12 Ballot Measures Qualify for General Election

Among the measures, two competing tax initiatives will be fighting for voter approval.

November's General Election will be a one-stop-shop for voters interested in changing everything from genetically engineered foods to the death penalty.

Twelve initiatives qualified for the election. For a list with links to each measure, click here.

Among the measures, two competing tax initiatives will be fighting for voter approval.

Governor Jerry Brown's tax proposal, which would raise state sales and income tax for Californians making more than $250,000 a year is his solution to a shorter school year.

If it fails students in the San Diego Unified School District could see their classroom time cut by three weeks.

"It's really pretty simple in the short term," said education reporter Will Carless with our media partners the Voice of San Diego. "If you don't want schools to be cut next year, vote for the tax. That's what Brown has said."

But a competing tax measure, crafted by Pasadena attorney Molly Munger, promises to be more effective in helping solve the state's education funding crisis.

Voters will have to do their homework to decipher which one is better or risk even more confusion at the polls.

"Instead of deciding on one initiative whether they like it thumbs up or thumbs down, they've got to decide, 'Do I like this one better than that one? Do i vote for both of them? Do I vote for neither?', said political analyst John Dadian. "Makes it more complicated in voters mind."

Other measures include tougher penalties for human sex trafficking, regulations affecting auto insurance, and repealing the death penalty in murder cases, replacing it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Voters must also decide whether to amend the three strikes law to impose life sentences only when new felony conviction is serious or violent.

State lawmakers are expected to postpone an $11 billion dollar water bond until 2014 when it may have a better chance of passing. That would bring the number of state measures from 12 down to 11.

Check back on our Decision 2012 feature page for more on these measures as the General Election nears.


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