Harris Confirms Mail-In Vote, Remains Silent on California Crime Measure Vote

November 4, 2024 TruthUSA

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, businesses, and law enforcement is leading a measure to enhance criminal penalties for shoplifting and drug dealing.

While campaigning in battleground Michigan on Nov. 3, Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned that her mail-in ballot was heading to California and chose not to disclose her vote on Proposition 36, which aims to enhance criminal penalties for shoplifting and drug dealing in her home state.

Backed by Californians for Safer Communities and major retail players Walmart and Target, the measure seeks to undo parts of Proposition 47, a measure passed in 2014 to reduce prison overcrowding by reducing certain drug possession and theft offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.

Harris refrained from commenting on her vote during a media interaction on Sunday.

“I am not going to discuss the vote on that. Because honestly, it’s the Sunday before the election, and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or the other,” Harris stated. Before her vice presidency, she served as a district attorney in San Francisco and as attorney general of California before being elected as a U.S. senator.

The proposed measure would elevate shoplifting to a felony for repeat offenders and elevate drug charges, particularly involving fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. Judges would also be empowered to mandate treatment for individuals with multiple drug offenses.

Advocates of the measure, including the bipartisan coalition of law enforcement, businesses, and elected officials that initiated it, argue that it would eliminate legal loopholes that hinder law enforcement efforts to prosecute individuals involved in shoplifting and drug dealing.