Which state ballot measures had the closest vote margins in California?

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Question: Which state ballot measures had the closest vote margins in California?

Answer: There were 24 state ballot measures decided by less than a percentage point in California between 1910 and 2024. The ballot measure with the closest margin during that period was Proposition 74, which was defeated with a vote margin of 50.01% rejecting to 49.99% approving. The margin in absolute votes was 545. The following table shows the vote margins for the closest 10 ballot measure elections in California:^[1]

Closest vote margins for California statewide ballot measures, 1910-2024
Measure	Year	Yes votes		No votes		Vote margin	Outcome
Measure	Year	#	%	#	%	Vote margin	Outcome
Proposition 74	1988	2,640,711	49.99%	2,641,256	50.01%	-0.01%	d
Proposition 13	1952	2,150,073	49.96%	2,153,727	50.04%	-0.08%	d
Proposition 3	1940	994,101	50.06%	991,722	49.94%	0.12%	a
Proposition 18	1922	310,872	49.90%	312,131	50.10%	-0.20%	d
Proposition 4	1915	124,610	49.90%	125,124	50.10%	-0.20%	d
Proposition 9	1946	1,003,451	50.13%	998,375	49.87%	0.25%	a
Proposition 1	2024	3,636,678	50.18%	3,610,436	49.82%	0.36%	a
Proposition 8	1980	2,896,767	50.19%	2,874,309	49.81%	0.39%	a
Proposition 21	1936	879,010	50.21%	871,558	49.79%	0.43%	a
Proposition 12	1914	271,896	49.78%	274,325	50.22%	-0.44%	d

Learn more:

Footnotes

↑ University of California Hastings, "Propositions," accessed November 28, 2022

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Which state ballot measures had the closest vote margins in California?

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