Prop 17 Results: CA Election 2020

LOS ANGELES, CA — With the polls closed in California, and voters have passed Proposition 17, the constitutional amendment expanding voting rights.

The Associated Press called the election Tuesday night with Prop 17 far enough ahead to pass even as the remaining votes are tallied. With 62 percent of precincts tallied, Prop 17 was had garnered approval from 59.9 percent of voters compared to 40.1 percent against.

With Proposition 17, voters were asked to allow parolees to vote. Proposition 17 was one of two ballot measures seeking state constitutional amendments to expand voting rights.

Check back here for up-to-the minute election results for Prop 17. Patch has you covered with live election results that will be updated until the last ballot is counted.

The measure was part of a nationwide movement to restore voting rights to people who have completed prison sentences. California is just one of a few states that doesn’t let convicted felons vote until they’ve completed their parole. Passage of Prop 17 would instantly restore voting rights to roughly 50,000 people on parole in California.

Opponents of the measure contended parolees haven’t truly served their time and that restoring their voting rights confers an unearned privilege upon people statistically likely to reoffend.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen, an opponent of the measure, phrased the right to vote as a privilege that parolees don’t deserve.

“Let’s talk a little about the universe we are dealing with here. They include murderers, voluntary manslaughter, rape, sodomists,” Nielsen told the Sacramento Bee. “For those that commit the crimes, particularly the heinous crimes, part of their sentence is to complete the parole period.”

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Proponents, however, said it does more harm than good to disenfranchise parolees as they assimilate back into society. They cite a Florida study that found parolees who had their voting rights restored were less likely to reoffend. Voting is the very core of democracy, they argue.

“The removal of the right to vote is not based in an interest in public safety,” Taina Vargas-Edmond, executive director of Initiate Justice, told the Sacramento Bee. “Rather, it is rooted in a punitive justice belief system that intentionally attempts to rob marginalized people of their political power.”

The state Legislature voted to put Prop 17 on the ballot, and the campaign was one of the quieter in an election year focused on a divisive presidential race along with ballot measures tackling affirmative action, the gig economy and property taxes.

According to Ballotpedia, the measure was supported by U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the California Democratic Party, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters of California.

Opponents included Nielsen, the California Republican Party and Crime Victims United.