This November’s Statewide Ballot Issues: California’s Redistricting Fight Looms Large

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE

— Odd-numbered years typically have far fewer statewide ballot measures than even-numbered years do. But voters in several states will be weighing in on a few notable ballot measures this November.

— The highest profile measure is in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats in the legislature are asking voters to green-light a mid-decade redistricting in response to the one Republicans in Texas just completed.

— Voters in Colorado, Maine, Texas, and Washington state will also decide on notable ballot measures in November.

The 2025 statewide ballot measures

Odd-numbered years like 2025 typically have far fewer ballot measures than even-numbered years do. Still, voters will be weighing a few notable statewide measures this November.

According to Ballotpedia, 30 statewide measures were certified for the ballot in nine states in 2025, similar to the average of 33 to 34 measures between 2011 and 2023 for other odd-numbered years.

Some of those 2025 measures have already been voted on—including measures in Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin—but six states are poised to consider significant ones in November. Of these, we’ll focus on five states; New York’s sole measure, to approve a land transaction for an athletic complex in the Adirondacks, is smaller-bore. The nation’s two largest states loom large in this discussion: Texas for its sheer number of ballot issues, and California for what is the most nationally-important issue this year: A vote on a new, pro-Democratic congressional map.

CALIFORNIA

This year’s highest-profile ballot measure zoomed onto the ballot quickly: The effort by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democratic allies in the legislature to conduct a mid-decade redistricting.

The issue was not on anyone’s radar until Republicans in Texas, pushed by President Donald Trump, proposed and then completed a mid-decade redistricting that could net the GOP up to five additional seats in the U.S. House. In response, Newsom proposed a retaliatory remap of similar magnitude in California. But doing so was more complicated, because California voters in advance of the post-2010 census decennial redistricting cycle adopted an independent redistricting commission system backed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).

So, Newsom and the legislature now have to get voter approval before enacting new legislature-drawn lines. That’s where Proposition 50 comes in.

A “yes” vote would allow California to use a new congressional district map for the 2026 election through the 2030 election, at which point the commission would return to its normal duties.

Currently, Democrats hold 43 of California’s 52 congressional seats; the new map is expected to allow Democrats to flip up to five Republican seats blue, theoretically canceling out the GOP’s maximum possible gain in Texas. The map also shores up some Democrats in competitive seats (the Crystal Ball analyzed the map when it became public back in August).

A University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll in August found that 48% of registered voters supported the proposition while 32% opposed it, with support hitting 55% among higher-propensity voters in the poll. More recently, Emerson College found Proposition 50 leading 51%-34% among registered voters.

While there are other significant elections in November, most notably the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, this one may actually be the most important contest this year from a national perspective because of its importance to the race for the House next year.

COLORADO

Colorado voters will weigh two ballot measures referred by the legislature related to the Healthy School Meals for All program, which provides free meals to all students in the state. The program has been so popular that it has outstripped its revenue, with legislators having to plug a $56 million shortfall.

Collectively this year’s ballot measures aim to raise $95 million by hiking taxes on taxpayers earning $300,000 or more. If the ballot measures fail, school meals would no longer be free for all Colorado students, Chalkbeat reported.

MAINE

Maine voters will consider two measures.

Question 1 would make changes to election law, including eliminating two days of absentee voting; ban absentee ballot requests by phone or family members; end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities; ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot envelopes; curtail the number of drop boxes; and require a photo ID when voting. The battle has turned partisan, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by both sides.

Question 2 would establish extreme risk protection orders. This process, sometimes called a red flag law, would restrict someone’s access to guns if they are deemed to pose a significant danger of causing physical harm. A similar proposal after a 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston advanced out of committee but eventually stalled.

TEXAS

Texas voters will face a long list of ballot measures in November—17 to be exact. All were placed on the ballot by lawmakers. (Texas does not have citizen-initiated measures.)

Among the notable ones are:

Proposition 2, which would bar state taxation of capital gains of an individual, family, estate, or trust.

Proposition 3, which would deny bail for people accused of certain violent or sexual felonies.

Proposition 8, which would bar state taxation of a decedent’s property or the transfer of an estate.

Proposition 13, which would increase the property tax exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 of a homestead’s market value.

Proposition 14, which would establish a $3 billion Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Proposition 15, which says parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing” and the responsibility “to nurture and protect the parent’s child.”

Proposition 16, which would explicitly ban noncitizens from voting.

All propositions but the capital gains measure received support from at least half of the Democrats in the legislature (who are the minority party).

WASHINGTON STATE

Washington voters will consider a measure that would help implement the nation’s first public long-term care insurance program by allowing that program to invest its funds in the stock market, similar to pension and retirement accounts (voters rejected a similar issue in 2020). The program in question, WA Cares, was enacted in 2019 but isn’t operational yet; legislators have fine-tuned some aspects of the plan since then. In 2024, voters rejected a measure that would have made participation in the program voluntary instead of mandatory. The program is funded by payroll taxes.

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See Other Commentaries by Louis Jacobson.

Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.