California voters pull through in highly contested and heated election.
By Asher Miles, Staff Writer
With a four-year increase of 383,933 registered voters since 2018, LA county citizens voted to guarantee funding for K-12 arts education, protect reproductive rights and issue the largest bond measure to date for California’s community colleges.
The decisive tally for the prepositions will not be counted for some time, yet propositions with large voting margins have been approved. One of the certified propositions is prop 28, which was approved by 61 percent of voters. The proposition will require a minimum of one percent of the state’s education budget to be allocated for art instruction in K-12 public schools each year.
Measure LA, which will authorize $5.3 billion for upgrades to infrastructure, technology and sustainability in the LACCD, passed with a considerable margin. While this will be the fifth bond measure since 2001 that would allocate funds to colleges, the LA Times cites that it will help transfer students attain a college degree. An estimated $496 million would be allocated to Valley College, with the majority of the funds going towards renovation efforts for pre-1970s buildings.
Proposition 1 codify an individual’s reproductive right to abortion in California’s state constitution. The proposition does not change existing law, but rather serves as a protection following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Businessman Rick Caruso is leading by 2.5 percent against U.S. Representative Karen Bass. With 43 percent of the counts voted, about 12,000 votes separate the two in the nail-biting race to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti as he takes a new position as the U.S. ambassador to India.
While voters under the age of 25 in Los Angeles decreased by less than one percent, the percentage of eligible Californians who are registered to vote increased from 78.16 percent to 81.63 percent.
Over half of the votes in the county have yet to be counted as of Wednesday afternoon.