I’ve spent 100 hours researching California’s State Propositions

So you could gain that knowledge in 1.

Jimmy Chion
4 min readOct 3, 2016

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Four years ago, I was overwhelmed. I had just proudly voted for President Obama, and now I was just staring at the rest of the ballot. “WTF does state comptroller do?” I didn’t know know any of the other candidates and the local ballot measures were described in brief paragraphs that left me thinking, “Sounds great. Why not?” But after I read the official arguments and rebuttals, I felt very deceived. Me felt dumb.

This November, I don’t want to feel dumb, and I don’t want you to either. So for the all-important California State propositions, I’ve read all available articles and opinions on the props to make ballot.fyi, so that you could make your own informed decisions. The goal is to provide concise, readable, and non-partisan summaries of all the state propositions. That’s it.

In the next few weeks, you’ll probably have a few voter guides shoved in your face. So many opinions, worded in often slanted and scant information. But I get why people like this. The alternative is the dry government information, or Ballotpedia, more information than most would want. Ballot.fyi is in in the nonpartisan middle, the CliffNotes of the propositions.

The goal was to provide concise, readable, and non-partisan summaries of all the propositions. That’s it.

I did not build this to get people’s information or to make money. It’s just high-quality non-partisan content, ad-free, just for you, so you can feel smart when you vote. I’m launching it now, but it will be constantly updated until Nov 8.

Was I paid to do this? Not at all.

The media is spending it’s entire breath on Donald v Hillary, but there are many issues at stake, and in California, a lot of people feel that voting is pointless. It’s definitely not, because local government affects our daily life more than the Executive branch does.

Anyways, after all that research, and despite ballot.fyi being as nonpartisan as possible, I do have opinions (because I am human). So here’s another ridic-quick recommendation guide that you should be just as wary of. It’s purposely curt. It has no explanations, because my reasons are complex, personal, and can’t be summed up tersely.

This is just one dude’s recommendations. I’m hoping you make your own informed decisions — and use ballot.fyi to do so.

California’s State Propositions

Tap/click any of the images for more info.

Prop 51: $9 billion to build and improve schools — Nope.
Prop 52: Continues a hospital fee to make money magically (like $3 billion. NBD) — Yes
Prop 53: We’d have to vote on big infrastructure projects in the future — Nope
Prop 54: Bills gotta be put on the internet three days before voting — Yea
Prop 55: Extends income tax for the wealthy — not sure yet
Prop 56: Increases tobacco tax by $2 — Yes
Prop 57: Non-violent criminals can get parole more easily — Yes
Prop 58: Gives local control on how to teach English to English-learners — Not yet decided
Prop 59: Tells elected officials what you think about Citizens United — No
Prop 60: Requires pornstars to wear condoms — No
Prop 61: Lowers drug prices for state agencies — No
Prop 62: Repeals the death penalty — Yes
Prop 63: Creates stricter ammo laws, on top of already strict state gun laws — yes
Prop 64: Legalizes recreational marijuana — Undecided
Prop 65: Redirects the $0.10 you pay for plastic bags to a wildlife conservation board — still researching this
Prop 66: Speeds up the death penalty process — No
Prop 67: Ratifies the plastic bag ban — yes

If you have any opinion on these, take a stand and vote! voteplz.org

There are 17 state propositions (and countless local propositions). Please follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ballotfyi/ to stay up to date and learn about it all bit by bit.

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Jimmy Chion

Creative technologist @ NYTimes. Creator of ballot.fyi. Formerly @IDEO, @Stanford