Harris refuses to say how she voted on California's crime-fighting ballot measure

Vice President Harris is refusing to say how she voted on a tough-on-crime ballot measure at stake in California this year that would increase penalties for some drug and theft crimes. She says she doesn't want to support the yes or no campaign, but said she did cast her vote.

Proposition 36 – officially titled “Permits felony charges and increases penalties for certain drug and theft offenses” – would increase penalties for repeat thieves, those who engage in coordinated shoplifting with large groups, and those who sell drugs. tighten.

Ms. Harris says she doesn't want to talk about how she voted for Prop 36 because there are only 48 hours left until the election.

“I'm not going to talk about the vote on this because, frankly, it's the Sunday before the election and I have no intention of endorsing the whole thing one way or the other, but I voted.” Ms. Harris said on Sunday reporters in Michigan.

Democrats in the state, including Gov. Newsom, protested Prop 36, saying it would set the state back by increasing the prison population, increasing the burden on law enforcement and unjustly incarcerating people.

“I’m afraid I can’t do everything,” Mr. Newsom told reporters at a news conference in September. “I'm trying to make Kamala Harris president of the United States. … I just pray, I really do, that people take a good look at Proposition 36.”

The Public Policy Institute of California found in a recent poll that 71 percent of likely California voters are expected to support Prop 36 in this week's election, including 63 percent of Democrats, 85 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents. Hispanic voters support the proposal by a whopping majority of 52 percentage points, 75 percent to 23 percent.

Retail and property crime in Ms. Harris' home state has become a key issue for voters this year as they consider their options for electing mayors, district attorneys and sheriffs. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who faces several liberal challengers in her bid for a second term, has supported Prop 36. Nathan Hochman, who is challenging the left-leaning Los Angeles district attorney, also supported Prop 36.

Ms. Harris's reluctance to speak on the issue that has drawn so much attention from her neighbors was highlighted by another revelation later in the day that the vice president had declined questions several times over the course of her brief campaign for the Oval Office about them to answer previous statements and political positions.

According to an analysis by Axios, Ms. Harris declined to say whether she still supports a ban on the manufacture of all internal combustion engine vehicles within the next decade, whether she supports a unilateral path to citizenship for the “Dreamers,” or whether she would continue to do so Support the decriminalization of prostitution and the abolition of for-profit prisons.