What to know ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections

Voters are already heading to the polls for Tuesday’s midterm election, and turnout is expected to be high this year.

Ballots can be dropped into ballot boxes around Los Angeles County or filled out in person at vote centers, including the Registrar-Recorder’s Office, which will be open Monday between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Vote centers across the county opened on Saturday.

Voting by mail

Voting by mail is also an option; however, ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days to be processed, verified and counted.

“Officials recommended mailing in a ballot at least seven days before Election Day, so it might be a little too late for that now,” Myers said.

See your voting options here.

Voter registration

The voter registration deadline has already passed; however, registration as a conditional voter is still an option through the state’s same-day voter registration process.

Those ballots will be processed and counted once the County Elections Office has completed the voter registration verification process.

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is expected to be high in Tuesday’s midterm election, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Californians have already cast about 1 million early votes in this year’s midterm election compared with this point in 2022, according to the Bee.

The outlet predicts voter turnout could hit 61%, compared with 50% in 2022.

Voting locations

You can find your voting location on the California Secretary of State’s website.

Voters are also deciding on more than a dozen statewide propositions.

Major propositions

Campaigns around Proposition 40, which imposes a proposed 5% tax on the state’s wealthiest residents, have garnered the majority of attention and spending this year.

“It would be a one-time tax on the net worth of billionaires,” Cal State Fullerton Political Science Professor Sarah Hill said.

If passed, most of the revenue would go to fund health care, with 10% directed to education and food aid.

Supporters argue the tax would help Californians keep their health care.

Opponents say the measure will backfire, causing billionaires to leave the state and decreasing tax revenue in the long run.

Two other ballot measures are a direct challenge to Proposition 40.

“If 41 or 42 passes, it pretty much would stop Prop 40,” Hill said.

Proposition 41 requires audits for new state special taxes, and Proposition 42 prohibits new state personal property taxes and certain retroactive state taxes, including retirement holdings and other forms of personal savings.

Both are backed by opponents of Proposition 40.

Another major measure is Proposition 39, which prohibits citizens from voting unless they present a government-issued identification card when voting in person and the last four digits of a government ID number if voting by mail.

Supporters say ID requirements at voting sites will strengthen voters’ trust in California’s election process.

Opponents argue requiring ID will make it harder for eligible voters who don’t have a driver’s license or other supporting documents to vote.

Other propositions

• Prop. 1: Authorizes bonds for housing affordability programs.
• Prop. 2: Increases the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
• Prop. 3: Provides permanent funding for schools and health care by extending an existing tax on high incomes.
• Prop. 4: Repeals the prohibition against public funding of election campaigns.
• Prop. 5: Changes the recall election process for statewide officers.
• Prop. 37: Creates a loan program for middle-income buyers of qualified new homes.
• Prop. 38: Authorizes bonds for immunology medical research.
• Prop. 43: Limits voters’ ability to raise revenue for local government services.
• Prop. 44: Requires community health clinics to spend 90% of revenue on program services.
• Prop. 45: Modifies environmental review requirements for certain projects.

More information on propositions can be found here.

The races for Los Angeles mayor and California governor are also among the highest-profile contests on the ballot.

Race for Los Angeles mayor

Incumbent Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman are making last-minute campaign pushes in the race for mayor of Los Angeles.

“We can actually fight for a more affordable Los Angeles,” Raman told supporters. “We can fight for a Los Angeles that protects renters, that builds the kind of housing that working families need.”

Bass, meanwhile, spoke to reporters and cast her ballot in Koreatown with her family.

“In the next four years, Los Angeles [is] becoming much more affordable, because we will have finished the 47,000 units that are in the pipeline,” Bass said Sunday.

The mayoral race was in a dead heat between Bass and Raman in a recent UC Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll.

Race for California governor

Democrat Xavier Becerra has a commanding double-digit lead over Republican Steve Hilton in the race to become California’s 41st governor, according to a California Politics/Emerson College poll released Wednesday.

Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said Hilton faces a difficult path to victory, particularly given Becerra’s support among independent voters.

“California independents break for Becerra by 10 points, 46% to 36%, a group Hilton would need more support among to compete in the general election,” Kimball said.

The winner will succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited and widely viewed as a contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, although he has yet to formally declare his intentions.