In summary

In the last two weeks before the election, CalMatters hosted voter education events at ten branches of the San Mateo County Libraries.

While millions of California voters have already cast their ballots early, multiple Bay Area residents told CalMatters last week that they wanted to attend a VotingMatters session before they decided.

On Oct. 25, CalMatters held a VotingMatters session with Silicon Valley-based India Currents, a nonprofit newsroom that covers the Indian-American community. The event brought together a tight-knit audience, including one person who is running for local office for the first time. Snigdha Sen, India Currents contributing editor, presented about the more than 20 Indian American candidates running for office in the San Francisco Bay area.

For the last two weeks, CalMatters has also worked with the San Mateo County Libraries to host voter education events for Californians at ten library branches, from Pacifica to East Palo Alto.

Similar to the dozens of other events CalMatters has hosted around the state, the most common state propositions discussed were Proposition 32 (minimum wage), Proposition 33 (rent control), and Proposition 36 (increasing penalties for theft and drug crimes). At several of the events, when talking about Prop. 36, librarians shared first hand stories of dealing with theft of library resources, like laptops.

Our last scheduled VotingMatters event is today (Monday, Nov. 4), with Contra Costa College at 12 pm at Fireside Hall.event kit, or specific events we’re hosting, please contact dhu@calmatters.org.