Welcome to the Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Five ballot initiatives filed in California to regulate artificial intelligence and its developers
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signs bill requiring absentee ballots to be received by Election Day
- Wrapping up “12 Days of Ballotpedia” and wishing you happy holidays
Thank you for reading the Brew! We're so grateful to you, our readers, for welcoming us into your inbox. We'll be back on Dec. 31 for our end-of-year wrap-up. Have a wonderful rest of your 2025 and holiday season. See you in 2026!
Five ballot initiatives filed in California to regulate artificial intelligence and its developers
In 2026, California voters could become the first in the nation to decide on ballot initiatives regulating artificial intelligence (AI). Five initiatives to regulate AI and its developers have been filed with the attorney general and are awaiting titles before signature gathering can begin.
Jim Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense Media, filed the first initiative on Oct. 22. It would:
- Prohibit minors from using certain AI-powered chatbots,
- Prohibit student smartphone use during the school day (Currently, 28 states ban or limit cellphones in classrooms.),
- Establish statutory damages for actual harm that AI chatbots or social media use causes, and
- Prohibit the selling or sharing of data from minors without their consent if they are between 13 and 18 years old or without a parent or guardian's consent if they are younger than 13
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, filed a competing initiative to Steyer’s on Dec. 5. It would require AI companion chatbots to disclose to users under 18 that the chatbot is AI. It would also require developers to have a protocol to prevent AI chatbots from promoting suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, and require developers to annually report to the Office of Suicide Prevention on systems put in place to detect, remove, and respond to suicidal ideation.
Each measure says that if it is approved with a greater number of votes than the other AI safety measures, then the other measures are null and void.
California requires voter approval of legislative changes to ballot initiatives unless the initiative waives the requirement. If enacted, changes to Steyer’s initiative would require a majority vote in the Legislature, the governor’s signature, and voter approval. Changes to the OpenAI initiative would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and the governor’s signature.
Poornima Ramarao, the mother of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee who died in November 2024, and the Coalition for AI Nonprofit Integrity (CANI) filed a third initiative. It would create the Charitable Research Oversight Board as an independent board within the state's Department of Justice tasked with overseeing charitable research organizations that meet certain criteria. The board would be authorized to reverse an organization's conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit organization, including organizations that have done so on or after Jan. 1, 2024. The initiative would also establish charitable encumbrance, meaning all assets that a charitable research organization holds, develops, or transfers must be used in a manner consistent with the charitable purposes for which the asset was originally intended.
Ramarao told Politico that the initiative was in response to OpenAI’s recent corporate restructuring. In October 2025, OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit, announced that it had restructured its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation. The company said that the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation would continue to control the for-profit arm.
Alexander Oldham, a resident of East Bay, filed two other initiatives on Dec. 1 that would establish an AI Safety Commission and a Public Benefit AI Accountability Commission. The first would be an independent body with the power to license AI companies, evaluate companies’ protection plans, process or deny capability expansion, impose civil penalties, conduct audits, and adopt implementing regulations. The second commission would be within the state's Department of Justice.
The initiative would also:
- Require each AI company to create and maintain a protection plan with the objectives of ensuring that displaced workers and the public benefit from AI,
- Establish means for human monitoring of AI behavior and the ability to shut it down, and
- Distribute governance so that no single person can have unilateral authority over AI systems.
The initiative would require AI companies to file public benefit plans that the commission approves. They would also have to describe how they will fulfill their commitment to serve humanity or the public interest.
All five AI initiatives are statutes that require 546,651 signatures (5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election). The deadline for signature verification is June 25, 2026. However, the secretary of state recommends a signature deadline of Jan. 12, 2026, for initiatives requiring a full check of signatures, and April 17 for initiatives requiring a random sample of signatures to be verified.
Click here to read more about California’s 2026 ballot measures.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signs bill requiring absentee ballots to be received by Election Day
On Dec. 19, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed SB 293, which requires absentee ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day, except for military or overseas ballots. This change makes Ohio the 35th state to require ballots to be received by Election Day.
Previously in Ohio, absentee ballots were counted if they arrived within four days after the election. Not including Ohio, 14 states count absentee/mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day if they arrive within a set period of time after the election. Twenty-nine states allow at least some absentee/mail-in ballots from military or overseas voters to be counted if they arrive after Election Day.
The issue of when absentee/mail-in ballots must be received in order to be counted has been an area of debate in recent years.
Besides Ohio, three states have passed legislation this year requiring absentee/mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day: Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah. North Dakota and Utah both have Republican trifectas. In Kansas, the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Watson v. Republican National Committee, a case challenging the legality of a Mississippi law permitting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received within five business days after the election.
In March, President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order instructing the attorney general to take action to prevent states from counting absentee/mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. The order has since been challenged in court.
In the wake of Trump’s executive order, officials at the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) warning of a potential federal lawsuit if the state did not change its ballot receipt deadline, according to reporting from Ohio Public Media’s Karen Kasler.
The legislation passed the Ohio House of Representatives on Nov. 19 on a 61-30 vote, with 61 Republicans voting in favor and 28 Democrats and two Republicans voting in opposition. The Ohio Senate passed the bill 23-10 on the same day, with 23 Republicans voting in favor and nine Democrats and one Republican voting against.
SB 293 also made other changes to Ohio’s election laws. To read more about the bill, click here.
SB 293 is the third election-related bill enacted in Ohio this year.
Click here to learn more about absentee voting.
Wrapping up “12 Days of Ballotpedia” and wishing you the happiest of holidays
Season’s greetings! As we approach the end of the year, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to you, our readers, for your support.
Millions of voters will turn to Ballotpedia in 2026 to help inform their political decisions. Not just at the federal and state levels, but at the local level, where there are more than 500,000 elected officials.
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