Secretary of state notified county election officials that the measure could be certified on June 27, after bipartisan group collected more than 900,000 signatures in support of the proposed amendment to reform Prop 47, increasing penalties for criminals.
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D. notified county election officials on Tuesday that petitioners had garnered more than enough signatures to place a measure to reform Proposition 47 on the November ballot. Prop 47, a voter-approved initiative passed in 2014, loosened the penalties for drug and theft crimes in California and has been blamed for California's rampant theft problems.
In order to become eligible, petitioners need 5% of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2022 general election, or 546,651 signatures. The measure can also become eligible via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects the number of valid signatures is greater than 110% of the required number, or 601,317 projected valid signatures.
On June 27, 2024, Weber will certify the initiative for the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot, unless the proponents withdraw the measure prior to certification. Prop 47 made several crimes, including shoplifting, grand theft and receiving stolen property, a misdemeanor instead of a felony if the value of the property did not exceed $950. It also lowered the penalty for the personal use of most illegal drugs below a certain weight.
California Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, do not support the effort and are pushing some public safety bills circulating throughout the state capital that attempt to address organized retail theft, car break-ins and other crimes. The Democrats prefer those bills go before voters instead of the Prop 47 reform measure.
Many law enforcement officials have blamed the measure for the uptick in theft and smash-and-grabs that have plagued California in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the same time, California became synonymous with smash-and-grab crimes as videos of groups of thieves brazenly ransacking stores gained traction online. Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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