Welcome to the Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- A comprehensive look at all ballot measures in California from 1910 to 2024
- Democrats hold majorities in Virginia state legislature
- The first On The Ballot episode of 2025 is here, and it’s about local elections
A comprehensive look at all ballot measures in California from 1910 to 2024
Ballotpedia’s Historical Ballot Measure Factbook will document nearly 200 years of direct democracy in the United States. This ongoing research effort will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers, reporters, and the public on how ballot measures have evolved, the issues they have covered, and their role in our civic life.
We introduced this project last summer when we featured Texas’ historical ballot measures and gave Brew readers a sneak peek at what to expect as we expand our Fact Book to all 50 states. Today, we’re traveling west and looking at historical ballot measures in California.
Ballotpedia’s comprehensive inventory of all California ballot measures spans from 1910, the year before the state adopted the initiative and referendum process, to 2024.
In that time, Californians decided on 1,306 ballot measures, approving 752 and defeating 554.
The chart below shows the total number of ballot measures that voters decided in each decade. An average of almost 116 ballot measures were decided in each decade between 1910 and 2020. The decade from 2010-2020 had the fewest ballot measures in California since the state adopted the initiative process.
Measures the Legislature put on the ballot had a higher success rate than citizen initiatives. Legislatively-referred measures were approved 69% of the time, compared to 36% for citizen initiatives.
Initiated statutes were indirect in California from 1911 to 1966, when voters approved Proposition 1A to make the process direct. Indirect initiatives go to the state legislature after signatures are verified, and legislators have a certain number of days to pass the law, depending on the state. If they don’t, the initiative goes on the ballot. Direct initiatives go to the ballot after signatures are verified.
The California Legislature can refer constitutional amendments, state statutes, and bond measures to the ballot. Constitutional amendments and bond measures require a two-thirds (66.67%) vote in each chamber during one legislative session. Bond issues also require the governor’s signature. Statutes referred to the ballot require a simple majority vote in each chamber during one legislative session. State statutes also require the governor’s signature.
Ballot measure topics in California
California ballot measures have addressed 91 different topics, with some addressing multiple topics in one measure. The top three topics were taxes, bond issues, and education. Other notable topics include direct democracy, housing, affirmative action, and criminal trials.
Here is a selection of important and interesting measures from the Factbook:
- In October 1911, California voters approved two amendments related to direct democracy. Proposition 7 created an initiative and referendum process in California. Since then, Californians have decided on 444 citizen initiatives. Voters passed a single-subject rule requiring initiatives to address a single subject in 1948. Proposition 8 in 1911 created the recall process. From 1913 to 2024, there have been 11 recall efforts of state officials that have qualified for the ballot; of these, six officials were recalled. California is one of 26 states that has a citizen initiative process.
- In 1950, voters approved Proposition 10, which required voter approval of a ballot measure to authorize publicly funded low-rent housing projects. The amendment passed 50.8% – 49.2%. In 1980 and 1993, voters rejected ballot measures to repeal or amend the requirement.
- In 1956, Californians defeated Proposition 7, which would have renamed the California State Assembly to the California House of Representatives. The vote was 61.2% No to 38.8% Yes. Eight states, including California, use names other than “House of Representatives” for their state house.
- In 1978, voters approved Proposition 13, which capped and limited property tax levels in the state. This measure received national attention and started what has been called the tax revolt. The vote was 64.8% Yes to 35.2% No. Learn more about Proposition 13 and its role in ballot measure history in our December special edition of On the Ballot, titled “Citizen Initiatives: The history of giving power to the people.”
- In 1986, voters defeated Proposition 64, which would have declared AIDS and HIV communicable diseases and required the State Department of Health Services to add AIDS to the list of diseases that must be reported. Voters defeated the initiative 71.1% – 28.92%.
- In 1994, Californians approved Proposition 184 71.9%-28.2%, creating a three-strikes sentencing model to increase prison sentences for repeat offenders. California requires changes to approved initiatives to receive voter approval. Initiatives to amend Proposition 184 were placed on the ballot in 2000, 2004, and 2012.
- In 1996, Californians passed Proposition 209, the first formal ban against discrimination based on racial preferences. In 2020, voters defeated Proposition 16, which would have repealed the ban against affirmative action.
Ballot measure margins of victory
Twenty-seven ballot measures were decided by margins of less than one percentage point. The measure with the closest margin was Proposition 74 in 1988. The measure would have issued $1 billion in bonds to improve state highways, streets and roads, and rail transit. Voters defeated Proposition 74 50.01% to 49.99% – a margin of 0.02 percentage points.
The measure with the widest margin of victory was Proposition 12 in 1972. That measure extended a tax exemption for certain disabled veterans and their surviving spouses. Voters approved the measure 89.73% to 10.27%, a margin of 79.46 percentage points. The measure with the largest margin of defeat was Proposition 101 in 1988. Proposition 101 would have reduced bodily injury and uninsured motorist insurance rates and capped claims for non-economic losses and lawyer contingency fees. Voters rejected it 86.73% to 13.27%, a margin of 73.46 percentage points.
Democrats hold majorities in Virginia state legislature
Virginia held three special elections on Tuesday, Jan. 7, for state Senate District 10, Senate District 32, and state House District 26. None of the seats changed party hands, allowing Democrats to maintain their 21-19 majority in the Senate and 51-49 majority in the House.
The elections received national media attention. The Associated Press’ Olivia Diaz wrote that the elections offered “one of the first gauges of voters’ moods since President-elect Donald Trump’s win in November left many Democrats reckoning with the party’s losses in federal elections.”
Incumbents Sens. John McGuire (R) and Suhas Subramanyam (D) resigned from their state Senate seats after they were elected to represent Virginia’s 5th and 10th Congressional Districts, respectively, on Nov. 5. In the House, Incumbent Rep. Kannan Srinivasan (D) resigned to run for Subramanyam’s Senate seat.
Following the resignations, Democrats had one-seat majorities in both chambers. According to the Washington Post’s Laura Vozzella, if Republicans had won one more seat in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) would have gained the power to break tie votes, while if they had won one more seat in the House, they could have forced a power-sharing agreement with Democrats.
Here are the results as of 11 a.m. ET on Jan. 8.
Senate District 10
Luther Cifers (R) defeated Jack Trammell (D) 58.8% to 41.2% in the special election for Senate District 10. In 2023, the last time the seat was up, McGuire ran unopposed and was elected with 91.2% of the vote. In 2019, the last time a Democrat won the seat, Ghazala Hashmi (D) defeated then-incumbent Glen Sturtevant (R) 54.1% to 45.8%.
Senate District 32
Kannan Srinivasan (D) defeated Tumay Harding (R) 61.3% to 38.7% in the special election for Senate District 32. In 2023, Subramanyam defeated Gregory Moulthrop (R) 60.5% to 39.0%. In 2019, then-incumbent Janet Howell (D) defeated Arthur Purves (R) 73.5% to 26.3%.
House District 26
Jas Singh (D) defeated Ram Venkatachalam (R) 61.6% to 38.4% in the special election for House District 26. In 2023, Srinivasan defeated Rafi Khaja (R). In 2021, the last time a Republican won the seat, then-incumbent Tony Wilt (R) defeated William Helsley (D) 59.3% to 40.6%.
Virginia is one of 12 states with a divided government and one of two states holding gubernatorial elections in 2025 – the other being New Jersey. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is term-limited. All 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates will also be up for election this year.
There were 52 special elections for state legislative seats in 2024 in 22 states. This was the fewest since 2014 when there were 40. Two of the 2024 special elections were for seats in Virginia.
The first On The Ballot episode of 2025 is here, and it’s about local elections
Ballotpedia’s On The Ballot podcast is back with our first episode of 2025, and it’s all about local elections!
There are more than 500,000 elected officials in the U.S., and less than 1% of them are at the federal level. Elections for school boards, city councils, and other local offices play a major role in our daily lives, affecting things like schools, roads, taxes, public safety, and more.
Information on these elections and candidates can be hard to find, leaving voters unsure at the ballot box. That’s why Ballotpedia is committed to learning more about local elections and sharing that knowledge with you.
Ballotpedia covered 76,902 elections in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories in 2024. In this week’s new podcast, host Geoff Pallay and Ballotpedia’s Doug Kronaizl will discuss that coverage and what to expect in 2025.
Subscribe to On the Ballot on YouTube or your preferred podcast app, or click the link below to listen.