Most of us probably know how we’ll be voting in the Presidential/Vice Presidential contest, but if you’re in California, there are many down ballot races and ballot measures that are also important. Affirmative action, the size of our police force, the regulation of dialysis clinics–it’s a lot to go through.
Here are two complementary resources that can help as you make your choices. The first is Cal Matters’ election guide. They’re a nonpartisan nonprofit that explains policy and politics, and they describe each contest in plain language. They also show whose money is backing each measure, and who endorses each candidate. See their guide here.
Cal Matters doesn’t make specific recommendations, however, so I’ve also compiled several major voter guides for San Francisco’s November 2020 election, in the moderate to progressive range. Not every organization made recommendations in every contest, but where they did, they’re gathered here:
State and Federal Races
| SF Chronicle | YIMBY Action SF | United Democratic Club | |
| President/Vice President | Biden/Harris | Biden/Harris | Biden/Harris |
| US Representative District 12 | – | – | Nancy Pelosi |
| State Senator District 11 | Scott Wiener | Scott Wiener | |
| State Assembly Member District 17 | David Chiu | ||
| State Assembly Member District 19 | – | Phil Ting | – |
Education Races
| SF Chronicle | United Democratic Club | |
| SF Board of Education (four slots) | Michelle Parker | Michelle Parker |
| SF Board of Education | Jenny Lam | Jenny Lam |
| SF Board of Education | Kevine Boggess | Alida Fisher |
| SF Board of Education | Alida Fisher | Matt Alexander |
| CCSF Board of Trustees (four slots) | Tom Temprano | Tom Temprano |
| CCSF Board of Trustees | Jeanette Quick | Jeanette Quick |
| CCSF Board of Trustees | Shanell Williams | Aliya Chisti |
| CCSF Board of Trustees | Marie Hurabiell | Victor Olivieri |
California Propositions
| SF Chronicle | SPUR | Indivisible SF | ACLU | United Democratic Club | YIMBY Action SF | |
| Prop 14 – Re-Fund Stem Cell Agency | No | No | – | – | Yes | – |
| Prop 15 – More frequent commercial property tax assessments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop 16 – Affirmative Action | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | – |
| Prop 17 – Restore voting rights of former prisoners on parole | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop 18 – Let 17 year olds vote in primaries if they’ll be 18 before general election | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | – |
| Prop 19 – Property Taxes, heirs, and older homeowners | No | Yes | No | – | Yes | Yes |
| Prop 20 – Expand list of crimes that don’t allow early release | No | No | No | No | No | – |
| Prop 21 – Allow local gov’ts to expand rent control | No | No | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Prop 22 – Exempt app-based drivers from gig worker employee classification | Yes | No | No | – | No | – |
| Prop 23 – Increase state regulation of kidney dialysis clinics | No | No | Yes | – | – | – |
| Prop 24 – Expand a 2018 data privacy law | No | – | No | No | – | – |
| Prop 25 – Replace money bail with evaluation of defendant’s safety | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | Yes | – |
San Francisco Ballot Measures
| SF Chronicle | SPUR | YIMBY Action SF | Indivisible SF | United Democratic Club | League of Women’s Voters | |
| Prop A – Health and Homelessness, Parks and Streets Bond | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop B – Split Public Works into two agencies | No | – | No | Yes | No | – |
| Prop C – Allow noncitizerns to serve on city advisory boards | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop D – Greater oversight of Sheriff’s Department | Yes | Yes | – | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop E – Eliminate the requirement that the Police Department have 1,971 full-duty officers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop F – recallibrate business taxes to phase out certain taxes for some businesses and increase the number of small companies exempted from business tax. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop G – allow 16-17 year olds to vote in local elections. | No | Yes | – | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop H – Streamline city’s permitting processes for storefronts | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | Yes | Yes |
| Prop I – Increase tax on property sales over $10M | No | – | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Prop J – a $288 parcel tax for SFUSD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop K – authorize SF to rehabilitate up to 10,000 units of affordable housing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prop L – tax companies where executives earn way more than employees | No | N/A | – | Yes | No | – |
| Measure RR (SF, San Mateo, Santa Clara) – increase sales taxes by 1/8 of a cent to raise money for rail system | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ye |
San Francisco Supervisors and BART Board of Directors
| SF Chronicle | YIMBY Action SF | |
| SF Supervisor District 1 | Marjan Philhour | Marjan Philhour |
| SF Supervisor District 3 | Aaron Peskin | Danny Sauter |
| SF Supervisor District 5 | Vallie Brown | Vallie Brown |
| SF Supervisor District 7 | Joel Engardio | Myrna Melgar |
| SF Supervisor District 9 | Hillary Ronen | – |
| SF Supervisor District 11 | Ahsha Safaí | Ahsha Safaí |
| BART Board of Directors – District 7 | Lateefah Simon | |
| BART Board of Directors – District 9 | Bevan Dufty |
Here are other voter guides whose recommendations I didn’t compile:
- Broke Ass Stuart
- Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
- Courage California Voter Guide
- San Francisco Bay Guardian
- San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
- San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters
- San Francisco Republican Party
And here are two organizations whose voter guides weren’t yet posted at the time when I wrote this blog post:
If you’re still stuck on a particular ballot measure or proposition, I’ve seen advice that you should vote ‘no,’ because propositions and ballot measures are hard to adjust or undo after the fact, and can have a lot of unintended consequences.
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