Prop 50: Taking Away Rights in the Name of Reform

Time to remove the electoral college?

Prop 50: Taking Away Rights in the Name of Reform

In California there is always a new list of propositions, each promising progress, fairness, or reform. Like many Prop 50 deserves a closer look. On the surface, it is presented as a tool for accountability. In practice, it risks concentrating power and limiting the very rights that keep government close to the people.

One of the ironies of Prop 50 is that it is being sold as empowering voters. In reality, it takes decision-making away from communities and hands it to a distant layer of authority. The majority of important choices that affect daily life from zoning and schools to healthcare access and community safety are made at the local level. Local decisions reflect local values. Prop 50 undermines that balance by giving Sacramento more leverage over matters that should stay closer to home.

Each state already has its own thick book of statutes and regulatory codes. California alone has more than 29,000 pages in its Code of Regulations. Local voices matter because laws are not written in Washington alone they are enforced, adapted, and lived out community by community.

So when you take away fair representation from your fellow citizens through something like Prop 50, what you are really doing is silencing the people closest to the rules that shape their lives. If the concern is fairness, then put the money where it matters. Spend the $200 million it takes to run statewide measures on strengthening local elections in other states, making sure they are transparent and fair. Or, if the true goal is to give every vote equal weight, then campaign for a presidential election based on the popular vote rather than stripping power from local decision making.

Opponents of Prop 50 are right to ask…. why take away rights now, at a time when trust in government is already low? Why weaken local voices when so much of our democracy depends on them? And why are we being asked to trade away local power under the promise of reform, when history shows reforms imposed from the top down often erode accountability instead of strengthening it?

If accountability is the goal, then we need transparency, citizen oversight, and stronger protections for local decision making not another statewide measure that strips away the rights of the very people it claims to represent. Prop 50 may be dressed up as progress, but in reality it risks leaving communities with less control, less trust, and fewer choices.

The lesson is simple. Reform should mean giving people more power, not less. And when most decisions are made at the local level, the best reform is to protect, not erode, those rights.

If you truly care about reform, put that energy where it counts. Travel to other states and help strengthen their elections, or work toward fixing the Electoral College so every vote carries the same weight. But don’t take away California’s rights and the independence of its voting lines. Real reform means empowering people, not silencing them.