Californian's Vote Yes To Year-Long Daylight Saving Time

On March 5th 2017 in Los Angeles, United States of America.

Some People Aren’t Happy About It

Many Californians seem to be all about getting more sunshine after voters backed a proposition that could make daylight saving time permanent.

On the ballot, Proposition 7 asked people whether or not they agreed to stop changing their clocks twice a year. Out of the more than three million ballots counted, around 60.3 percent of people voted Yes, while 39.7 percent of folks opposed the proposition, according to Newsweek.

The Daylight Saving Time Act came about in 1949 in the U.S. and requires clocks to be set forward by an hour in the spring and fall back an hour every fall. The Proposition 7 vote came just two days after the U.S. fell back to standard time, gaining an hour of sunlight in the morning, but losing an hour of sunlight in the evening.

Democratic Rep. Kansen Chu of San Jose put forth Proposition 7, arguing it’s a public safety issue. Having to spring forward every year causes people to lose an hour of sleep, which could lead to increases in car accidents and heart attacks, he argued. He cited a 2009 Michigan State University study for back-up.

“I don’t know anybody who really enjoys doing this adjustment of their schedule twice a year,” Chu said. Thus, he and many other Californians argued that we should just stick to the Spring forward time and keep it there all-year round.

Chu said making daylight saving permanent could mean children spending more time outside during the winter and people eating out more, which could boost businesses.

Despite Californians voting Yes on the proposal Tuesday, any changes still require the backing of a two-thirds majority in Congress, as well as a change in federal law.

Some people aren’t for the proposal. Republican legislator Jim Nielsen said back in June, “It’s fixing something that is not broken. Our society has acculturated itself to Daylight Savings Time. I think it would create too much confusion to change it again.”

So far, Hawaii and Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) don’t recognize daylight saving time. Florida became the first state to approve year-round daylight saving time back in March. However, as stated earlier, their move still requires the approval of Congress.