This year’s election cycle brought 10 propositions to California voters. Some will either usher in statewide changes or no changes at all.
Some residents were shocked by the rejection of Proposition 6, which would have ended forced labor in prisons. Others are celebrating the passage of Proposition 3, which codified the right to same-sex marriage in the state’s constitution. Proposition 32, which aimed to raise the minimum wage, failed by a slim margin. As of Wednesday afternoon it’s been called with about 96% of the votes statewide counted.
Here’s what people in Santa Clara County have to say about the major propositions that passed or failed.
Proposition 3
Proposition 3 enshrined the right to same-sex marriage in the state constitution. Its passage repealed Proposition 8, a measure passed by voters in 2008 that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. Proposition 3 got 62.6% of the vote statewide. In Santa Clara County, nearly 70% voted yes.
“We’re very happy. This was a huge win for us, because it was a sweeping win,” Gabrielle Antolovich, board president of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center, told San José Spotlight. “A lot of our people didn’t even realize that the California Constitution still defined marriage as a man and a woman.”
While the U.S. Supreme Court allowed California to resume same-sex marriages in 2013 and legalized it across all states in 2015, the language was never changed in the state constitution.
“It’s always good to have good state constitutional policies, because you never know what’s going to happen nationally,”Antolovich said. “It’s also a sweeping wake-up call that maybe we need to be more involved in local and state politics.”
Proposition 5
Proposition 5 failed, with 55.2% voting no. Housing advocates had banked on it passing because it would’ve lowered the voting threshold for future affordable housing bond measures from 66.7% to 55%. In Santa Clara County, only 46.2% voted for it.
“(Proposition 5) really was an effort to create safe and sustainable neighborhoods throughout the state of California and allow local people to determine what their cities needed,” SV@Home Executive Director Regina Williams told San José Spotlight. “I think we’re going to see something like that come back, because we as Californians can’t allow for minority groups to prevent the majority of us from being able to improve our neighborhoods.”
Earlier this year, a regional housing measure which would’ve infused $20 billion in affordable housing funds across nine Bay Area counties was pulled from the ballot.
Proposition 6
The anti-slavery measure, Proposition 6, would have ended forced labor in prisons and jails and repealed a part of the state constitution allowing involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment. It failed, with 53.4% voting no. In the county, 49.1% voted for it.
Nearly 40,000 incarcerated people are employed by the state for essential work, ranging from fighting wildfires to making hand sanitizer, cooking, construction and cleaning for as little as 74 cents an hour. Proposition 6 would have allowed them to choose what they do and made work voluntary. It would’ve also allowed cities or counties to determine their pay scale in local jails.
“It’s just so morally reprehensible. This is supposed to be a progressive state,” local economist and community leader Chuck Cantrell told San José Spotlight. “Incarceration is an industrial complex. A lot of private prisons get free labor from people who may or may not be guilty, who should have an opportunity to better themselves and not just be tokens of slavery.”
Proposition 32
Proposition 32 would’ve raised the state minimum wage immediately from $16 an hour to $17, and $18 an hour starting in January. Businesses with fewer than 25 people would’ve paid employees a minimum of $17 an hour next year and raised it to $18 in 2026. This proposition failed to pass with 50.8% voting no — one of the slimmest margins of all the propositions. In the county, 57.8% voted to increase the minimum wage.
Most cities in Santa Clara County pay higher than the mandated $16 an hour, except for Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Los Altos Hills and Monte Sereno. Mountain View has the highest rate at $18.75 an hour, followed by Sunnyvale at $18.55. San Jose’s minimum wage is $17.55 an hour.
“People in our community more than anywhere understand how expensive it is to live in the state of California,” Los Gatos Councilmember Rob Moore told San José Spotlight. “Anyone that’s working a minimum wage job is likely working a second minimum wage job.”
Without the state mandating minimum wage increases, it’s up to municipalities to pass wage increases.
Proposition 33
Proposition 33 would have allowed local governments to expand rent control by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a state law prohibiting rent control on housing built after Feb. 1, 1995. The housing act also allows landlords to increase rent when a new family moves in.
The proposition did not pass, with 60.2% voting against it. In the county, 59.8% voted no.
“This defeat is bad news for California, including San Jose, because unaffordable rents are the main cause of homelessness,” Sandy Perry, South Bay Community Land Trust board vice president, told San José Spotlight. “So all the time we are spending millions of dollars trying to house the people living outdoors, new people are getting pushed out of housing and into the streets by high rents.”
Data shows nearly half of Santa Clara County residents are rent burdened, spending more than one-third of their income on housing. Three cities in the county — San Jose, Los Gatos and Mountain View — have rent control policies, with limitations. San Jose caps rent increases at 5%, but only covers homes built and occupied before 1979, which is approximately 38,000 apartments. Los Gatos caps it to 5% or 70% of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher, and Mountain View caps it to 100% of the CPI. Duplexes are exempt from rent control in all three cities.
Once a tenant moves out, however, landlords can raise rent to market rates regardless of whether the home is rent stabilized. From 2012 to 2017, Santa Clara County lost about half of its unsubsidized affordable homes as people moved out of rent-stabilized apartments, according to a report by Enterprise Community Partners.
“Until we find a way to rein in unaffordable rents, homelessness will only keep increasing,” Perry said.
Proposition 36
Out of all the propositions, Proposition 36 gained the most support from Californians. It will reclassify possessing certain illegal drugs and thefts under $950 as felonies instead of misdemeanors if the person had two previous convictions, thereby increasing prison sentences. In some cases, people arrested for drug crimes will be required to complete treatment. Nearly 68.5% voted yes. In the county, nearly 69.5% voted for the proposition.
Proposition 36 undid policies in Proposition 47, passed a decade ago to reduce overcrowding in prisons by reclassifying some drug and theft crimes as misdemeanors. Retail theft has spiked 28% across the state since 2019, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
“Passing Prop. 36 was a major step toward common-sense reform, but getting it across the finish line was the easy part,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a vocal supporter of the proposition, told San José Spotlight. “Now, it’s up to all of us to ensure the voters’ will is carried out effectively to stop retail theft, help break cycles of addiction and reduce homelessness.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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