Last updated Oct. 19, 2026. SF News Today does not endorse candidates or ballot measures in this guide. The guide focuses on candidates, offices and ballot measures; official election agencies remain the source for the certified ballot text.
California’s Nov. 3, 2026 general election is not one election so much as several layered together. Every Bay Area ballot can include statewide constitutional offices and propositions. Depending on the address, it can also include congressional and legislative races, the five-county regional transit measure, county and city offices, school and special-district contests, and local tax or charter measures.
For SF News Today, the useful way to cover it is geographically. This guide starts with the statewide choices that appear across the Bay Area, then moves through the regional transit measure and each of the nine Bay Area counties: San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano.
The page is designed to answer a simple question: what would actually change if a candidate wins or a measure passes?
At a glance: the biggest Bay Area ballot questions
Five subjects deserve particular attention because they either affect a very large share of the region or create unusually consequential policy changes:
- California governor: Democrat Xavier Becerra faces Republican Steve Hilton for the open governorship after Gavin Newsom’s term.
- Fourteen statewide propositions: The ballot ranges from an $11.25 billion housing bond and a permanent high-income tax extension to voter-identification rules, a one-time tax on certain extremely wealthy taxpayers and major changes to local tax thresholds.
- Regional Measure RTM: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties decide a 14-year transit sales tax designed to support BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, VTA and other transportation services.
- San Francisco’s local ballot: Five supervisor districts, several citywide offices and ten local propositions sit alongside the regional and statewide choices.
- South Bay and Peninsula local contests: San Jose has council runoffs in Districts 5, 7 and 9, while San Mateo County alone has a long slate of city, school and county measures including Redwood City Measure E on rent control and eviction limits.
California statewide races
The Secretary of State’s official guide lists the following statewide general-election matchups. The statewide offices matter well beyond partisan control: they oversee state agencies, public finances, law enforcement, insurance regulation, elections and education.
| Office | Candidates | What the office does |
|---|---|---|
| Governor | Xavier Becerra (D) vs. Steve Hilton (R) | California’s chief executive; proposes the budget, signs or vetoes legislation, appoints judges and agency leaders, and directs state resources during emergencies. |
| Lieutenant Governor | Fiona Ma (D) vs. Gloria Romero (R) | Succeeds the governor when required; serves on several state boards and commissions and has roles involving higher education and state lands. |
| Secretary of State | Donald P. “Don” Wagner (R) vs. Shirley N. Weber (D) | Oversees statewide elections and maintains business and campaign-finance records. Weber is the incumbent. |
| Controller | Malia M. Cohen (D) vs. Herb W Morgan (R) | California’s chief fiscal officer and bookkeeper; audits state operations and administers state payroll and unclaimed-property functions. Cohen is the incumbent. |
| Treasurer | Jennifer Hawks (R) vs. Eleni Kounalakis (D) | Oversees state borrowing and investment functions and sits on financing authorities that affect infrastructure and public projects. |
| Attorney General | Rob Bonta (D) vs. Michael E. Gates (R) | California’s chief law officer and head of the Department of Justice. Bonta is the incumbent. |
| Insurance Commissioner | Ben Allen (D) vs. Jane Kim (D) | Regulates insurance companies and markets in a state facing major affordability and availability issues in property insurance. |
| Superintendent of Public Instruction | Richard Barrera vs. Sonja Shaw | Nonpartisan statewide education office; leads the California Department of Education and administers major state and federal education programs. |
Board of Equalization
Bay Area voters may also see a Board of Equalization race depending on district. The state guide lists Sally J. Lieber (D) vs. John Pimentel (D) in District 2, which includes San Francisco and much of the Bay Area. Other California districts have separate races.
Primary sources:
California Secretary of State — statewide candidates
California Secretary of State — Nov. 3, 2026 general election
California’s 14 statewide propositions
California has 14 statewide propositions on the Nov. 3 ballot: Props 1–5 and 37–45. The table below gives the shortest useful explanation; the sections after it flag the measures most likely to produce Bay Area search demand.
| Prop | What it would do | Main fiscal or structural effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Authorizes $11.25 billion in state general-obligation bonds for housing affordability programs, including multifamily housing, veteran mortgages, supportive housing, preservation and down-payment assistance. | Official analysis estimates roughly $500–$600 million a year for about 25 years to repay the bonds. |
| 2 | Raises the constitutional ceiling on California’s Budget Stabilization Account, or “rainy day” reserve. | Gives the state more room to hold reserves rather than hitting the existing constitutional cap; the practical effect depends on future budgets and revenues. |
| 3 | Makes permanent the existing voter-approved higher personal-income-tax rates on high-income Californians that otherwise expire in 2031. | Official analysis says it would maintain roughly $5–$15 billion a year in state income-tax revenue in today’s dollars. |
| 4 | Repeals the state-law prohibition on state and local governments creating public financing systems for candidate campaigns. | Would permit — not automatically require — governments to establish public campaign-financing programs. |
| 5 | Changes California’s process for recalling statewide elected officials. | Alters what happens after a successful statewide recall rather than using the current simultaneous replacement-candidate structure. |
| 37 | Creates a bond-financed loan program for qualifying middle-income buyers of certain newly built homes. | Authorizes up to $25 billion in revenue bonds; the state says borrower mortgage payments, rather than general state funds, would repay the bonds. |
| 38 | Authorizes bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research. | $8.4 billion in state general-obligation bonds; official analysis estimates hundreds of millions of dollars annually in repayment costs for roughly two decades. |
| 39 | Adds government-identification requirements to California voting rules. | Official analysis anticipates state and local implementation costs that could reach tens of millions to low hundreds of millions of dollars annually. |
| 40 | Imposes a one-time tax on certain taxpayers with covered assets above a very high wealth threshold. | Would raise a large but temporary amount of revenue; the measure directs most proceeds toward health-related purposes, with additional specified uses. |
| 41 | Bars new state taxes from being structured so their revenue is excluded from the state spending limit and adds audit rules for new state special taxes. | Changes the constitutional treatment and oversight of future state taxes; the net fiscal effect depends on future measures. |
| 42 | Prohibits new state personal-property taxes and certain retroactive state taxes. | Could constrain future state tax design and cause future revenues to be lower than they otherwise would be. |
| 43 | Tightens the approval rule for certain voter-proposed local special taxes. | Would make it harder for some future local revenue measures to pass; that is especially relevant in a region that frequently uses local taxes for transportation, housing and public services. |
| 44 | Requires certain nonprofit community health clinics to spend at least 90% of revenue on program services. | Creates a new spending-ratio rule and state administrative/enforcement costs, expected to be supported by fees on covered clinics. |
| 45 | Changes California Environmental Quality Act procedures for specified projects, including faster review and litigation timelines for qualifying categories. | Could accelerate certain housing, transportation, water, wildfire, education, broadband and clean-energy projects while creating substantial state/local administrative costs. |
Proposition 1: the housing bond
Prop 1 would authorize $11.25 billion in general-obligation borrowing. The official title says the money would support housing affordability programs, and the Attorney General’s summary breaks it into programs including multifamily rental housing, preservation of affordable units, veteran mortgages, homeownership and down-payment assistance, farmworker/tribal/student housing, housing infrastructure and local housing programs.
For Bay Area readers, the useful question is not merely “is this a housing measure?” but how much is borrowed, where the money can go, and what repayment costs the state incurs. The state estimates $500 million to $600 million annually for about 25 years.
Proposition 3: making the high-income tax extension permanent
Prop 3 would prevent the existing high-income tax rates approved by voters in 2012 from expiring in 2031. The official fiscal estimate says that means maintaining roughly $5 billion to $15 billion per year in income-tax revenue in today’s dollars.
This should get a dedicated SFNT explainer because the Bay Area contains a large concentration of households potentially affected by the upper income thresholds and because the measure connects directly to school funding, health spending and the state budget.
Proposition 39: identification requirements
Prop 39 is one of the clearest likely search magnets on the statewide ballot. Its official title says it “Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government-Issued Identification.”
For SFNT, the deep-dive should focus on the legal change, the categories of identification covered by the measure, administrative cost, and the arguments advanced by supporters and opponents. The master guide should avoid turning this into a procedural voting tutorial; the purpose here is to explain what the proposition changes in state law.
Proposition 40: the one-time wealth tax
Prop 40 proposes a one-time tax on certain taxpayers above a very high asset threshold. It is likely to attract national as well as California attention because of the scale of the tax and its interaction with Props 41 and 42, which concern how new state taxes operate.
This deserves its own explainer before Nov. 3: who is covered, what assets count, the applicable rates, where the revenue would go, and how proponents’ revenue estimates compare with the Legislative Analyst’s fiscal discussion.
Proposition 43: local taxes
Prop 43 matters disproportionately in the Bay Area because local governments and districts routinely place sales, parcel and special taxes on the ballot. The measure would raise the approval threshold for certain voter-proposed local special taxes.
That means the consequences are not abstract. Readers looking at transit, childcare, healthcare, school and municipal tax measures may reasonably ask whether Prop 43 changes the threshold for future taxes and how it interacts with measures already on the Nov. 3 ballot. That interaction needs a dedicated legal/fiscal explainer rather than a one-sentence summary.
Primary sources:
California Official Voter Information Guide — propositions
California Quick Guide to Propositions
Regional Measure RTM: the five-county transit tax
For the Bay Area specifically, Regional Measure RTM may be the single most important ballot measure to explain well.
It appears in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The initiative proposes a 14-year retail transactions and use tax of:
- 1% in San Francisco
- 0.5% in Alameda County
- 0.5% in Contra Costa County
- 0.5% in San Mateo County
- 0.5% in Santa Clara County
MTC says the measure is expected to generate about $980 million annually. The money is intended to support regional transportation, including BART, San Francisco Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, VTA, Bay ferry service and other specified purposes, with a portion devoted to rider-focused improvements such as affordability, transfers, accessibility and navigation.
The measure qualified after the regional district election official estimated 235,503 valid petition signatures, above the qualification threshold.
What a deep RTM explainer needs to answer
The standalone SFNT page should not stop at the headline tax rate. It should show:
- what a 0.5% or 1% sales-tax increase means in dollars on common taxable purchases;
- how the 14-year duration works;
- which transit agencies receive operating support and how funds are apportioned;
- what share is reserved for rider-focused improvements or road purposes;
- the oversight and performance conditions in the initiative;
- what transit agencies say happens without additional revenue;
- the principal opposition argument on taxes, governance and agency efficiency;
- whether the measure needs a simple majority or a higher threshold under the governing law, verified from the official impartial analysis.
Because RTM crosses five counties and directly links San Francisco with our growing San Jose audience, it should become an internal-link hub of its own.
Primary source:
Metropolitan Transportation Commission — Public Transit Revenue Measure District
San Francisco voter guide 2026
San Francisco’s Nov. 3 ballot includes U.S. House Districts 11 and 15, State Assembly Districts 17 and 19, BART District 8, Assessor-Recorder, Public Defender, Supervisors in Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, three Board of Education seats, four Community College Board seats and ten local propositions, A through J.
San Francisco propositions A–J
| Measure | Official subject | What to understand before deciding |
|---|---|---|
| Prop A | Charter changes affecting various city departments and commissions | Which commissions and city bodies would be eliminated, merged or restructured, and how appointment or oversight powers would change. |
| Prop B | Establishing a Municipal Finance Corporation and a Public Bank | Whether the measure immediately creates a public bank or instead creates the structure and authority needed to build one, plus governance and fiscal safeguards. |
| Prop C | Contributions to the Housing Fund | What money would be committed to the Housing Fund, how the contribution formula works and what housing programs could receive it. |
| Prop D | Changes to Ballot Measure Process | Who may place measures on the city ballot and what procedural rules or thresholds would change. |
| Prop E | City Administrator’s Authority and Changes to City Contracting | How procurement and contracting authority would change and which powers would shift to the City Administrator. |
| Prop F | Changes to Executive Branch Management | How mayoral and department-management authority, appointment or removal rules, and checks on those powers would change. |
| Prop G | Allowing Private Vehicles on the Great Highway in Sunset Dunes Park | Whether private vehicles would again be allowed on the Upper Great Highway through Sunset Dunes Park. SF News Today already has a dedicated explainer. |
| Prop H | Parcel Tax to Fund Public Muni Operations | The parcel-tax structure, expected revenue, duration, who pays and the permitted uses for Muni operations. |
| Prop I | Changes to Real Property Transfer Tax | Which transfer-tax rates or brackets would change and which property transactions would pay more or less. |
| Prop J | Removal of Foreclosure Exemption for Real Property Transfer Tax | Which foreclosure-related property transfers would become subject to the transfer tax and the expected fiscal effect. |
SF News Today’s existing deep dive on Prop G is at our Prop G explainer. Our August report on campaign funding behind Props D–J is at our campaign-finance report on Props D–J; its dollar totals should be read as an earlier campaign snapshot because filings continued after publication.
San Francisco supervisor races
| District | Candidates on the current 2026 ballot records |
|---|---|
| District 2 | Nicholas Berg; Guy McCoy; Monthanus Ratanapakdee; Stephen Sherrill |
| District 4 | Albert Chow; Jeremy Julian Greco; Alan Wong |
| District 6 | Alex Behrend; Matt Dorsey |
| District 8 | Gary McCoy; Michael T. Nguyen; Darshini Patel; Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel |
| District 10 | Pearci “PJ” Bastiany III; Dionjay “DJ” Brookter; Deandra Bryant; Theo Ellington; J.R. Eppler; Ellsworth “Ell” M. Jennison Jr.; Mike Trouble Lin; Jamo Muhammad; Jessica Pessecow; Shawn M. Richard |
District 8 has an unusual status wrinkle. Yekutiel publicly said Oct. 1 that he was ending his candidacy, but the San Francisco Ethics Commission said Oct. 15 that his campaign had described its activities as suspended and that the Commission did not consider him withdrawn. He therefore remains relevant to the current ballot and campaign-finance records even though voters may encounter reporting saying he ended his campaign.
The most useful way to compare these contests is by district: housing and development, public safety, street conditions, transit and transportation, small-business policy, homelessness, and the candidates’ records or professional backgrounds. Campaign-finance data is also particularly useful in crowded Districts 8 and 10.
Other San Francisco contests
Assessor-Recorder and Public Defender
The citywide ballot includes Joaquín Torres for Assessor-Recorder and Manohar Raju for Public Defender.
BART District 8
The BART District 8 contest includes Sara Barz.
Board of Education
Current ballot records list Autumn Brown Garibay, Virginia Cheung, Alida Fisher, Ryan Hazelton, Phil Kim, Laurance Lee, Reina Tello and Tim Tung for the available school-board seats.
Community College Board
Current records list Elijah Ball, Rome Moses Jones, Monroe Lace, Leah LaCroix, Jeremy Lee, Bunny McFadden, Erwin Tam and Lisa P. Wynn II for the regular-term Community College Board seats. Ruth Ferguson is listed for the partial-term contest.
Follow the money
San Francisco’s Ethics Commission publishes candidate public-financing and campaign-disclosure records for the Nov. 3 election. Those records are especially useful for the supervisor races and the local proposition campaigns because they show which committees are raising and spending money and when spending ceilings change.
Official sources:
San Francisco Department of Elections — future elections
San Francisco Ethics Commission — Nov. 3, 2026 campaign disclosures
San Francisco Ballot Simplification Council — Nov. 3 ballot digests
DataSF — public financing approved for Nov. 3 candidates
San Jose and Santa Clara County voter guide 2026
The South Bay has one of the densest local-election slates in the region. San Jose’s November contests include council runoffs in Districts 5, 7 and 9, while Santa Clara County ballots also carry city charter questions, local taxes and school finance measures in different jurisdictions.
San Jose City Council runoffs
| District | November runoff |
|---|---|
| District 5 | Peter Ortiz vs. Nora Campos |
| District 7 | Bien Doan vs. Van Le |
| District 9 | Genny Altwer vs. Gordon Chester |
These are district races, so the policy questions differ by neighborhood. A useful comparison should focus on housing and growth, homelessness, public safety, street and transportation spending, small-business policy and the candidates’ records in local government or community organizations.
Santa Clara County local measures
The county’s local-measure slate varies by city and school district. The main measures identified in the current 2026 election materials include:
| Measure | Jurisdiction | What it concerns |
|---|---|---|
| A | Morgan Hill | City treasurer governance/appointment question. |
| B | Gilroy | Transient-occupancy/hotel tax. |
| C | City of Santa Clara | Charter/public-works contracting change. |
| D | Los Altos | Downtown parking-plaza issue. |
| E | Mountain View | Charter modernization. |
| F | Mountain View | Transient-occupancy/hotel tax. |
| G | Sunnyvale | Charter/contracting rules. |
| H | Sunnyvale | Settlement authority. |
| I | Sunnyvale | Succession/governance rules. |
| J | Palo Alto | 0.5% transactions-and-use tax; city materials estimate about $15.6 million annually. |
| K | Milpitas | Business-tax update. |
| L | Cupertino | Requires voter approval for specified future rezoning or development of designated parks/open-space land. |
| M | Gilroy Unified School District | $295 million general-obligation school facilities bond. |
| N | Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District | School facilities bond. |
| O | Alum Rock Union School District | Parcel tax for educational programs and services. |
| P | Alum Rock Union School District | General-obligation facilities bond. |
| Q | Cambrian School District | $148-per-parcel tax for eight years, with annual inflation adjustments; district estimates about $1 million annually. |
| R | Orchard School District | Parcel tax based on building square footage with residential and nonresidential caps, for eight years. |
| S | El Camino Healthcare District | Limits district directors to four four-year terms. |
| RTM | Five-county regional district | 14-year transit sales tax described earlier in this guide. |
Measure L is worth reading carefully because it is not itself a rezoning proposal. The measure establishes a voter-approval rule for certain future changes affecting designated Cupertino parks and open space.
School finance measures also need address-specific attention because only voters inside the particular school district see them. The master guide identifies the subject; the official county voter information and each district’s measure page contain the exact tax rates, bond repayment estimates and accountability language.
Official sources:
City of San Jose — 2026 primary and runoff elections
Gilroy Unified — Measure M
Alum Rock Union School District — 2026 measure information
Cambrian School District — Measure Q
Alameda County: Oakland, Berkeley and the inner East Bay
Alameda County’s Nov. 3 ballot combines the five-county Regional Measure RTM with a long local-measure list across Dublin, San Lorenzo, Sunol, Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Hayward, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton and Union City.
| Measure | Jurisdiction | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| I | Dublin Unified School District | School parcel tax. |
| J | San Lorenzo Unified School District | Education parcel tax. |
| K | Sunol Glen Unified School District | General-obligation school bond. |
| L | City of Alameda | General-obligation bond. |
| M | City of Alameda | Charter cleanup of outdated provisions. |
| N | City of Alameda | Charter rules for leases and sales of public property. |
| O | Albany | Zoning changes. |
| P | Albany | Street paving and storm-drain parcel tax. |
| Q | Albany | EMS, advanced-life-support and fire parcel tax. |
| R | Albany | Business-license tax. |
| S | Albany | Real-property transfer tax. |
| T | Albany | Street-tree and streetlighting parcel tax. |
| U | Berkeley | $300 million bond for fire/emergency facilities, parks, infrastructure and climate-related projects. |
| V | Berkeley | 0.5% sales tax, estimated at roughly $9–10 million annually. |
| W | Berkeley | Charter and election-administration changes. |
| X | Berkeley | Rent-ordinance changes. |
| Y | Berkeley | Arts parcel tax of $0.07 per square foot, estimated at about $6.3 million annually for 12 years. |
| Z | Berkeley | Public-bank capitalization parcel tax: $0.06/sq. ft. residential and $0.09/sq. ft. nonresidential, estimated around $9.2 million in the first year, for six years. |
| AA | Berkeley | Replaces the current 1-cent-per-ounce general sugary-drink tax with a 2-cent-per-ounce special tax dedicated to health, nutrition and water programs. |
| BB | Emeryville | Business tax. |
| CC | Hayward | Business tax. |
| DD | Newark | Essential-services measure. |
| EE | Oakland | Charter amendment. |
| FF | Oakland | Real-property tax measure. |
| GG | Piedmont | Real-property conveyance tax. |
| HH | Pleasanton | Uniform transient-occupancy tax. |
| II | Union City | Essential-services extension. |
| RTM | Regional | Five-county transit tax. |
Berkeley is the clearest local cluster because voters there may see a series of measures touching infrastructure, municipal finance, rent regulation, arts funding and the city’s soda tax. Those questions are distinct enough that a Berkeley-specific child guide would be more useful than a single generic East Bay summary.
Official source:
Alameda County Registrar of Voters — Nov. 3, 2026 election information
San Mateo County: one of the densest local ballots
San Mateo County has one of the most useful official election pages in the region: the county posts the resolution/full text, impartial analysis, arguments and rebuttals for individual measures.
County charter measures
The countywide/charter slate includes:
- Measure L — Extreme Weather Events charter amendment
- Measure AA — Affirmation of Rights charter amendment
- Measure J — Extension to call a special election or make an appointment charter amendment
- Measure U — Reapportionment of supervisorial districts charter amendment
School measures
- Measure R — Burlingame School District bond
- Measure Z — Cabrillo Unified School District parcel tax
- Measure M — Jefferson Union High School District parcel tax
- Measure T — Pacifica School District parcel tax
- Measure K — San Carlos School District parcel tax
- Measure V — San Mateo County Community College District bond
- Measure W — San Mateo-Foster City School District bond
City measures to watch
| Measure | City | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| E | Redwood City | Rent control and eviction limits initiative — highest-priority local deep dive in the county. |
| S | San Bruno | Housing permits and developments measure. |
| DD | San Bruno | Fireworks ban. |
| EE | San Bruno | Business-license tax. |
| I | Half Moon Bay | Coastal land-use measure. |
| Q | Half Moon Bay | Housing initiative. |
| BB | Pacifica | Sales tax. |
| G | San Carlos | Sales tax. |
| H | San Mateo | Sales tax. |
| F | San Mateo | Charter amendment. |
| O / CC | East Palo Alto | Bond and term-limits measures. |
| P | Menlo Park | Citizen municipal-code initiative. |
| N | Portola Valley | Charter/property-transfer-tax question. |
Redwood City Measure E
This is the clearest San Mateo County standalone search opportunity. The county officially titles Measure E the “Rent Control and Eviction Limits Initiative.” SFNT should build a separate page around the actual legal mechanics: which units are covered, how allowable rent changes are calculated, eviction protections, exemptions, administrative structure and the city’s fiscal estimate.
Primary source:
San Mateo County Elections — Nov. 3, 2026
Contra Costa County
Contra Costa voters in the five-county transit district see Regional Measure RTM alongside city tax, housing, rent-control and school-finance measures. The principal local measures include:
| Measure | Jurisdiction | What it would do |
|---|---|---|
| M | Clayton | Raises the local sales tax by 1 percentage point. |
| N | Clayton | Renews the city’s landscape-maintenance district funding. |
| O | Concord | Simplifies and updates the business-license tax; the city estimates about $2.9 million annually. |
| P | Hercules | Adds a 1-cent sales tax, estimated at about $4 million annually, until ended by voters. |
| Q | Richmond | Authorizes up to $120 million in general-obligation bonds for fire stations; official ballot materials estimate an average levy around $22.15 per $100,000 of assessed value while bonds are outstanding. |
| R | San Pablo | Temporary sales tax: 0.5% for five years, then 0.25% for five years, then expiration; city estimates roughly $2 million annually at the initial rate. |
| S | San Pablo | Rent-control and just-cause measure; caps certain covered increases at the lower of 60% of CPI or 3%, with city administration funded through landlord fees. |
| T | Walnut Creek | Changes the city treasurer from an elected office to an appointed professional position. |
| U | Walnut Creek | Rezones a roughly 2.4-acre site near N. California Boulevard/Ygnacio Valley Road for mixed-use residential, senior-housing and commercial development. |
| V | West Contra Costa Unified School District | Renews a school parcel tax. |
| W | Acalanes Union High School District | $168-per-parcel tax for eight years; district estimates about $6 million annually. |
| X | Liberty Union High School District | $165 million school construction bond; district tax-rate statement estimates roughly $20 per $100,000 of assessed value. |
| RTM | Regional | Five-county transit tax. |
San Pablo Measure S is one of the strongest local search opportunities in Contra Costa because the legal effect is concrete: a formula for covered rent increases plus just-cause protections and a new administrative program. Richmond Measure Q is another likely deep-dive candidate because readers can directly compare the bond amount, property-tax estimate and proposed fire-station work.
Official sources:
City of Clayton — 2026 measures
City of Concord — Measure O
City of San Pablo — Nov. 3, 2026 election
Acalanes Union High School District — Measure W
Liberty Union High School District — Measure X
Marin County
Marin’s official elections site lists a large series of county, municipal, school and special-district measures. The biggest countywide question is Measure P, while Measure CC creates a major healthcare parcel-tax decision.
Measure P: childcare initiative
Marin County’s own measure list identifies Measure P as the county childcare initiative. The detailed impartial analysis should be used for the final tax rate, duration, allocation and accountability explanation. Current primary-source material describes a special parcel-tax structure tied to building square footage and funding for childcare/early-childhood services and educator compensation.
Measure CC: Marin Healthcare District
Measure CC would impose an annual parcel tax of 14 cents per square foot of improved building area within the Marin Healthcare District. The district estimates about $12.4 million annually for 30 years.
The stated uses include expansion and modernization of emergency, intensive-care, trauma and hospital facilities; additional ER/patient capacity; equipment and facilities; and recruitment/retention of doctors and nurses. The official impartial analysis says funds could not be used for administrator salaries.
This is exactly the kind of local measure where SFNT can add value by giving both the cost examples and the official arguments on each side without endorsing either.
Other Marin measures
The official list also includes AB (Sonoma County Junior College District), school Measures N and O, municipal Measures Q through X, and special-district Measures Y through FF.
Primary source:
Marin County Elections — local measures
Sonoma County
Sonoma County’s local ballot includes a countywide parks-tax question, city sales taxes and the Sonoma County Junior College District bond.
Measure H: regional parks sales-tax renewal
Current 2026 local-government materials identify Measure H as the proposal to continue the existing countywide one-eighth-cent special sales tax for parks after the current Measure M tax expires. The proceeds support Sonoma County Regional Parks and participating cities for parks, recreation, trails, water and related purposes. Current ballot summaries estimate roughly $15.5 million annually and provide that the tax would continue until ended by voters.
This should not be confused with Sonoma County’s 2024 Measure H concerning fire services. The same letter was used in a different election for a different proposal.
City tax measures
| Measure | Jurisdiction | What it would do |
|---|---|---|
| I | Windsor | Adds a 1% local sales tax, estimated around $5.7 million annually, until ended by voters. |
| K | Rohnert Park | Adds a 0.5% sales tax, estimated around $5.5 million annually, until ended by voters. |
| L | Santa Rosa | Reauthorizes a prior local sales tax at an updated 1-cent rate, estimated around $46 million annually, until ended by voters. |
| AB | Sonoma County Junior College District | Authorizes $830 million in school facilities bonds; the district tax-rate statement estimates an average levy in the low-$20s per $100,000 of assessed value over the bond period. |
Sonoma also has municipal council contests, including seats in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Windsor. The master guide focuses on the measures with the broadest county or city fiscal effect; a Sonoma child guide can add district-by-district candidate comparisons.
Official sources:
Town of Windsor — Measure I
City of Rohnert Park — Measure K
City of Santa Rosa — Measure L
Napa County
Napa County’s official election page lists four local measures for Nov. 3:
- Measure B — County of Napa
- Measure P — City of American Canyon
- Measure S — City of St. Helena
- Measure Y — Town of Yountville
Measure B: wildfire, watershed and open space
Measure B is titled the Napa County Wildfire Preparedness, Watershed Protection and Open Space Preservation Act of 2026.
County materials say it is a citizen-sponsored initiative proposing an 18-year, one-half-cent sales tax for wildfire preparedness, watershed protection, open-space preservation and related programs.
For a North Bay audience, this deserves more than a tax-rate summary. The child guide should show how revenue would be divided, eligible wildfire/prevention programs, land/watershed spending, oversight rules and the arguments from both campaign sides.
Primary sources:
Napa County Elections — local measures
Napa County — Measure B
Solano County
Solano County’s Nov. 3 election includes U.S. House District 8, Assembly District 11, Board of Supervisors District 4 and a series of county, city and school measures.
| Measure | Jurisdiction | What it would do |
|---|---|---|
| E | Solano County | Updates the unincorporated-area business-license tax for commercial wind, solar, battery-energy-storage, natural-gas extraction and future data centers; county estimates about $353,000 in additional annual revenue. |
| H | Solano County | Raises the transient-occupancy tax on lodging in unincorporated areas from 5% to 12%; county estimate is roughly $58,500 in additional annual revenue. |
| O | Rio Vista | Extends the existing 0.75% transactions-and-use tax for three years, from April 2027 through March 2030; current estimates are about $1.4 million annually. |
| P | Fairfield | Extends the city sales tax and authorizes an increase of up to 1 percentage point, with city materials estimating roughly $24 million annually. |
| Q | Fairfield | Changes the city clerk from an elected office to an appointed professional position. |
| U | Dixon Unified School District | School facilities bond. |
| V | Vacaville | Adds a 1-cent transactions-and-use tax, estimated around $28 million annually, until ended by voters. |
| X | Benicia | Business-license-tax modernization. |
| Y | Benicia | Establishes a limited city charter. |
| Z | Benicia | Real-property transfer tax. |
The Benicia X/Y/Z mapping above follows the city’s current 2026 election page and the county’s corrected measure notice. Earlier county agenda material used a different letter assignment, so older documents can be misleading.
For countywide readers, Measures E and H are the most direct tax-policy questions. Fairfield P and Vacaville V have the largest stated city revenue effects, while the Benicia package combines tax and city-governance changes that deserve a local explainer rather than a single sentence.
Official sources:
Solano County Registrar of Voters — current election information
Solano County — Measure E
City of Fairfield — Measure P
City of Vacaville — Measure V
City of Benicia — 2026 elections and Measures X, Y and Z
Other Northern California races to watch
SF News Today should not attempt to reproduce every local contest from Sacramento to the Oregon border on this master page. That would turn a Bay Area guide into an unusable statewide directory.
A better Northern California layer is selective: congressional and state races with unusual competitive dynamics, large regional implications or demonstrated search demand. The first candidates for that watchlist are U.S. House District 1 and District 2, plus any Sacramento-area or North Coast race that starts producing GSC/Bing impressions.
The nine-county Bay Area remains the exhaustive local scope. Northern California outside those counties should be treated as a high-interest watchlist, not as a promise to catalogue every school board and special district.
How this guide is built
SF News Today uses the California Secretary of State, county elections offices, city election pages, official ballot analyses and public campaign-finance records as the reporting backbone for this guide. Measure titles are shortened only when the full legal title would make a table unreadable; the linked official sources contain the certified wording and detailed analyses.
The guide does not make endorsements. For measures, our aim is to explain the legal change, tax or bond structure, duration and material fiscal effect. For candidate races, our deeper coverage focuses on the office, the candidates’ records and policy differences, and campaign finance where it materially helps readers understand the contest.
Because the Bay Area ballot changes by address, not every local item on this page appears on every Bay Area ballot. The nine-county sections are organized by the jurisdiction placing each measure on the ballot.