As California voters on Tuesday continue to cast ballots into the evening, they are expected to reverse course on a decade of progressive criminal justice reform, with polling showing overwhelming support for a statewide ballot measure to crackdown on retail theft and the deadly drug fentanyl.

There has been an explosion in retail theft across the state that has caused stores to raise prices, lock up items, and in multiple cases, close up shop. Proposition 36 increases penalties for smash-and-grab crimes when three or more people act together to ...

California voters approved a ballot measure that would reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies, essentially undoing a previous ballot measure that big-box retailers and law enforcement officials have long blamed for increases in theft,

The vote comes a decade after Californians passed Proposition 47, which lowered penalties for small-scale theft and drug usage.

Proposition 36, one of this year’s most high-profile and divisive ballot measures in California, has been approved by voters with overwhelming support. The law will enact harsher penalties for repeat theft and drug crimes,