Californians are deeply dissatisfied with the length of the November voting period, which included 14 statewide proposals, and are pessimistic about the direction of the state and the nation, according to sources. Public Policy Institute of California The poll was released Tuesday night.
Mark Baldassare, PPIC’s statewide research director, said they have become “very pessimistic.” “It’s, you know, not just the questions we have about the economy, but the direction of the country and the nation in general. This just shows the level of negativity heading into the final stages before people vote this November.”
More than half of California’s likely voters believe California is heading in the wrong direction, and 73% expect the state’s economic situation to worsen next year. Less than a quarter of voters believe the country is heading in the right direction.
President Trump’s approval rating among likely voters is 27%, which is better than Congress’ approval rating of 16%. The majority has no confidence in either major party’s ability to solve problems.
Ballots will begin arriving in the mailboxes of 23.2 million voters in just over two weeks. Nearly 80% of likely voters are dissatisfied with the length of the voting period, which includes 14 issues in addition to statewide, legislative and local elections. This is a rare consensus among Democrats, Republicans, and independent voters.
“We have more proposals on the ballot this year than we’ve seen in the last 10 years,” Baldassare said. “An overwhelming majority of Californians say there are too many issues on the ballot that they cannot decide for themselves. And many Californians find the language of the ballot initiative very difficult to understand what will happen if the ballot measure passes.”
Proposition 40, a proposal to tax billionaires’ assets to offset federal health care spending cuts, has a narrow lead in polls, with 52% of likely voters saying they support a one-time 5% tax.
But there are two ballot measures, Propositions 41 and 42, and if either were approved and received more votes than Prop. 40, the wealth tax would be repealed. All of these proposals are supported by narrow majorities, creating a quandary for wealth tax supporters. They must ensure that their proposals win the support of a majority of voters, while also limiting support for competing initiatives.
The findings on the gubernatorial race and the proposal to require people to show a government-issued ID to vote show less competition along partisan lines than expected in a state where Democratic registered voters outnumber Republican voters nearly 2 to 1.
Voter ID measures are opposed by 55% of likely voters. In the race to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom, 60% of voters support Democrat Xavier Becerra and 38% support Republican Steve Hilton. The remaining 2% are either undecided about the race or have no plans to vote.
The poll, conducted Sept. 4-10 of 1,745 adult Californians, had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points in either direction, and a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points among 1,103 likely voters.