OAKLAND RISING VOTER GUIDE

Jump down to Oakland Ballot Measures

Jump down to California Ballot Measures 

KNOW YOUR VOTING RIGHTS

Register To Vote

Check your registration and register to vote now at vote.org. You can also register to vote in person on the day of the election (November 5) at your polling location.

 Early Voting

All registered voters will automatically get their ballots by mail. You can vote as early as October 7 by putting your completed and sealed ballot in the mail or in a ballot drop box. To find a drop box location in Alameda County, go here. 

You can also drop off your ballot at any polling place on Election Day or at an early voting site. 

If using a ballot drop box, please make sure that it is an official Alameda County drop box and that you drop off your ballot by 8pm on Tuesday, November 5.

If you are mailing in your ballot, make sure it is postmarked by November 5 (check your local USPS collection box or post office for collection times). track the status here.

 Ranked Choice Voting

When voting in Oakland races, you may rank your top five choices for mayor, city council, city attorney, city auditor, and school board directors using ranked-choice voting (RCV). RCV allows you to choose the candidates who most align with your values, and allows us to elect someone who got the overall support of the majority of voters – all while avoiding expensive primary elections. With RCV, you may vote for up to five candidates in order of your preference. HOWEVER, you do not need to fill out all five choices. If you feel adamantly against particular candidates, we recommend leaving them out of your ranking even if this means leaving some of your choices BLANK.

  If you have a past or current conviction, you can still register to vote if:

• You were incarcerated at a state or federal prison and finished serving your term
• You are currently on parole or probation
• You are currently serving time in a county jail

Vote by 8pm on November 8th.

OAKLAND BALLOT MEASURES

YES on Measure MM, Fund Wildfire Prevention:

With the increasing risk of wildfires, the Oakland hills continue to be in serious danger. The most efficient way to combat wildfires is through a prevention plan that includes tree and vegetation management, inspection of high-risk sites, and coordination among agencies and community partners. Measure MM will fund these efforts with a parcel tax ONLY on the directly impacted zone in the hills. There is an exemption in the tax for low-income households.

YES on Measure NN, Fund Violence Prevention:

Measure NN is essential to addressing the safety challenges we are experiencing in Oakland. Measure NN renews an existing measure that funds violence reduction services & community policing.  This measure funds quicker 911 response times, critical intervention programs like Ceasefire to reduce gun violence, and proven community-based programs to keep youth off the streets including job training, high school graduation assistance, and mental health services. This is the third reauthorization of a parking and parcel tax to fund violence prevention services in the city of Oakland. It would also establish a new oversight commission to oversee violence reduction plans for Oakland and ensure funds are used effectively.

YES on Measure OO, Strengthen Public Ethics Oversight:

Measure OO will strengthen the city’s anti-corruption laws in important ways by establishing new rules: limiting gifts from lobbyists, addressing commissioner conflicts of interest, and ensuring capacity to implement voter-approved programs like Democracy Dollars. The Oakland Public Ethics Commission is the city’s watchdog on government ethics and accountability. Measure OO will update the governance of the commission to incorporate best practices known to be effective in other nearby cities. We know good governance requires good oversight. Vote Yes on OO to support more transparency and effective oversight.

CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURES

YES ON PROPOSITION 2: Fund our Schools and Community Colleges

Proposition 2 is a $10 billion bond measure to fund repairs and facilities upgrades for public K-12 buildings and community colleges within the state. It aims to replenish the funds needed to continue ongoing building updates in public education buildings, many of which have stalled since funds from the last bond measure in 2016 ran out. This measure will distribute funds across two buckets of public education – $8.5 billion for K-12 institutions, and $1.5 billion for community colleges. The proposition dictates a model for fund distribution that would require local districts to raise 35-40% of the project costs through a local bond or other financing before requesting a match from the state. The exact match requirement depends on a formula that includes factors such as the socioeconomic status of students, the wealth of the district, the size of the district, and other considerations.

YES ON PROPOSITION 3: Protect the Freedom to Marry in the California Constitution

In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that defined the only valid and recognized marriages in the state as those between a man and a woman, with 52% of the vote. Although Proposition 8 remains in the state constitution, it was overturned by the state Supreme Court in a decision that went into effect in 2013 and was further overruled by the federal Supreme Court in 2015 when same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Proposition 3 would formally repeal Proposition 8, remove the constitutional language indicating that marriage is between a man and a woman, and affirm the fundamental right to marry.

YES ON PROPOSITION 4: Fund Environmental Justice

In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration committed to spend $54 billion on climate protections, some of which were cut to balance the state’s budget. Proposition 4, the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act, would allow the state to borrow $10 billion to be urgently allocated across a variety of climate projects and reimbursed by taxpayers through a bond. The bill outlines allocations for these funds that include $3.8 billion for safe drinking and groundwater projects, $1.5 billion for wildfire protections, $1.2 billion for coastal infrastructure efforts, $1.2 billion to protect biodiversity, and $450 million for extreme heat mitigation. With a focus on water, wildfire, and the coast, this funding is designed to create present-day solutions that will stop or reverse existing climate challenges and mitigate the need for more expensive projects in the future.

YES ON PROPOSITION 5: Make it Easier to Fund Housing and Infrastructure Projects

At the local level, the California Constitution currently requires that general obligation bonds and special taxes for both affordable housing and public infrastructure projects earn a two-thirds supermajority vote, or 67%, to pass. Proposition 5 seeks to reduce that vote threshold to 55% of the popular vote to provide local governments with a better opportunity to move forward on these local service and development projects using public funds. The bill also establishes accountability standards to require annual, independent audits of the use of funds, and create citizen oversight committees to evaluate spending.

YES ON PROPOSITION 6: Ban Slavery in California

California’s state constitution outlaws slavery but maintains language that allows for involuntary servitude to be used as punishment for a crime. Proposition 6 would repeal that language, and replace it with language that clearly outlaws the use of involuntary servitude under any circumstances, and allows the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to instead issue credits to incarcerated people for the acceptance of voluntary work assignments during their incarceration. This bill was strongly supported by the Legislative Black Caucus, which included it as part of a larger package designed to move the state forward on reparations.

YES ON PROPOSITION 32: Raise the State Minimum Wage to $18/Hour 

In 2016, the California state legislature passed SB 3 to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023 and mandated adjustments for inflation tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). SB 3 also established unique timelines for businesses to provide wage increases based on the number of people employed. Proposition 32 would follow a similar format to continue to increase the statewide minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2026, with a required CPI-based increase after $18/hour has been reached. The proposition also includes a provision that allows the Governor to delay the increases up to two times in response to an unexpected economic downturn.

YES ON PROPOSITION 33: Expands Local Governments’ Authority to Enact Rent Control on Residential Property

In 1995, the state legislature passed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prohibited rent control in single-family homes, condominium units, and newly built rental properties. In cities that already had rent control in place at the time of Costa-Hawkins, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley, the definition of ‘new’ was back-dated to those earlier ordinances. Proposition 33 would repeal Costa-Hawkins, allow municipalities to reestablish rent limits on any housing in their jurisdiction, and prohibit the state from limiting any later establishment or expansion of rent control. Similar ballot initiatives, Proposition 10 in 2018 and Proposition 21 in 2020, each failed by a margin of nearly 20 points.

NEUTRAL on Proposition 34: Make it Harder to Pass Rent Control 

Proposition 34 is a real estate industry effort targeting the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to keep the organization from funding future ballot initiatives.

The initiative seeks to create a new category of state entities called “prescription drug price manipulators”, and to place tight restrictions on the requirements those organizations must meet to maintain their tax-exempt status. The initiative defines prescription drug price manipulators as any entity that is an active participant in the federal 340B drug price discount program, is licensed to act as a healthcare provider in the state, contracts with Medi-Cal as a provider, has contributed over $100 million over the last 10 years to initiatives unrelated to direct patient care, and has owned multi-family properties that have received a minimum of 500 government violations. If passed, Proposition 34 would require organizations designated as prescription drug price manipulators to both spend a minimum of 98% of their revenues from the federal prescription drug program on direct patient care activities, and abstain from any conduct that could be viewed as in opposition to public health and safety. In addition, Proposition 34 would codify the Medi-Cal Rx program, which was established in 2019 via an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In recent years, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which meets all of the criteria for a “prescription drug price manipulator”, has provided extensive funding and advocacy support to ballot initiatives intended to support low-income housing development. Proposition 34, supported by a variety of actors with real estate interests, would curtail this organization’s capacity to distribute its funds in support of affordable housing initiatives.

NEUTRAL on Proposition 35: Protect Access to Free and Affordable Healthcare

In 2023, the state legislature passed AB 119 to re-impose a tax on managed care organizations (MCO) in the state that had been dormant since 2012. MCOs provide health insurance coverage to their enrollees at a fixed monthly cost, and the tax is based on the number of monthly enrollees that a given MCO has. Commercial plans pay a lower rate ($1.75/member) than Medi-Cal health plans ($274/member). The renewed tax is in effect through December 2026. Proposition 35 would make the tax permanent and place a ceiling on the amount of tax commercial health plans would be required to pay ($2.75/member). Proposition 35 would also redirect billions of dollars that support the Medi-Cal program and the state general fund to specified provider rate increases, and effectively reduce Medi-Cal investments by $1 billion to $2 billion a year, including in the current 2024/2025 budget.

In the 2024/2025 state budget signed by Governor Newsom, important health groups and services – including emergency department physician services, abortion care and family planning, ground emergency medical transportation, community health workers, private duty nurses, and adult and pediatric day health centers – receive investments and Medi-Cal rate increases. Children who qualify for Medi-Cal but are at risk of automatic disenrollment (80% annually) because of administrative or procedural issues are also supported for continued coverage in the state budget. If Prop 35 passes, these groups will not receive any of the MCO tax funds, which will go to rate increases in other areas.

NO on Proposition 36: Roll Back Progressive Criminal Justice Reform 

In 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47 with over 59% of the vote to reclassify some non-violent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, including low-value shoplifting, grand theft, forgery, fraud, and the personal use of illegal drugs. This change effectively reduced the state’s prison burden and allowed the government to divert funds previously used for incarceration to rehabilitation and re-entry programs. Proposition 36 would make changes to Proposition 47 by increasing the sentence for possession of certain quantities of illegal drugs, adding fentanyl to the list of illegal drugs that can warrant a felony charge, and making low-value property theft a felony for repeat offenders.