How Uber, Lyft won over California
Six weeks before election day, Proposition 22 was in trouble.
Just 39% of likely voters surveyed in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll said they would side with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy companies by voting yes on a California ballot measure that would override state law requiring them to treat workers as employees. A big chunk of voters, 25%, was still undecided.
On Nov. 3, Proposition 22 cruised to an easy victory with 58% of the vote, insulating gig economy companies from future regulatory threats and creating a legal framework to undergird their business model. How they turned the campaign in their favor is of great significance; in recent days, executives have already said they hope to replicate the process across the country.
Facing an uphill battle, Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies set a spending record, pouring more than $200 million into the ballot initiative. They saturated TV and digital ad space. They bombarded gig workers and customers alike with inapp notifications and emails suggesting that drivers wanted to remain independent contractors and that a yes vote would be best for them.
The strategy seems to have worked, with the companies finding support across most of the state.
Yet the map of voter support is as decisive as it is confounding. Within Los Angeles,
Proposition 22 was voted down in several liberal-leaning precincts but found widespread support in neighborhoods with large Black and Latino communities and majority white suburban areas alike. It breaks with oft-seen voting trends by uniting working-class South Los Angeles with the wealthy and conservative Beverly Hills.
Across the state, Proposition 22 found its strongest support in agricultural or rural counties far from the app companies’ biggest markets, such as Shasta and Glenn, which both passed the measure with 70% of the vote. It won Orange and San Diego counties with well over 60%, compared with 55% in Los Angeles. The measure faced its opposition in parts of the Bay Area, where Uber and Lyft are headquartered, with five of the nine counties in the region voting against it, and along the Northern California coast.
Securing yes votes on ballot measures is notoriously difficult, because undecided or confused voters typically default to a no vote.
“It was surprising,” said Greg Ferenstein, research director at the nonprofit Tech4America and a former tech journalist. “I did not think it was going to pass because generally there’s a pretty big backlash against the tech industry, and a lot vote no on propositions, regardless of what it is.”
Uber and Lyft threatened to leave California or raise prices and cut jobs if the measure was voted down. Ferenstein said voters may have supported the measure because they feared the unpredictable consequences its failure would bring to companies, customers and drivers.