This is a friendly reminder to vote. California allows you to track your ballot, so you can know exactly where it is and when it is counted.

On the ballot this year are 14 propositions. Propositions are legislative or citizen-initiated constitutional amendments or other proposals to change the law in California. I was lucky enough to be part of a class that spent the semester writing objective analyses of every proposition, which you can find here. We also presented every proposition during a public forum. The video for that is linked below. (I do not know why it is age restricted.)

My group wrote on Proposition 3 and Proposition 5. Proposition 3 will make permanent the state's existing 10.3%, 11.3%, and 12.3% tax rates on income over $371,000 for single filers and $743,000 for joint filers.

Proposition 5 is very interesting, and is right up my alley of constitutional law. It changes the recall process in California. Currently, when a state officer is subject to a recall election, the recall ballot contains two parts. The first part asks whether the official should be recalled, and the second part contains a list of replacement candidates. If the officer is recalled, the candidate that received the most votes in the second part replaces the incumbent.

If Proposition 5 passes, the second part of the ballot will be removed. Instead, voters who vote on an officer's recall will only be asked whether the official should be recalled. If the official is recalled, the office is filled through the same procedures that are used when a vacancy ordinarily occurs through resignation or incapacitation. This includes having the Lieutenant Governor replace a Governor if the latter is recalled until the voters can vote on an actual replacement during the next special or general election.

Proponents of Proposition 5 urge that change in the recall process is desperately needed, because as the process currently stands, the replacement candidate can win without getting a majority of the votes, which would not be the case if Proposition 5 passes, or if that candidate ran at a regular election. Opponents argue that bifurcating the process robs the people of the full recall power, and will essentially nullify any recall of the Governor because often, the Lt. Governor has the same policies as the Governor.

You can find the propositions at-a-glance here. Those are brief one-pagers containing the changes that will take place and brief arguments by the proponents and opponents. You can read the full 268-page PDF containing in-depth analysis of each proposition here.