SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The 2024 general election is Nov. 5 and Californians will influence the results of not just the presidential race, but also the U.S. Senate down to local candidates. California voters will also get a chance to vote on 10 statewide propositions that would enact new laws.
It's a lot to vote on and ABC10 wants to make sure you have all the information you need to vote! It's why our team of journalists is working hard to make sure we answer election-related questions coming our way.
This is part of ABC10's voter engagement project we launched in August to meet people face-to-face, distribute our own nonpartisan information and resources like our comprehensive voter guide, and collect election-related questions. We'll continue to be at more places until November, focusing on reaching areas with low voter turnout and neighborhoods with large communities of color. All the information we collect will help shape our election coverage leading to Election Day.
This page will continue to be updated as we receive more questions from our community events and readers who fill out our online survey. Want to ask us something? Let us know at the form at the bottom of this article and remember to check back to see if your question was answered!
Q: "How can I protect my ballot from being stolen?" (Anonymous from Natomas)
A: Stealing ballots isn't a common occurrence. If you're the thief, you'd have to hit a lot of mailboxes to influence an election and each one you hit is a federal crime. Regardless, if you're concerned about the security of your mailbox, you can click HERE to sign up for text and email alerts to let you know when the county mails your ballot to you and when it's accepted after you send it back to be counted. This way, you'll have an idea when to expect your ballot in the mail. If something happens to your mailbox, you'll also be able to see whether you should have gotten your ballot in the mail by now or not.
Q: "I am a registered Independent. Will there be coverage related to other candidates that don't have the funding the major parties have?"(Will S. from South Sacramento)
A: In California, this question really only applies to the Presidential race. For all the other races, only the top two vote-getters appear on the November ballot. With only a handful of exceptions, almost all the candidates for Congress and the state legislature are Democrats or Republicans. The race for President is different because it involves party nominations. We have six names on the ballot:
- Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democrats
- Former President Donald Trump for the Republicans
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out and endorsed Trump
- Jill Stein, a repeat candidates for the Green Party
- Chase Oliver for the Libertarian Party
- Claudia de la Cruz for the Peace and Freedom Party
All of them have candidate statements you can read online. Minor party candidates often get no support in the polls. If they do, it's usually 1-2%. Traditionally, third-party candidates don't get invited to the debates unless they have 15% in the polls.
It's our job to cover the politics we actually have because that's what decides who'll run the government. If a third party starts winning big races, they'll start earning more news coverage. We're always watching for that!
Q: "Just who actually does the counting?" (James B.)
A: Machines do the heavy counting work. It all happens in a secure room not connected to the Internet. In the counting room, there's no way to tell who the ballots belong to. Your name and signature go on the envelope, which gets checked before the ballot ever gets to the counting room. The ballots work by bubbling in your votes, just like the Scantron tests we all loved in school!
If the machine finds any kind of irregularity, whether you skipped voting on some races, erased a bubble and filled in another, or drew a checkmark instead of filling in the bubble, humans get involved. A pair of election judges, or trained county election workers, will look together at the issue flagged by the scanning machine. The two judges can't belong to the same political party, so it's always either one Democrat and one Republican or one independent voter and one Republican or Democrat. They'll follow the law to determine what the voter intended, mark a new ballot with that vote and send it to the scanning machine. The scanner loads all the votes into the counting computer and results sit in the computer memory as raw data until the last polls close on election night. Only then does the election office tell the computer to add up all the results.
Polls close at 8 p.m. on election night and usually we start getting results 15-30 minutes later!
Q: "Who funds the campaigns for ballot propositions?"(Ariel from South Natomas)
A: The California Fair Political Practices Commission maintains a website listing the top 10 contributors for and against all of the propositions. Click HERE to access it. Some of these propositions have backers paying millions and millions of dollars on big ad campaigns. If you see the ads, you can also look at the fine print because the ads are required to list their major funders under California law.
Want answers to other frequently asked questions? Check out our ABC10 voter guide, designed to make information from the official voter guide easier to understand.
Q: "Prop 33 - I hear about one-sided stuff if it gets (passed), Rent control - is it going to hurt affordable housing?" (Christian from Sacramento); "Prop 33 - Clarify what it does. I'm confused" (Beth from Stockton)
A: Prop 33 is a rent control question that doesn't actually have any new rent control in it. All Prop 33 would do is allow local city and county governments to pass more kinds of rent controls than they are allowed to pass now. We don't know how many cities and counties are going to pass new rent controls if they're allowed to or how strict they would be.
Right now, cities and counties have restrictions. They can't put rent control on single family standalone homes, apartments built after 1995, or the price of rent for people signing new releases — only renewals. Those restrictions would go away, but what happens next is up to all the city councilmembers and county supervisors across California.
Both sides will tell you their way is better for affordable housing. That's because rent control can help make housing more affordable by keeping rents down, but it can also have side effects that push rent up. If a city passes really strict rent controls, some landlords will choose to sell, taking homes off the rental market. That means less supply. When you have less supply and high demand, prices go up. So no matter which side you hear making big claims about what will happen if Prop 33 passes, take it with a grain of salt.
Q: "I want to know about all the new propositions" (Colleen R. from North Highlands)
A: We have ten statewide propositions this year. Some of the issues you'll be voting on are rent control, crime, same-sex marriage, and billions in government spending. They can be daunting because you're being asked to vote yes or no on new laws and some of them can be complicated. We made short videos explaining exactly what a yes or no vote would mean on each one. You can find all of them on our voter guide HERE.
Q: "How does my vote help if the electoral votes are what matters? Are electoral votes only for president?" (Bianca S. from Oakdale)
A: Yes, electoral votes are only for the presidential race. The electors will meet in all the states on Dec. 17 to cast the actual votes for president in the electoral college. Your vote matters because the popular vote in California decides who gets our 54 electoral votes.
The political assumption is Kamala Harris is going to win California because we're a blue state, but it only happens if more people cast ballots for her than Donald Trump in the November election. Given the political makeup of our state, it might not feel like your vote counts, but by law, it does. Your votes decide who gets California's electoral votes.
Q: "You can win the majority vote but still lose. How is that fair?" (Mark from Folsom)
A: This actually happened back in 2016. Donald Trump got 304 electoral votes, well above the 270 it takes to win the White House. He won even though Hillary Clinton beat him by 3 million votes nationwide. Clinton won California by more than 4 million votes. But it doesn't matter if you win the state by one vote or by millions. All you can win are the electoral votes we actually have.
As the most populated state, California has 52 seats in the House of Representatives and we get an electoral vote for each one. We get another two electoral votes for our two seats in the Senate. Compare that to Wyoming, the least populated state with only one seat in the House. As a state, they get the same two votes we do for their two U.S. Senate seats. The structure of the Senate gives more political power to the cows of Wyoming than the people of California, and that's what our election process is based on. The electoral college is skewed against California more than any other state!
The only thing fair about it is both sides have to play the same game and they both know how many electoral votes each state has. They both know it takes 270 to win.
Q: "What if I live overseas and want to vote for the first time?" (Mateo)
A: If you or a loved one is overseas and hasn't voted that way before, you have to complete a new registration and select the option to register as a military and overseas voter. You can ask for your ballot by mail, which might be too slow depending on where you are, or you can get it by email or fax. Election Day is Nov. 5. You have a seven day grace period to get your completed ballot to your county election office — Nov. 12. Faxing your vote to the county does require filling out more paperwork.
You can find all the info you need HERE. Even though there's a few additional steps you have to take, you should still be able to make your vote count.
Q: Where do I vote? Where can I go cast my vote? (Nicole and Stellina)
A: You can vote anywhere you want, because California is an all-mail ballot state! Elections aren't a one-day thing anymore: you have almost a month to cast your ballot. Counties started mailing ballots on October 7th, so if you were registered, you should have gotten it by now. If you want to vote in-person, you can still do that. Counties will start opening in-person vote centers on October 26th. If you still need to register, didn't get your ballot, or want to look up an in-person polling place, you can find all that information and helpful links HERE.
The cutoff to register to vote online is October 21st. After that, you'll have to go in person to your county election office or to one of the vote centers when they open for business.
Q: Will you cover Measure E in the city of Sacramento? (Jeff R. from Elk Grove)
A: Measure E, the city's only measure this year, was put on on your ballot by the city council. It's a big deal for the city's library branches. The Sacramento Public Library has 12 of its 28 branches located in Sacramento city limits. About a third of the money for those branches is at stake with Measure E.ABC10 checked with the Sacramento Public Library system. If Measure E fails, they say the city's library branches would have to cut hours down to four days a week, possibly even less.
Two decades ago, City of Sacramento voters repeatedly approved new parcel taxes, a special property tax, for libraries. These taxes raised a combined $9.5 million a year. However, the taxes had "sunsets," or expiration dates, coming up in 2026 and 2027. Measure E would remove those expiration dates and the parcel taxes for libraries would become permanent, merging into one line item on your property tax bill.
The tax is $54.50 on each house in Sacramento city limits. That amount is lower for apartments, condos and mobile homes and higher for businesses. It's a continuation of the taxes Sacramentans have been paying for years now. The library tax would continue to adjust for inflation up to 3% each year, just like it already does. A YES vote approves continuing the city of Sacramento's parcel tax for libraries indefinitely, avoiding cuts to library hours and services. a NO vote allows the library taxes to expire, saving the typical homeowner about $54 a year and forcing libraries to make cuts.
Q: Will raising the minimum wage continue to drive restaurant prices even higher? (Sharon S. from Arden-Arcade)
A: This question pertains to Proposition 32. We have a whole video explaining Prop 32 and its plan to increase California's minimum wage to $18/hour instead of its forecast $16.50 next year! You can watch that HERE.
If it passes, it could lead to a bigger check for your next meal, but it's not for certain. When labor costs go up, business owners have options to deal with it. Raising prices is one of them if it doesn't scare customers away. Businesses can also keep prices the same and absorb the cost, reducing profits. Others might opt for having fewer employees.
However, when it comes to fast food, Prop 32 shouldn't make that cost more. California recently already enacted a new special minimum wage of $20/hour for most fast food workers. That won't change whether Prop 32 passes or fails.
Q: Proposition(s) 2, 4 and 5 all authorize a bond… which means borrowing money that has to be paid back. Does this mean our property taxes go up within the year or at a later date? (Sharon from Sacramento)
A: All three of these props are about bond money but in different ways. Props 2 and 4 would each have the state borrow $10 billion in bonds to pay for schools upgrades and climate adaption projects, respectively. Those bonds would have to be paid back, a few hundred million dollars per year. Props 2 and 4 have no new taxes. They actually come with no plan at all to cover those payments. If the budget is running a surplus, no problem. If not, the legislature can balance the budget with new cuts or new taxes, but new taxes require a two-thirds supermajority vote to pass. So no, the bonds in Props 2 and 4 won't automatically push up taxes if they pass, but they would make the budget tighter.
In regards to property taxes, in California, property taxes don't pay for the state government. They pay for local governments and the public school system. That brings us to Prop 5, which actually wouldn't authorize any new bond borrowing on its own. All Prop 5 would do is make it easier for local governments to pass bonds. Right now, if your local fire district wants to take out bonds to build new fire stations, they needs two-thirds of the voters to vote YES. If Prop 5 passes, they would only need 55% of voters. That change would take effect immediately with this year's election. If it passes, more local bonds would pass, and those payments would get tacked onto your property tax bill. How much and when? That information is going to be with the local ballot measure in the voter guide you got from your city or county in the mail.
Q: My question is about Prop 2- Where are the funds really being borrowed from, or is there some type of fund the money goes into for the purposes of this prop? If it is a fund, is it really (dedicated) just for the purposes of this prop or can the funds be (used) for other things? (M from Live Oak)
A: Prop 2 is a $10 billion borrow and spend package for fixing up school buildings and community colleges. Bonds work almost exactly like taking out a home mortgage. The money comes from investors. Investors buy the bonds, giving the state government $10 billion to spend right now.
The investors get paid their money back, plus interest, over the next 35 years. If Prop 2 passes, the state would borrow $10 billion and it goes into two new funds. $1.5 billion is for fixing up community colleges. $8.5 billion is for public schools. If you read the actual law you're voting on, these are the "2024 California Community College Capital Outlay Bond Fund" and the "2024 State School Facilities Fund."
The letter of the proposed law in Prop 2 does dedicate the money to specific types of projects, but we don't know which projects yet. That would be decided in the future through a competitive grant process if Prop 2 passes. Just one tiny caveat about the money being dedicated: Prop 2 is a state statute, not a constitutional amendment. That means legislature technically has the power to change the terms of Prop 2 down the line. However, they don't tend to do that because it turns voters off.
Q: I would like to know how... channel 10 is being forced to show that vile, disgusting, horrifying TV commercial... What law can make any TV station do that? If I was a political candidates, could I show anything I wanted in a TV commercial? How about... porn? (Jeff)
A: This question involves a political ad that's shocked people across the country with graphic images. A lesser-known presidential candidate ran an attack ad against Kamala Harris that shows gory pictures of human fetuses to make arguments about abortion. The ad aired here on ABC10 multiple times in recent weeks, during ABC Network programming.
The FCC makes legally binding rules for the public airwaves that TV and radio stations broadcast on. Broadcasters are legally prohibited by the FCC from censoring candidate ads. If a PAC wanted to run an ad with the same gory images, it could be rejected. But if the ad comes from a candidate, stations and networks can't censor it. In fact, broadcasters are required to sell ads to federal candidates — and at discount rates, too. The ABC Network, which does not own ABC10, did the one thing it could: it put disclaimers before and after the ad to warn viewers of the disturbing images and explain that the ad has to be allowed to run.
So what if a candidate tried to run an ad with sexually graphic images? We called up the FCC and media law experts say it's uncharted legal territory. Broadcasters probably can reject a candidate ad that has porn in it. That's because the FCC has other rules against what it defines as "obscene" or "indecent" content. Those rules cover images and curse words to do with sex and related body parts.
However, the ad you're asking about has to air. He's showing the graphic images to make a political argument. He has a First Amendment right to this speech. And because he's a candidate, the FCC gives him the right to do it on TV if he buys the ad time. Come Nov. 6, this won't be a thing for a while. The rules requiring broadcasters to sell TV ads to candidates only apply in the 60 days before an election.
Q: How will Proposition 33 hurt or help the mom & pop landlords? (Anonymous from Oak Park)
A: This year, Californians will vote on whether to expand rent control laws in Prop 33. If Prop 33 passes, mom and pop landlords would lose some legal protection. Right now, California state law bans cities and counties from imposing rent control on: single family standalone homes, apartments built after 1995 and the rates for new renters moving in. Prop 33 would simply remove those restrictions, allowing local governments to experiment with these rent controls that are illegal in California today.
But Prop 33 itself doesn't actually impose any new rent controls. It just makes them possible at the local level. You can get more details on what your YES or NO votes mean on this — and all 10 ten statewide props — in our series of explainer videos. In the meantime, when you hear either side making big predictions about what the consequences of Prop 33 would be, good or bad, for landlords or for renters, take it with a grain of salt. If Prop 33 passes, no one can say for sure what new rent controls would become law, when or where! It will play out differently in cities and towns all up and down the state.
Q: Does the candidate have to pay a fee to have their information added to the voter pamphlet and ballot? (Patty from Escalon)
A: In California, the state and county governments do charge candidates a fee to have their statements printed in the official voter guide. The fees help cover the cost of printing and mailing the guides to millions of voters. The cost varies wildly depending on the race up for election and where in California it is.
For a lot of candidates, it's a few hundred dollars to get their statement into the guide. But they go up from there. Candidates in a couple congressional races have to pay almost $30,000 to have a few paragraphs printed in San Bernardino county's voter guide, according to the Secretary of State. Some candidates do choose not to pay it. That keeps them out of the blurbs in the guide, but not the ballot.
The rules for getting on the ballot are different depending on what office you run for. For most big races, you have the option to pay a filing fee that's around $1,000-$4,000, or you can turn in a few thousand voter signatures on a petition instead of paying the filing fee.
Q: I made only one mistake on my ballot. Can I correct it before mailing in or do I have to fill out a new one? (Eugenia from Orange County)
A: If you mess up and make a correction, spill coffee on the ballot, or the machine sees anything unusual, the scanning machine is going to flag your ballot for review. Then, a two-person team of election judges is going to manually look at the issue. The two people aren't allowed to be registered with the same political party. They're going to follow a series of rules to decide what the voter intended. They can't call you and ask because at this point in the process, there's no way to figure out who the ballots belong to.
If they see you crossed out a bubble for Candidate A and then bubbled in a vote for Candidate B, they have to look and agree that you wanted to vote for Candidate B. Then they fill out a brand new ballot for the vote the machine rejected, and your vote will count that way.
If that sounds too iffy for you, or if you want to save your county election staff some trouble, just go to one of your county's in-person vote centers or the registrar of voter's office. You can hand in your old ballot for a fresh new one. Just make sure you get there before 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5!
Q: Why am I being asked to approve bonds for schools at both levels of government? State and local? (Grant from Rancho Cordova)
A: The most basic answer is: that's how it works in California. The state generally splits the cost of school construction with local districts. The local district raises money by asking local voters to approve bonds in measures like S and O. Then it applies to the state for matching grant money, which often comes from voter approved bonds like Prop 2. The local bonds get repaid by your landlord as property taxes over the next few decades. The state bonds get paid back from the state budget instead. That's the budget you pay for with your state taxes, mainly income tax and sales tax.
It's a way to raise big piles of money to do expensive things, like fixing and building schools. The bonds pay interest over time to the investors who buy them. In exchange, bonds spread the cost over time for the taxpayers. And by splitting it between the state and local levels, California also spreads the cost of paying for school construction to different sources of tax money.
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