Opponents and proponents of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Prop. 1 mental health bond measure are seeking to correct rejected ballots from the March 5 primary — usually rejected due to a voter’s missing signature or a mismatched signature — as the fate of Prop. 1 hangs by a razor-thin margin.
Prop. 1 was backed by 50.1% of voters and opposed by 49.9%, according to the March 16 update from the secretary of state’s office. That leaves just 20,000 votes, in a state with 22 million registered voters, standing between its passage and its failure. The opposition campaign estimates that upwards of 110,000 disqualified ballots could be corrected and counted.
Late last week, Governor Gavin Newsom urged Democratic voters to correct ballot signature issues to ensure that his $6.4 billion bond measure actually passes, Politico reported. On Thursday evening, he emailed supporters of Prop. 1, asking them to volunteer to reach out to Democrats whose ballots had been rejected.
If passed, Prop. 1 would direct $4.4 billion to create 10,000 new mental health beds and $2 billion for homeless housing projects. It would also require counties to spend 30% of revenue from the Mental Health Services Act on housing.
“This ballot initiative is so close that your commitment to volunteer could mean the difference between people getting off the streets and into the treatment they need… or not,” Newsom stated in his email to supporters. “Truly. It is that close.”
On Monday morning, Californians Against Prop. 1 revived their campaign — to also urge voters to “cure” their disqualified ballots. On March 12 the opposition campaign conceded likely defeat, but are now revoking that call until the ballot correction effort is completed.
“We believe all ballots should be counted,” said Paul Simmons, a director of Californians Against Prop. 1, in a statement. “We know that many Democrats voted against Prop. 1, so the governor’s effort is no slam dunk. If you’re a Republican or independent, we want you to know that your ballot might make the difference in this election.”
In past primary elections an average of 1.5% of ballots were rejected.
“We don’t know if reviving rejected ballots will change the outcome of this election, but if the governor thinks it might we for damn sure aren’t going to let him have the field to himself,” Simmons said.
Californians Against Prop. 1 relaunched their website on Monday with instructions on how voters can find out if their ballot was disqualified and correct issues such as missing or mismatched signatures.
Governor Newsom is also changing his plans due to the disqualified ballots. He postponed his annual State of the State Address from Monday to an unspecified future date — until the measure has clear results.
While Prop. 1 has consistently held a narrow lead in successive ballot updates, no major news organization has called it as a win. The secretary of state’s office is scheduled to certify the results on April 12.
The outcome holds major political gravitas for Newsom who is banking on its passage to fulfill his promise to address the twin crises of mental health and homelessness.
In the week’s leading up to the election he traveled the state pitching the measure as a means to “fix our broken mental health system and provide those living on our streets and suffering from substance abuse the care they need.” He raised over $20 million to promote the measure and had the backing of major supporters including National Alliance on Mental Illness California, California Democratic Party and labor union SEIU California.
The opposition campaign raised very little in comparison, but decried the measure as fiscally irresponsible given the state’s looming deficit — a message that resonated to many conservative voters. Opponents also said the measure would result in service cuts to existing mental health programs and opposed its funding for mental health beds that could be used to compel involuntary treatment.