes. The proposition would repeal a constitutional provision that made it unlawful for California’s state and local governments to discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to people based on race, ethnicity, national origin or sex.

· Proposition 17 – Restore former felon vote. Passing with 59.1% “yes” votes.

· Proposition 18 – Lower voting age to 17 for primary races. Failing with 55.1% “no” votes

· Proposition 19 – Change Property Tax Rules. Passing with 51.5% “yes” votes

· Proposition 20 – Stricter Parole, Sentencing. Failing with 62.4% “no” votes.

· Proposition 21 – Local Government Rent Control. Failing with 59.7% “no” votes. The proposition would allow local governments to establish rent control on residential properties over 15 years old.

· Proposition 22 – App-Based Drivers as Contractors, Not Employees. Passing with 58.4% “yes” votes.

· Proposition 23 – Dialysis Clinic Standards. Failing with 64% “no” votes.

· Proposition 24 – Expand Consumer Privacy, passing with 56.1% of the vote.

· Proposition 25 – Approve Replacing Cash Bail. Failing with 55.4% “no” votes.

Post Staff

Posts by Post Staff

Up Next

Jovanka Beckles Projected to Win AC Transit Board Seat

Don't Miss

Racial Diversity Law for California Corporation Boards

Post Staff

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke