California 2016 ballot propositions
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In 2016, eighteen statewide ballot propositions were placed on the ballot in California. One appeared on the June 7, 2016, ballot and was approved. The other 17 propositions were on the November 8, 2016, ballot. Of the 17 propositions, 12 were approved and five were defeated.
Proposition 50 was on the June 7, 2016, ballot and was approved.
Between 1996 and 2016, the average number of propositions that California voters decided each even-numbered year was 18. In previous even-numbered election years, however, the measures were spread out more across different election days throughout the year since citizen initiatives were allowed on primary and special election ballots prior to 2014.
Issues that California electors addressed on the November 8, 2016, ballot included:
Many marijuana legalization initiatives were proposed and circulated in 2016. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act Initiative, now called Proposition 64, emerged early as a clear leader and was the only marijuana-related measure to be certified for the November 2016 ballot.[1][2]
One additional measure, the California $15 per hour Minimum Wage Initiative, was certified for the November ballot but then was withdrawn by proponents on June 23, 2016, after the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 3, a bill raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022.
On the ballot[edit]
June 7:
| Type | Title | Subject | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LRCA | Proposition 50 | Legislature | Require a two-thirds majority to suspend a state legislator |  |
November 8:
| Type | Title | Subject | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CISS | Proposition 51 | Education | $9 billion in bonds for education and schools | |
| CICA/SS | Proposition 52 | Healthcare | Voter approval of changes to the hospital fee program | |
| CICA | Proposition 53 | Elections/Bonds | Projects that cost more than $2 billion |  |
| CICA/SS | Proposition 54 | Accountability | Conditions under which legislative bills can be passed | |
| CICA | Proposition 55 | Taxes | Extension of personal income tax on incomes over $250,000 | |
| CICA | Proposition 56 | Tobacco | Increase the cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack | |
| CICA/SS | Proposition 57 | Trials | Felons convicted of non-violent crimes and juvenile trials | |
| LRSS | Proposition 58 | Education | Bilingual education in public schools | |
| AQ | Proposition 59 | Campaign finance | State's position on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission | |
| CISS | Proposition 60 | Movies | Require the use of condoms in pornographic films | |
| CISS | Proposition 61 | Healthcare | Prescription drug price regulations | |
| CISS | Proposition 62 | Death penalty | Repeal the death penalty | |
| CISS | Proposition 63 | Firearms | Background checks for ammunition purchases | |
| CISS | Proposition 64 | Marijuana | Legalization of marijuana and hemp | |
| CISS | Proposition 65 | Environment | Grocery and retail carry-out bags | |
| CISS | Proposition 66 | Death penalty | Death penalty procedures | |
| VR | Proposition 67 | Business reg | Prohibition on plastic single-use carryout bags | |
Withdrawn[edit]
The campaigns behind the following ballot initiatives collected enough signatures for their measures to appear on the ballot. However, the initiatives were withdrawn.
| Type | Title | Subject | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CISS | $15 Minimum Wage Initiative | Minimum Wage | Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour | 
|
Summary of campaign spending[edit]
As of February 1, 2017, support and opposition campaigns amassed $497,026,060.19 in contributions. The Los Angeles Times estimated that, between funding signature gathering efforts and campaigning, more than $452 million would be spent directly on ballot measures in California in 2016.[3]
The campaigns surrounding Proposition 61, an initiative designed to regulate drug prices, had more funding that those surrounding any other ballot proposition. Together, the Proposition 61 campaigns received $128,276,770.21. Opponents outraised supporters six-to-one.
A combined total of $106,506,110.21 was raised in support of or opposition to Proposition 56, an initiative increasing the tobacco tax.
Campaigns involved in Proposition 52 received the third largest amount of funding, at a combined total of $71,845,772.99.
The following chart illustrates how much support and opposition committees amassed in campaign contributions for each measure:
- Note: In some cases committees are registered to support or oppose multiple propositions. Ballotpedia lists the total sum committees registered to support or oppose each propositions has received in contributions. This means that the sum of all contributions in the chart below is likely higher than the total amount contributed. For example, the same committee is registered to both support Proposition 66 and oppose Proposition 62, causing some donations to that committee to be duplicated in the chart below. However, the sum contributed discussed in the above text has removed these funds, which amounted to $45,819,887.69. In other words, these donations are not duplicated in the text above.
| Ballot Measure: | Support contributions: | Opposition contributions: | Outcome: |
|---|---|---|---|
| California Proposition 58, Non-English Languages Allowed in Public Education (2016) | $4,950,945.34 | $0.00 |
|
| California Proposition 61, Drug Price Standards (2016) | $19,170,609.60 | $109,106,160.61 |
|
| California Proposition 63, Background Checks for Ammunition Purchases and Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazine Ban (2016) | $4,559,534.08 | $1,060,033.71 |
|
| California Proposition 64, Marijuana Legalization (2016) | $25,066,820.98 | $2,077,438.80 |
|
| California Proposition 56, Tobacco Tax Increase (2016) | $35,527,764.76 | $70,978,345.45 |
|
| California Proposition 60, Condoms in Pornographic Films (2016) | $5,047,809.19 | $556,169.22 |
|
| California Proposition 59, Overturn of Citizens United Act Advisory Question (2016) | $491,600.48 | $0.00 |
|
| California Proposition 52, Continued Hospital Fee Revenue Dedicated to Medi-Cal Unless Voters Approve Changes (2016) | $60,282,906.94 | $11,562,866.05 |
|
| California Proposition 50, Legislator Suspension Amendment (June 2016) | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
Cost per required signature[edit]
Over $44 million was spent by ballot measure campaigns to get the 15 initiatives and referenda on the 2016 ballot. This amount is much more than was spent in the last decade, likely due in part to the number of measures on the ballot. In 2014, $6 million was spent. In 2012, $28 million was expended.
The cost per required signature (CPRS) is a comparison of the amount of money spent on the petition drive to the number of signatures the state requires for an initiative to make the ballot. Of the 2016 measures, the CPRS was the highest for Proposition 54, with proponents spending $11.31 per required signature. Proposition 52 had the lowest CPRS in California at $2.72 per required signature. The average CPRS of all initiatives and referenda on the ballot was $6.20.
| Ballot measure | Subject | Signature collection company | Cost | Signatures required | CPRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proposition 51 | Education | National Petition Management, Inc. | $1,252,534.01 | 365,880 | $3.42 |
| Proposition 52 | Healthcare | Arno Political Consultants and The Monaco Group | $2,192,811.85 | 807,615 | $2.72 |
| Proposition 53 | Gov't Finance | National Petition Management, Inc. | $2,669,093.95 | 585,407 | $4.56 |
| Proposition 54 | Gov't Acc | National Petition Management, Inc. | $6,622,935.93 | 585,407 | $11.31 |
| Proposition 55 | Taxes | Kimball Petition Management, Inc. and Million Voter Project Action Fund | $4,236,577.66 | 585,407 | $7.24 |
| Proposition 56 | Tobacco | Boven Consulting, Kimball Petition Management, Inc., Bridge Street, Inc. and Million Voter Project Action Fund | $4,524,176.13 | 585,407 | $7.73 |
| Proposition 57 | Trials | Kimball Petition Management, Inc. and Groundwork Campaigns, Inc. | $4,818,267.20 | 585,407 | $8.23 |
| Proposition 60 | Movies | PCI Consultants, Inc. and The Monaco Group | $1,409,273.68 | 365,880 | $3.85 |
| Proposition 61 | Healthcare | PCI Consultants, Inc. | $1,355,765.65 | 365,880 | $3.36 |
| Proposition 62 | Death Penalty | PCI Consultants, Inc. | $3,192,775.30 | 365,880 | $8.73 |
| Proposition 63 | Firearms | PCI Consultants, Inc. | $2,228,384.05 | 365,880 | $6.09 |
| Proposition 64 | Marijuana | Kimball Petition Management, Inc. | $2,093,616.10 | 365,880 | $5.72 |
| Proposition 65 | Environment | National Petition Management, Inc. | $2,137,992.45 | 365,880 | $5.84 |
| Proposition 66 | Death Penalty | National Petition Management, Inc. and The Monaco Group | $3,065,943.08 | 365,880 | $8.38 |
| Proposition 67 | Business | National Petition Management, Inc. | $2,911,945.89 | 504,760 | $5.77 |
| TOTAL: | $44,712,092.93 |
Newspaper endorsements[edit]
- See also: 2016 ballot measure media endorsements
The tables below record the endorsements of ballot propositions on the November 8, 2016, ballot by major California newspapers.
Historical facts[edit]
- See also: History of Initiative and Referendum in California and List of California ballot propositions
- Before 1960, citizen-initiated measures appeared only on general election ballots; from 1960 through 2011, California ballot measures appeared on primary, general, and special election ballots and were voted on in both even and odd-numbered years.
- In 2011, the California legislature approved a law requiring all citizen initiatives to go before voters at general elections in Novembers of even-numbered years.
- Between 1996 and 2016, Californians voted on 213 measures. Two measures that were originally approved in 2008 and 2012 were eventually overturned.
- The average number of measures on the ballot in even-numbered years between 1996 and 2016 was 18.
- From 1996 to 2016, the average number of measures on the ballot in odd-numbered years was about six. The last ballot measure before 2016 to appear during an odd-numbered year was on the ballot in 2009.
- Of the 215 measures voted on from 1996 through 2016, 54.9 percent were approved and 45.1 percent were defeated.
How measures get on the ballot[edit]
Citizen initiatives and veto referendums[edit]
California also allows measures to be placed on the ballot through citizen-led signature petitions, through which initiated constitutional amendments, initiated state statutes, and veto referendums can be put on the ballot.
To qualify an initiative for the election ballot in November 2016, petitioners needed to submit signatures early enough to allow for verification before a deadline on July 8, 2016. The California secretary of state recommended submitting signatures by the end of April 2016 to ensure signature validation was completed before this deadline.
Supporters of citizen initiatives are given a maximum of 180 days to circulate petitions and collect signatures, starting from when the California attorney general completes a review of their initiative wording, provides them a ballot title and allows for a 30-day citizen review and input period. Regardless of when the circulation period starts, however, the initiative measure must qualify at least 131 days before the next statewide election at which it is to be submitted to the voters, according to Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution.[4]
In California, the number of signatures needed to qualify a measure for the ballot is based on the total number of votes cast for the office of governor. For initiated constitutional amendments, petitioners must collect signatures equal to 8 percent of the most recent gubernatorial vote. To place a statute or veto referendum on the ballot, signatures equal to 5 percent of this vote are required. In 2016, this meant that initiated constitutional amendments needed 585,407 signatures and statutes and veto referendums needed 365,880 signatures.
Low voter turnout in 2014 resulted in the lowest initiative signature requirements the state has seen since 1982. With the lower signature requirements came a jump in the number of citizen initiatives filed with the state and an increase in the number that reached the ballot as compared to the average over the last eight years. Fourteen of the 17 measures on the ballot in November 2016 were citizen initiatives. Voters decided three initiatives in 2014, 12 in 2012, and 11 in 2010. There were 15 citizens initiatives on the ballot in 2008, which was the last year before 2016 that this number was higher than 14.
Legislative referrals[edit]
The California Legislature was projected to be in session from January 4, 2016, through August 31, 2016. In California, the legislature has the power to refer both constitutional amendments and state statutes, including bond issues, to the ballot. Legislatively-referred measures must be approved by two-thirds of the membership of each house of the legislature to make it on the ballot, where they then must be approved by the majority of voters to go into effect. The deadline for putting measures on the November 2016 ballot was on June 30, 2016, which means any legislative referrals approved after that date would go on the ballot in 2018.
The November 2016 ballot in California was finalized for 2016 regarding ballot measures in July 2016. No more new ballot measures could be added to the ballot. To see information about measures for the 2018 ballot, click here.
Not on the ballot[edit]
Initiatives[edit]
Over 100 initiatives were filed with the California attorney general in time to potentially qualify to be on the ballot in 2016. Fourteen of them were certified for the ballot and appeared before voters on November 8, 2016.
The chart below lists measures that had the potential to be certified for the 2016 ballot but were not put on the ballot in 2016. The list is comprehensive regarding citizen initiatives, but it only lists a selection of proposed legislative referrals. Note that initiative sponsors sometimes file multiple versions of what is essentially the same ballot initiative with the Attorney General of California. Each version is given its own summary date and circulation date. This means that while the circulation deadline may come and go on one version of the initiative without signatures being filed, the initiative itself may still be alive, if its sponsors are pinning their hopes on a later version of the initiative with a deadline further in the future.
The 
sign indicates that the measure did not qualify for the 2016 ballot, but it may qualify for the 2018 ballot. The symbol indicates that the initiatives specific signatures deadline has passed and that the initiative petition has expired and can no longer qualify for a future election ballot.
Below is some general information about the citizen initiative process in California.
Cost of processing[edit]
It costs the Attorney General of California about $5,000 per filed initiative to implement the required process of issuing a ballot title and summary. The fee to file an initiative was increased to $2,000 in early September 2015—a tenfold increase from the original price of $200 that was in place since 1943.[5]
Submitted to Attorney General[edit]
When an initiative proponent has prepared the text of a ballot initiative they hope to qualify for the ballot, they must submit this text to the "Initiative Coordinator" at the Office of the Attorney General of California with an accompanying letter requesting that the attorney general's office prepare a ballot title and summary of the proposal.
Once the attorney general's office has prepared that title and summary, they send a copy of it to the initiative's sponsor and to the California secretary of state's office. Each initiative is given a "summary date." This date is determined by the attorney general's office and is the date that they provide the summary to the sponsor. Each initiative then has a circulation deadline that is 180 days after its summary date, while proposed veto referendums have a circulation deadline that is 90 days after the legislation targeted by the referendum was signed by the Governor of California.
Cleared for circulation[edit]
Once the Office of the Attorney General of California has prepared a ballot title and a summary of a proposed initiative, the initiative is considered to be "cleared for circulation." Its supporters then have 180 days from the date that the title and summary were prepared to collect and submit to election officials the required signatures. Many times, initiative sponsors submit more than one version of a proposed initiative to the attorney general's office. When this happens, a circulation deadline for an earlier version may elapse with no signatures having been submitted, but the general idea of that initiative is still in play because its sponsors have instead set their sights on circulating a version filed later on that has, or will have, a later circulation deadline.
The signature deadlines for the approved-for-circulation initiatives are based on when the Attorney General of California provided a ballot title and summary for the proposal. Although each initiative has it's own signature deadline, to qualify for the November 2016 election ballot, specifically, the California secretary of state recommended submitting signatures by late April 2016. If a sufficient signature petition is submitted before an individual initiative deadline but too late to qualify for the 2016 ballot, the initiative would be put on the 2018 ballot.
State profile[edit]
| Demographic data for California | ||
|---|---|---|
| California | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 38,993,940 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 155,779 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 61.8% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 5.9% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 13.7% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 4.5% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 38.4% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 81.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 31.4% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $61,818 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 18.2% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in California. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern[edit]
- See also: Presidential voting trends in California
California voted for the Democratic candidate in all six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.
More California coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in California
- United States congressional delegations from California
- Public policy in California
- Endorsers in California
- California fact checks
- More...
Recent news[edit]
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms California 2016 ballot propositions. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
External links[edit]
Basic information[edit]
Other resources[edit]
See also[edit]
- 2016 ballot measures
- List of California ballot propositions
- Laws governing ballot measures in California
- Campaign finance requirements for California ballot measures
Additional reading[edit]
- Capitol Weekly, "2016 ballot a fight over everything," June 22, 2015
- Los Angeles Daily News, "Expect a ballot initiative carnival in 2016: Thomas Elias," February 16, 2015
- The Sacramento Bee, "Jerry Brown has nearly $24 million for future ballot campaigns," January 29, 2015
- Fox & Hounds, "Top 10 Measures Likely to Appear on November 2016 California Ballot," December 15, 2014
- San Francisco Chronicle, "2016 election poised for initiative avalanche," December 11, 2014
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ San Francisco Chronicle, "Leading California marijuana measure gets NORML seal of approval," February 23, 2016
- ↑ Cal Coast News, "Leading California marijuana measure emerges," February 23, 2016
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "That blockbuster California ballot will be a $452-million battle," February 16, 2016
- ↑ LegiScan, "Senate Bill 1253 text," accessed September 29, 2014
- ↑ The Sacramento Bee, "Jerry Brown signs bill raising California’s ballot initiative fee," September 1, 2015
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