The League of Women Voters of California has published its recommendations on all 14 statewide measures on the November 3 ballot. Five yes, eight no, and one where the League decided it could not take a side.
League of Women Voters of California: Ballot Recommendations →
These are the League’s positions, not ours. The League is nonpartisan, takes no position on candidates, and bases its measure recommendations on program positions its members adopted through study and consensus. Every recommendation below comes with published reasoning you can read and argue with, which is why it is worth passing along.
Support
- Prop 1 — Veterans & Affordable Housing Bonds. $10 billion for affordable housing and homeownership, plus $1.25 billion for veteran home loans through CalVet.
- Prop 2 — Save for California’s Future Act. Builds a larger rainy-day fund and requires the state to save more when capital gains revenue runs unusually high.
- Prop 3 — Children’s Education & Health Care Protection. Keeps current income tax rates on the top 2% of earners rather than letting them drop in 2031, which the League says would reduce state revenue by an estimated $5 billion to $15 billion a year.
- Prop 4 — California Fair Elections Act. Lifts California’s near-total ban on public campaign financing and lets state and local governments create voluntary programs if they choose to.
- Prop 5 — Recall Election Reform for Statewide Officers. Takes the replacement candidate off the recall ballot, so a successor is chosen the way any other vacancy is filled instead of by whoever leads a crowded field.
Oppose
- Prop 37 — Loan Program for Middle-Income Buyers of New Homes. The League’s objection is that it helps a family buy a home without making it affordable to keep, since the down payment help is a second mortgage repaid monthly, on terms voters would not know before approving it.
- Prop 38 — Bonds for Immunology Medical Research. $8.4 billion in borrowing for roughly 20 years of debt payments. The League’s position is that bonds suit buildings, not ongoing research, and that this locks billions into one field.
- Prop 39 — Prohibits Voting Without Government-Issued ID. The League calls it “a partisan power grab to further President Trump’s voter suppression efforts,” and points to Texas, where a comparable rule led to one in eight mail ballots being rejected.
- Prop 41 — Limits New State Taxes & Requires Special Tax Audits. Puts revenue from new state taxes under the Gann Limit spending cap. The League opposed the original Gann Initiative in 1979 for the same reason.
- Prop 42 — Limits New State Taxes on Personal Property. Writes a broad ban on taxing stocks, business interests, retirement accounts and other personal property into the state Constitution, where changing it later takes another vote of the people.
- Prop 43 — Limits Voters’ Ability to Raise Revenues for Local Government Services. Requires a two-thirds vote for local special taxes proposed by initiative, which lets a minority block what a majority wants.
- Prop 44 — 90% Health Care Spending for Nonprofit Safety-Net Clinics. Clinics currently report spending about 80% of revenue on care. The League’s concern is that clinics that miss the 90% line would owe the state the shortfall and some could close.
- Prop 45 — Modifies Environmental Review for Certain Projects. The League has supported streamlining CEQA before and says this one goes too far, with timelines that would produce rushed studies and less public participation.
Neutral
- Prop 40 — Billionaire Tax. A one-time tax of up to 5% on billionaire wealth, with 90% of the revenue going to health care. The League found strong arguments on both sides: the need is urgent and the federal government is walking away from it, but the measure locks the money into an earmarked fund, is a one-time fix for ongoing costs, and rests on a few hundred people. It takes no position.
Three That Interact
Props 40, 41 and 42 are on a collision course, and the League flags it under both 41 and 42. Each of those two is drafted to prevail over a conflicting measure on the same ballot. If 41 or 42 passes with more “yes” votes than 40, a court could find them in conflict and stop Prop 40 from taking effect even if a majority approved it. Read all three together before you mark any of them.
We wrote about Prop 39 separately. It is the measure on this ballot that goes directly to whether eligible people can vote.
If You Want It Without the Recommendations
The League’s education fund runs CaVotes.org, which publishes a plain explanation of each measure with no position attached. There is also a printable “Vote with the League” flyer, a one-page PDF of the recommendations above, made to be handed to people.
For candidates and the state Supreme Court retention election, which the League does not cover, see our post on the CalMatters 2026 Voter Guide.