/** @jsxImportSource https://esm.sh/react */ import React, { useEffect, useState } from "https://esm.sh/react"; import { createRoot } from "https://esm.sh/react-dom/client"; // Utility function to generate a unique 16-character ID function generateUniqueID() { return Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 10) + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 10); } function Proposition({ prop, userChoice, onChoiceChange }) { return (

Prop {prop.number} {prop.title}

{prop.description}

{prop.number}

); } function App() { const [stateProps, setStateProps] = useState([]); const [userChoices, setUserChoices] = useState({}); const [userID, setUserID] = useState(""); const [shareButtonText, setShareButtonText] = useState("Share Your Ballot!"); useEffect(() => { // Load or generate user ID let id = localStorage.getItem("userID"); if (!id) { id = generateUniqueID(); localStorage.setItem("userID", id); } setUserID(id); // Load props data from API async function loadProps() { const statePropsData = await fetch("/api/state-props").then(res => res.json()); setStateProps(statePropsData); } loadProps(); }, []); useEffect(() => { // Load user choices from server async function loadUserChoices() { const choices = await fetch(`/api/user-choices?id=${userID}`).then(res => res.json()); setUserChoices(choices); } if (userID) { loadUserChoices(); } }, [userID]); useEffect(() => { // Save user choices to server if (userID) { fetch(`/api/user-choices?id=${userID}`, { method: "POST", headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json", }, body: JSON.stringify(userChoices), }); } }, [userChoices, userID]); const handleChoiceChange = (propNumber, choice) => { setUserChoices(prev => ({ ...prev, [propNumber]: choice })); }; const handleShareBallot = async () => { const shareURL = `${window.location.origin}${window.location.pathname}?id=${userID}`; try { await navigator.clipboard.writeText(shareURL); setShareButtonText("Link copied!"); setTimeout(() => setShareButtonText("Share Your Ballot!"), 3000); } catch (err) { console.error("Failed to copy: ", err); } }; return (

MAD PROPS 2024

Every two years, Californias get the distinct pleasure of voting on ballot propositions. Just over half of states have some form of ballot initiative, but nowhere is the practice more celebrated or more reviled than in the Golden State.

Propositions can often seem ludicrous (remember the condom prop in 2016?). They can often seem antiquated (this year, there are props to affirm same sex marriage and outlaw indentured servitude — didn’t we do that already?). Props are often intentionally designed to be confusing — sometimes they even do the exact opposite of what appears to be written on the ballot.

Fear not, Mad Props 2024 is your non-partisan, not-too-serious voter guide for California props. This year there are 10 humble measures for your voting pleasure, and they run the gamut. Schools, climate change, affordable housing, crime, oh my!

There’s a common belief that when it comes to props, “just vote no” — that props are just vehicles for special interest groups to dupe voters. And shouldn’t Sacramento be making the laws any? This is a representative democracy right, not Ancient Greece. That’s sometimes true, but just voting no might not always have the intended effect. So buckle up, and enjoy Mad Props 2024.

{stateProps.map(prop => ( ))}

); } function client() { createRoot(document.getElementById("root")).render(); } if (typeof document !== "undefined") { client(); } export default async function server(request: Request): Promise { const { blob } = await import("https://esm.town/v/std/blob"); const url = new URL(request.url); const stateProps = [ { number: 2, title: "Borrows $10 billion to build schools and colleges", description: "California doesn't actually have permanent funding for school repairs, so it's another bond. One for $15 million in 2020 failed. One for in $9 million in 2016 passed, but that money has almost entirely been spent.", image: "https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-voter-guide-prop-2.png", }, { number: 3, title: "Enshrines the right to same sex marriage", description: "Of course, this is already legal in California, but there is still an old ballot prop on the books— Proposition 8 that passed in 2008 — that defined marriage as between a man a woman. Some suspect this is a preventative measure should the Supreme Court roll back same-sex marriage the way they did abortion.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/rainbow-wedding-rings", }, { number: 4, title: "Borrows $10 billion for environmental projects", description: "Wildfires? Check Drought? Check Floods? Check — Just about every climate disaster, California's got 'em. This handsome chunk of change would be spent preventative projects for all of that.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/california-climate-disasters", }, { number: 5, title: "Makes it easier for local governments to borrow money", description: "Usually they want it to build things like affordable housing. But voters must approve these measures by 2/3s majority. Prop 5 would lower that threshold to 55%. Vote for easier voting… in a way.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/voting-ballot-with-55-percent", }, { number: 6, title: "make forced labor in California prisons illegal", description: "If this sounds like slavery, well many argue it is. Legislators considered a similar measure in 2022, but it tanked once it was estimated it would cost $1.5 billion annually to pay California's 90,000 inmates minimum wage. This ballot prop proposes a voluntary work program to get around that issue", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/prison-work-program", }, { number: 32, title: "raises the minimum wage to $18 an hour", description: "California was the first in the nation to raise the minimum wage to $15 in 2022. Will we keep the title this year?", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/18-dollar-bill", }, { number: 33, title: "allows cities to impose whatever types of rent control they like", description: "", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/city-skyline-with-rent-control-sign", }, { number: 34, title: "forces a massive healthcare provider to use its money on patients", description: "That's right. This prop would only affect one organization. And the main reason — it wants it to stop spending money on other props. It's complicated, and amazingly petty.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/healthcare-money-to-patients", }, { number: 35, title: "Makes permanent a healthcare tax that goes to Medi-Cal", description: "A third of the state uses the low-income program. The entire healthcare industry supports this. Newsome said he would do it, but is now back-tracking. This would hold him to his word.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/medi-cal-logo-with-tax-symbol", }, { number: 36, title: "increases some petty theft and drug crimes to felonies", description: "Ten years ago, these were felonies and voters approved a prop that would make them misdemeanors. Now, post covid, post doom loop, many want to change it back.", image: "https://maxm-imggenurl.web.val.run/scales-of-justice-with-felony-sign", }, ]; if (url.pathname === "/api/state-props") { return new Response(JSON.stringify(stateProps), { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, }); } if (url.pathname === "/api/user-choices") { const id = url.searchParams.get("id"); if (id) { if (request.method === "POST") { const choices = await request.json(); await blob.setJSON(`user_choices_${id}`, choices); return new Response(JSON.stringify({ success: true }), { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, }); } else { const choices = await blob.getJSON(`user_choices_${id}`) || {}; return new Response(JSON.stringify(choices), { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, }); } } } const sharedID = url.searchParams.get("id"); let sharedChoices = {}; if (sharedID) { sharedChoices = await blob.getJSON(`user_choices_${sharedID}`) || {}; } return new Response( ` MAD PROPS 2024

`, { headers: { "Content-Type": "text/html" }, }, ); }

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