After the Vote: Takeaways From Eight Ballot Measures

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Most initiatives that appeared on the California ballot passed this Tuesday, but not everyone came away a winner. Capital & Main presents our writers’ analysis of what happened to eight key ballot measures – and why.

• Judith Lewis Mernit reports on voters sorting out two confusing (and unsuccessful) measures put on the ballot by the plastics industry to roll back the state ban on single-use plastic bags.
• Jim Crogan finds that money and more money buried the chances of Prop. 61, which aimed to reduce prescription drug prices for some major California agencies.
• Dean Kuipers says Californians ignored the tobacco industry’s advertising blitz against a new tax hike on cigarettes and other nicotine-laced products.
• Bobbi Murray explains how a dedicated get-out-the-vote effort helped ensure the passage of Prop. 55, which continues the increased funding of public education through a wealth tax.
• Eric Markowitz examines why a ballot measure to speed up death row executions succeeded, while an initiative to end capital punishment lost.
• Jim Crogan looks into the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s failed bid to require the use of condoms in adult film shoots.