Proposition 5, which would have allocated $460 million a year to treat perpetrators of nonviolent drug-related crimes, was defeated. Backers said society would see more benefit from treatment than incarceration, while opponents contended the measure would decriminalize drugs and let dangerous criminals avoid jail.
Meanwhile, an effort to boost police funding by up to $965 million a year under Proposition 6 also lost. Backers argued that law enforcement receives too little state money, but foes said the measure would have stripped funding from more important priorities such as schools.
Proposition 9, a bid to boost the rights of crime victims and restrict early prisoner releases, was winning.
The measure would provide mandatory restitution to victims, allow them to avoid cooperating in a criminal defense, boost the maximum wait for a parole hearing to 15 years, and let an unlimited number of a victim's family members testify at parole hearings.
Opponents argued that such changes would prove burdensome to the criminal justice process, improperly make victims party to criminal cases, potentially violate offenders' constitutional rights and increase incarceration costs.
* Proposition 1A, the long-delayed effort to finance a bullet train linking Southern California with the Bay Area, edged ahead in late returns.
Backers said the $9.95-billion bond measure would prove the fiscal stimulus to attract money from the federal government and private sector to build a $45-billion, 800-mile system featuring trains running up to 220 mph. They billed it as a big-ticket public works project that would be an economic shot in the arm.
Opponents called the proposal a boondoggle and questioned the credibility of its promoters.
They said the construction cost would swell to more than $80 billion, and the trains would operate at a deficit and fail to meet speedy travel time predictions.
* Proposition 11, a bid to dramatically alter the once-a-decade job of redrawing districts for state lawmakers, was also leading.
The measure, backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the League of Women Voters, would yank the job from the Legislature and place it in the hands of a 14-member bipartisan commission.
Foes of the plan, including the state Democratic Party and labor leaders, argued that it was a Republican power grab and would provide no guarantee of adequate representation for the state's diverse communities.
