Counting down to election day, your vote making *** difference in your community in Congress and in the White House tonight. What you need to know about key races, state propositions and what your vote really means in our KCR *** three voter guide. Good evening. And thank you for joining us for our KCR *** three voter guide special. Just *** week now till election day. I'm 80 Lambert and I'm Ashley Zavala tonight. We're getting the facts on some of those ads you've been seeing on TV. Plus we'll look at early voter trends. So we start in South Lake Tahoe where measure and with tax homes that are unoccupied for more than half the year. As KCR three, Carolina Estrada shows us this could cover 44% of the homes in the city. South Lake Tahoe residents are set to vote on *** controversial measure in November measure. N would create *** tax for unoccupied homes. We appreciate second homeowners. This is *** second home community. It always has been Steve Teixeira, co chair of the group stop the Tahoe vacancy tax says some owners don't want to be forced to rent their homes. Some of the people. We've talked to say, you know, if that's the way you want to treat me as *** second homeowner in your community, I'm going to sell my home and I'm going to go somewhere where I feel more welcome. It's really taking *** toll on folks in our community to be able to find and afford housing. And so we're losing *** lot of fans. We also losing young people. Meanwhile, those who support the initiative say it's necessary to address the affordable housing crisis. We just don't want to become the next aspen or veil where it's *** hollowed out shell of *** community with most of the workforce commuting from off the hill. *** home will be considered vacant when it's unoccupied for more than 183 days out of the year. If that's the case, the homeowner would have to pay *** $3000 tax for the first year, the tax would increase to $6000 or more the following years, the fees pile up and *** lot of the people here are people that we know just regular folks, they are not wealthy people. We still believe they are *** valuable part of our community. There is just *** cost to having almost half of all homes sitting unoccupied for the majority of the year measure and states that occupancy does not have to be consecutive and it could be *** combination owners, renters and guests if passed this new tax would go into effect in 2026. Owners of home and apartments would have to file annual paperwork with the city declaring if their property was vacant or not in South Lake Tahoe. Carolina Estrada Three news. The measure specifies that the tax revenue can only be used for housing, roads, transit and administrative and legal costs. Another thing that's important to note here, the majority of those who would to pay the tax don't actually get to vote on it since this tax applies to homeowners who stay in South Lake Tahoe less than half the year, they are likely registered to vote at their primary residence. And in Fulsom, voters are set to decide *** measure that would raise the city's sales tax. The city is facing *** deficit over the next five years. Supporters say measure g would raise $29 million *** year for services including police, fire and parks. Critics say the city should find are places to cut spending like employee salaries. The city has made *** series of very difficult choices and decisions over the years to reduce its budget to be as lean and as efficient as it possibly can. We are still over 70 employees fewer today than we were in 2008. We have suggested other ways to bring in revenue like raising the transient occupancy tax. That's the tax when you go to hotels that really would be paid by outsiders outside of Folsom. It will take *** simple majority for measure G to pass. Voters in three south. Plaster County cities are deciding on *** sales tax increase. It would raise millions of dollars each year for transportation projects aimed at reducing traffic. Kr Three's Peyton Headley explains. Measure B counties measure beats *** half cent sales tax for the next 30 years. Promises more road improvement projects and less traffic in Roseville, Rockland and Lincoln specifically widening highway 65 improving the interstate 80 highway 65 interchange and other local road repairs. It's got *** wide base of support because it's necessary. Plus county supervisor, Shaun T Landon supports the measure. She's asking residents to vote yes and to break the bottle neck. And at the end of the day, *** half cent sales tax is not, what is going to kill our businesses. What's going to kill our businesses is not being able to drive on highway 65. And it's very difficult to recruit larger companies and businesses to come here to Plaster County because of that bottleneck. Right. Chairman of the county Republican Party is against it. He says taxpayers are already paying enough. So that is the main issue with having all these extra things added to the ballot to add more onto the backs of people who are trying to make *** living in county. The measure is expected to raise $41 million annually over 30 years. That money can only be used for transport in the district and can't be taken by the state, the roads and budget correctly for the road. We need to pay more money. I think one of the key pieces to remember is that just at the Roseville Galeria, 60% of the shoppers who go there are from outside Roseville, Rockland and Lincoln, which means we're all taking just *** little piece of the pie in South Plaster County had the case are three news measure B requires support from two thirds of voters to pass. If passed, *** Citizens Oversight Committee will be appointed. The ensure tax revenue is used in line with that plan. Candidates are going back and forth with campaign ads in the race for California's third congressional district Democrat Jessica Morse is going after Republican incumbent Kevin Kylie for his stance on abortion, but Kylie says her claims aren't true. So getting to the bottom of it, here's KCR three investigates *** mitri to get the facts. Kevin Kylie should not be in Congress Jessica Morse, don't believe her, don't trust her. Those are the competing campaign ads between Republican Congressman Kevin Kylie and his Democratic challenger Jessica Morse. So let's look at them one at *** time and fact check it claim by claim we'll start with. Morse says *** attacking Kylie on abortion. Kevin Kylie wants to ban abortion nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest. No exceptions for survivors like me. This appears to be based on *** proposal from the houses largest GP caucus, the Republican study committee, it does support *** bill to make abortion illegal in all cases. But while Kylie is *** member, he says he had nothing to do with that proposal and he doesn't support it. In fact, during *** 2022 kr, *** debate, the congressman told us then that he would not support *** near total ban on abortions, but he wouldn't specify in which cases. He might support exceptions saying instead that it was *** state issue. Now his campaign tells us he does support exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when *** mother's life is in danger. So this claim is false. Next, let's take *** look at an ad from Kylie against Morse. Jessica Morris can't tell the truth. The Sacramento Bee said that she stretches the truth. So it is true that *** 2018 article said Morse was stretching the truth about her resume in *** run for California's fourth congressional district. It concluded she built *** serious and successful career within the military, state department and us Agency for International Development. But that some of her claims gave the impression she was *** senior official making sweeping us foreign policy decisions when she wasn't. Now, let's take *** look at one more. *** judge caught her trying to deceive voters about her job title. Again, this goes back to MS 2018 run for us. Congress. She wanted to include national security in her job title on the ballot. But *** judge said it was misleading mainly because of when she worked in national security. Election laws require job titles on *** ballot to be current and Morse hadn't worked in national security since 2015. So this claim is true back to you. Kylie is the Republican incumbent in the race elected in 2022. His democratic challenger, Morse is *** wildfire resiliency specialist. She served as Deputy Secretary at the California Natural Resources Agency. Coming up, we're looking at early voter trends with Paul Mitchell of political data Inc right after the break. Welcome back to our KCR *** three voter guide again just *** week from election day in California's US Senate race Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is running against former baseball star Republican Steve Garvey. I recently spoke with both candidates about *** range of issues including the high cost of housing and homelessness. First, we'll hear from Congressman Schiff. So obviously that the cost of housing and the limits on housing and homelessness are twin crises in our state. Assume question on homelessness. What can you do in the US Senate that we would see on the streets of Sacramento and stock in *** Modesto? Well, the challenge with homelessness is you can spend billions as we have to move people off the street and into shelter. But if you don't do something about the overall scarcity of housing, new people are simply going to take their place on the sidewalk. So contemporaneously to moving people into shelter, getting them the mental health services, they need the substance abuse services they need. We also need to be building that housing. We have to approach it from both points of view. One or the other is simply not adequate to the task. So the common denominator of both problems is we don't have enough housing, but then we need to make sure that people get the wraparound services, they need to stay housed once we move them into shelter. I also asked Steve Garvey about homelessness. Here's what he had to say about his priorities for housing and services for mental health and addiction did um come to Sacramento before the primary and spent time um at some of the encampments in this area. Um At the time, there was some criticism that you didn't have specifics as to what you would do on *** federal level to help. Have you developed that now? Uh 10 months later? Yes. Uh One of the first things I'll do is the next elected us senator uh would be to call for *** federal audit as to where that $20 billion went to the homeless. And by the way, last year, homelessness increased 15%. And uh in California with the leading uh state in the union uh with homeless. Uh and everybody says, oh, we'll build more housing. Well, it really should start with mental health and addiction. And yes, we will start to, to use freestanding buildings that we can convert into, into housing. Uh, federal aid in, in, in building affordable housing for the, for the homeless. Uh, and *** lot of that can come from federal land too. But, uh, let's get back to taking these people who are probably at the lowest point in their lives and treating them for the addiction here in California and of course, across the nation as well, millions of voters have already cast their ballots. Dozens of counties statewide have now opened their vote centers. Paul Mitchell with political data in tracks, early voter trends. Paul, thank you so much for being with us tonight. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we'll get right into it. So there's already been about 4.5 million ballots cast. I mean, how does that at this point in time before the election compared to other recent elections? So it's *** lot more than had been cast at this point in the 2022 gubernatorial election. But of course, that was *** lower turnout election and it's *** far fewer than was cast at this point in the 2020 election. But remember how different 2020 was, it was in the middle of COVID lockdown. Our ballots weren't hanging on our kitchen counter forever. We were actually like taken to the polling place or taken to the drop box and it was like *** chance to get out of the house. So early voting was really overwhelming in 2020. That doesn't mean these voters aren't gonna vote. I just think *** lot of them were gonna vote later. We'll probably still have turnout around 75 to 78% but not hit probably the 80% that we had in 2020. So most of them coming in in this next week, obviously, the race for president is generating *** lot of interest and especially with the race being so close. But what are some of the other issues that are driving voters to the polls or getting them to fill out those ballots? Yes. So in some elections, like in the 2022 election, the abortion ballot measure prop one really drove *** lot of turnout. We even saw in some places where turnout really peaked because of that ballot measure, even though there wasn't *** lot on the ballot in terms of competitive races. This cycle, the presidential race is the be all end all. That's the headliner. Um There are ballot measures like prop 36 that people really feel strongly about, but most of the people are gonna turn out for prop 36 would have already turned out for the presidential race. And here in Sacramento, we have things like the mayor's race. There might be some voters who are turning out for the mayor's race that aren't really as excited by the presidential. But I'd say those are real few and far between, it really is almost entirely about presidential race. And we should remind people prop 36 dealing with criminal justice, which is *** big issue right now. Yeah, I mean, what patterns are you seeing in voter registration right now? Because, and I, and I ask, because the Republican Party has tried to promote its gains that it's made statewide. But in the big picture, I mean, how significant or not is that? So there's this thing that happens in presidential election years where both voters become more partisan. So more registering as Democrats and Republicans and particularly among Republicans, there's always *** big growth in presidential primaries because they have *** closed presidential primary. You have to be registered Republican in order to vote in that primary. And so you see *** big wave of Republican registrations, but overall the full 22.5 million voters statewide, Republicans have gained 1% point in registration statewide. So there are 25% of registered voters right now. You know, Paul, something I always wonder about because independent voters make up such *** big, you know, chunk of the pie here in California. Does that when you, when you actually maybe in exit polling, know how people actually vote when they're registered as independents. Does that reflect the other numbers that we see what's interesting about independents is depending on where you are. Those independents might break more Republican or more Democratic. So like in Placer county, they're gonna break more Republican. But in Marin, they're gonna break way more democratic statewide. It's about two third leaning democrat and one third leaning Republican. One thing, *** lot of the viewers might not know is that when they're registered independent, sometimes companies like PD I like our voter data company will actually know that this person used to be *** Democrat or they used to be *** Republican. And so campaigns will treat them like Democrats or Republicans. There will be *** little flag on their voter record to say they donated to *** democratic campaign or they used to be *** Democrat. And so they'll treat them like *** Democrat in terms of targeting and turn out. Ok. Um Just come election night, are we gonna have any answers on November 5th or do you think it's gonna take *** while? I think we'll have *** lot of answers. Um But as we've seen the way that ballots get counted first, they're gonna count all those early votes. Uh then they're gonna count into the night. They're gonna count the votes that are done at the polling places, people who go to the vote centers and then there will be *** lot of ballots, millions of ballots that they're gonna count in the days and maybe even up to *** couple of weeks after the election, some races that are super close, we might not know for *** couple of weeks. But I think the majority of races will really know with decisive victories on election night. All right, it's Paul Mitchell season and we appreciate you so much for your insight. Yeah, if, if you haven't already voted in this election, there are several ways to vote this year. You can return your ballot by mail ballots, come with prepaid postage. So you do not need to buy stamps in order for your vote to count, it must be posted marked on or before November 5th. You can also return your ballot in person at *** ballot dropbox voting location or your county elections office. You need to do that by 8 p.m. on November 5th and you can track your ballot online through the Secretary of State's office. Voters can also get updates by email, text or call coming up *** look at the propositions on the ballot including the one California voters say they are most interested in according to *** new survey, uh spoiler alert, we heard *** little bit of *** preview of that. We'll be right back. Welcome back to our KCR *** three voter guide *** week out from election day. There are 10 propositions on the ballot asking voters to decide on issues from funding for schools to environmental projects, to health care. And one measure getting *** lot of attention this year would change the way California handles rent control. Prop 33 would make it easier for cities and counties to enact rent control. Basically to limit how much landlords can charge for rent. While some say this could make apartments more affordable. Critics say it's not that simple. An affordable unit here is 700 to 1100. Artie Zahedan is an affordable housing developer in northern California. His company helps build apartments for lower income renters like this one in Folsom. Every single unit is affordable at extremely low, very low and low income so that families pay 30 percent of what they make in rent. Zayani is against proposition 33 which asks California voters to make it easier for cities and counties to limit how much *** landlord can charge *** tenant for rent. Prop 33 repeals what's known as the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act which right now keeps cities and counties from setting rent control on single family homes or apartments built after 1995 California already has *** housing shortage and opponents warn prop 33 could make it worse. We think it could be devastating. It, it lowers supply makes it more challenging to build affordable housing at *** time when we need more affordable housing. Zani says developers and property owners have costs too and those costs could become overwhelming if rents are capped. The challenge is just like anybody insurance costs go up, utility costs go up, your power bill goes up. We need to find *** way to pay for that to keep the project afloat if those costs go up, but you can't bring in enough revenue to pay those costs. Then you have *** problem. Obviously, rents keep increasing and it's really difficult, especially for low wage folks that work in low wage jobs. Arino is the co president of Unite here. Local 11, *** labor group that is *** major supporter of prop 33. She notes some of the workers she represents are being priced out of their own neighborhoods in the areas where they work through rent hikes. But we're not saying that there's rent control in every city in California. We're saying we're going to leave it up to the elected officials to decide if that's the case. This is the third time. This is on the ballot. Voters rejected it in 2018 and 2020. What do you think makes this year different for this measure? Oh my goodness. Where do I start? I mean, we're all of us are feeling it after COVID. Everybody started feeling that. And so people lo many people lost their homes. Some people are living in their car. It is extraordinary. I, you know, to, to see to, to see these prices and there's gotta be *** give at some point. Voters will ultimately decide if it gives in November. We just checked. According to the latest campaign finance data, supporters of prop 33 raised $40 million to campaign for it. Opponents raised $115 million to fight it with 10 propositions on the ballot, the Public Policy Institute of California recently asked likely voters which they are most interested in. About one in four said it's prop 36 by far the prop those voters most identified. So coming up tomorrow night at 730 we have *** KCR *** three special dedicated just to proposition 36. We are hearing from law enforcement leaders, business owners, prosecutors and activists about how they think this would affect our community. Our round table discussion on prop 36 is coming up at 730 tomorrow night. You can look into the local races and propositions on your ballot with our KCR *** three voter guide. Just scan the QR code you see on your screen here. It will take you right to the article on our KCR *** three website. Thank you so much for joining us. Hope you have *** great night.