Californians may vote on daylight saving time

SACRAMENTO — California voters may get a chance to weigh in on daylight saving time in November.

The state Senate on Thursday approved a proposal to ask voters to repeal a 70-yearold initiative that set a biannual clock change in California and give lawmakers the power to adjust the time with a two-thirds vote.

“If signed by the governor, the bill will bring California closer to abolishing the outdated practice of switching our clocks in the fall and spring,” said Democratic Assemblyman Kansen Chu, who introduced Assembly Bill 807.

Foes of the practice shouldn’t celebrate just yet. The state cannot officially end daylight saving time until next year, at the earliest. The process is best described as complicated and would require a second bill and federal approval, according to analysis from the Legislature.

AB 807 asks voters to repeal a 1949 ballot measure, the Daylight Saving Time Act, that established Standard Pacific Time in California. The older measure also required the state to advance the clock one hour on the last Sunday in April and set it back on the last Sunday of September. Voters later adjusted the fall back period to the last Sunday in October.

Today California conforms with federal mandates on daylight saving time by setting the clock ahead on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November.