Voters in Huntington Beach, California, will decide on three charter amendments on March 5, 2024, which the Huntington Beach City Council referred to the ballot on Oct. 5, 2023. Measure 1 would make various changes to the election procedures of Huntington Beach, including requiring voter identification for elections and requiring ballot drop boxes to be…
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on September 30 vetoed a bill that would increase labor protections for striking workers. The California State Assembly and Senate on September 11 and 14, 2023, respectively, passed SB 799, which would have allowed workers who were on strike for at least two weeks to receive unemployment insurance benefits of…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a bill Sept. 30 that proposed allowing workers to claim unemployment insurance benefits after striking for two weeks. Senate Bill 799 previously passed the state Senate 27-12 on Sept. 14 and passed the state House 59-18 on Sept. 11. California lawmakers advanced similar legislation in 2019, but the measure…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 1228 (AB 1228) on Sept. 28. AB 1228 is a legislative compromise reached with proponents of a veto referendum on a different bill (Assembly Bill 257) that qualified for the 2024 ballot. AB 1228 will repeal AB 257, which was passed during the 2022 legislative session. AB…
The California State Legislature passed a bill Sept. 14 that would allow workers to claim unemployment insurance benefits after striking for two weeks. The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) desk for his approval or veto. If Newsom signs the bill, it would take effect starting in January 2024. California lawmakers previously advanced…
The California State Legislature passed two constitutional amendments on Sept. 14, 2023, that would change voter approval thresholds for certain ballot measures. Both of the constitutional amendments will appear on the ballot in Nov. 2024. The first constitutional amendment, ACA 1, would lower the voter approval threshold from two-thirds (66.67%) to 55% for local special…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 421 (AB 421), which addresses the veto referendum process, on Sept. 8, 2023. AB 421 changes how veto referendums appear on the ballot, among other provisions. A veto referendum is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that asks voters whether to uphold or repeal an enacted law. For 2024,…
Protect Kids California filed three citizen-initiated ballot measures to enact laws related to gender in schools, sports, and healthcare. The first initiative would require schools to notify parents or guardians when a student requests to be treated as a gender identity that differs from the student’s listed sex in the student’s record. Notification would be…
The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 421 (AB 421), which addresses the veto referendum process, on Sept. 5, 2023. AB 421 would change how veto referendums appear on the ballot, among other provisions. A veto referendum is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that asks voters whether to uphold or repeal an enacted law. For 2024,…
The California State Assembly advanced a bill in late August that proposed allowing striking workers to claim unemployment insurance benefits after striking for two weeks. The deadline for introducing new legislation had passed, so legislators rewrote Senate Bill 799, which previously related to corrections and criminal rehabilitation, to propose expanding the state’s unemployment insurance availability.…