How I Plan to Vote (CA 2020)

Photo by Kari Sullivan on Unsplash

Trump v. Biden

My opinion hasn’t changed much from what I wrote in 2016 and feel that much of what I wrote back then has been validated:

I wanted to vote for Trump, but I couldn’t

I don’t like either candidate. There aren’t many politicians, especially at a national level, that I feel confident about. Our political system today is driven by so much money and partisanship and that, I feel, corrupts and divides our political system in an exaggerated way.

With that said, I’m more for stability and progress over instability & protectionism, so my vote this year will be for Biden.

Ballot Propositions

I guess I’ll always preface this by saying that I don’t think this is a great way of passing laws. If we could limit ballot propositions to very simple binary type of questions, then I think it’s okay. But most of the time, it’s fairly nuanced legislation that can’t go through a deliberative process. It’s all or nothing. But still, it’s our duty as citizens to vote on these, cause they will become law if they pass!

Again, most of my research was done at:

California Ballot Propositions 2020, explained

TLDR (Summary)

1. NO on Prop 14: federal government should be funding this research, since it’s not banned anymore
2. YES on Prop 15: I’m all for rectifying wrongs of the old Prop 13; short term pain < long-term gain
3. YES on Prop 16: at least in the short to medium term, affirmative action is still the morally right thing to do
4. YES on Prop 17: all for getting people more involved in the voting process; they’re part of society, so we should let them act like it
5. YES on Prop 18: if someone can vote in the general election, they should have a say in who they’ll be voting for in the general
6. NO on Prop 19: keeping tax basis in a property artificially low is not good for our economy long-term
7. NO on Prop 20: already being the country with the highest incarceration rate; need to get it down, even if some specific measures seem okay
8. YES on Prop 21: makes existing rent control laws better
9. NO on Prop 22: “gig” worker companies have lost their chance to do right by their workers
10. NO on Prop 23: don’t think this should be something regulated through a ballot prop; should be negotiated by Medicare/Medical and labor unions
11. NO on Prop 24: too complicated and nuanced to be enacted through a ballot prop; should be done through normal legislative channels
12. YES on Prop 25: cash bail is broken and too punitive for potentially innocent people

Prop 14: Bonds to Fund Stem Cell Research

In general, I support more money for scientific research. I think that a government’s role should be to help finance basic research so that the country’s economy can be the benefactors of that research. And, this prop is basically giving another source of funding for some medical research. But, the CIRM was initially created in 2004 because President W. Bush banned federal funding of stem cell research in 2001.

The reason I’m saying No is because I feel like it should be the federal government funding basic research and when the federal government said no, CA stepped in, for which I would’ve been supportive. But now, the federal government can step in. The reason I support the federal government versus CA funding this type of research is because states have to balance their budget every year, whereas the federal government has the ability to borrow money

That’s my general reason for saying No to this, especially with COVID-19 destroying state budgets…but I hesitated. If CA funds the research, it would help to maintain a strong research presence here in the state, which would help our state’s economy in the long run.

If COVID-19 had not hit the state budget, there’s a slightly higher chance that I may have switched to Yes…just cause I’m selfish for my state’s success versus other states!

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 15: Increased Property Taxes for Businesses

Prop 13 of old has shown that it creates an anti-competitive atmosphere for businesses. Yes, it may be bad timing with the pandemic, but the law only goes into effect in July 2022 and businesses only get re-assessed once every 3 years (instead of only when it’s sold).

I think we need to reform it for the residential sector, too, and seems like this would be a good way to test the ramifications of this change. It was a necessary change and hopefully it’ll help reduce taxes in other areas and help fund our schools better!

Short term pain for a longer-term more competitive landscape. #FreeMarket

I plan to vote: YES

Prop 16: Restoring Affirmative Action

Coming from a personal lens as an Asian, I’d want to vote No on this, since this will likely hurt Asians. At the same time, I feel it’s a sacrifice we should make with how the large influx of Asian immigrants into the US was due to the Civil Rights movements of the past. Yes, many Asian immigrant stories talk about how they started with nothing, but at least they didn’t start with a negative balance.

I’m all for this, but I also think about how this only addresses the problem at the far end of the funnel and not where the funnel is widest…but that’s also a harder problem to solve: primary education and poverty in general :\. But, alas, it’s a step in the right direction.

I plan to vote: YES

Prop 17: Parolee Voting Rights

I’m all for getting more people involved in the voting process. The argument that holds water for me is that they are “not done serving their sentence”, but at the same time, I feel that’s too punitive. We need to ask ourselves, is our prison system just about punishing people or also about rehabilitating people, so that they can rejoin society as a contributing member? For me, this prop is saying that we want them to be contributing members, so I’m all for it.

I plan to vote: YES

Prop 18: Teen Primary Voting

Again, all for getting more people involved in the voting process. The earlier we can get our population in the habit, the better. And this just makes sense to me. If you can vote in the general, then you should have a say in who’s going to be on that ballot.

I plan to vote: YES

Prop 19: Portable Property Tax Break

My vote is the same as on Prop 5 from 2018. We need to reform the Prop 13 of old, so that instead of trying to incentive people to move by allowing them to keep their tax assessment (so Realtors can sell more houses), we incentivize them to move by keeping their taxes somewhat similar to market rate.

From a capitalistic perspective, we want land to be used in the most efficient way and if paying for market rate property taxes doesn’t make sense for those living at a particular property anymore, then the highest & best use would be for them to sell it and move somewhere that does make sense for them.

Again, with major reforms like this, though, I’d want it to be gradual…we can’t all of a sudden raise property taxes by 5–10 times in a single year…but it should start going up slowly and for property taxes to be tied to market conditions for new properties here on out. So yeah…no to encouraging more propagation of the Prop 13 of old!

Also, don’t like the political favor given to firefighting. Not because it’s firefighters, per se (which is the whole reason Realtors chose them, since they’re well liked), but because it’s a political favor. Our state budget should give them more money because they deserve it (which they do, especially with the needs of our state now and likely in the future).

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 20: Revoking Criminal Justice Reforms

Our country has been on the wrong side of the per capita number of incarcerated for a long time. There may be some merits to specific parts of this prop, but still don’t support this overall because we need to reduce our prison populations :\.

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 21: Rent Control

This prop isn’t introducing a new rent control law, but making changes to the existing law. With that said, I do feel like this prop improves the existing law in reasonable ways. It’s acknowledging the following:

• if this were supposed to applying to people managing multiple units, that can include single family homes
• if we’re trying to encourage just new development, a fixed date for when properties can not be rent controlled means that eventually, much older properties would fall under this exemption
• make it less profitable to try and remove tenants in rent-controlled units

The other thing that I in particular like about this prop is that it passes the decision down to localities. I’m all about different cities trying out different things. This prop changes their tool box a little.

I plan to vote: YES

Prop 22: Gig Workers to Employees

Honestly, if all the apps using gig workers had voluntarily given some of these benefits before AB5 was passed, then AB5 may not have been necessary. But that’s kind of the point; unless these companies are forced to do it, they’re not going to try to pay them fairly.

These companies were able to grow so quickly by offering us, the consumer, cheaper fares, particularly compared to taxis. It’s good that they provided competition, but they did it without considering labor. The point being that we weren’t getting cheaper fares just because venture capital was subsidizing it, but it was also coming off the backs of those who were relying on these “gigs” as their full-time or part-time employment.

A case could be made that there should be some kind of cut out for people who only want to work less than 10 hours a week, but for everyone else, they should be treated as an employee. And then hopefully we can show other states/countries what the proper way of treating these workers looks like.

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 23: Improve care at kidney dialysis centers for higher costs

I had a hard time with this one, too. Same as in 2018. I do think that employees at dialysis centers likely need better working conditions, but I don’t think this prop is particularly addressing those concerns. As some are saying, it does seem like this proposition is just a card to play in labor negotiations.

So, maybe if we want to help labor’s position, we vote Yes on this, but on the merits of it, I just don’t see the benefit in regulating this particular matter and don’t feel like the public should be involved in this. Let them figure it out and maybe Medicare/cal should get involved, to demand better working conditions and consequently care, for the money that they’re dishing out. It doesn’t need to be the voters weighing in on this kind of matter.

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 24: Consumer Data Privacy Rules

I’m voting No not because I don’t think some of the measures taken here wouldn’t improve consumer privacy, but because I think it should be the legislative body that deliberates and improves on such complicated legalese. I think the vast majority of ballot propositions that are 52 pages long, I will vote No on. It’s just that ballot propositions are not the right place for complicated legislation to be passed (the whole reason I was against the marijuana one last time). Voters shouldn’t be expected to properly understand it and make a good informed opinion on it…that’s what we vote our legislators in for!

I plan to vote: NO

Prop 25: Removing Cash Bail Option

There are some misgivings about an algorithm-based assessment system, but the cons of a cash bail system are too high to keep around. We’ve tried it and we’ve understood it to be too damaging to lower-income people. If our justice system really does stand by “innocent until proven guilty”, then we shouldn’t punish our people so much (financially) before they’re proven guilty.

I plan to vote: YES