next on kqed newsroom. with absentee voting under way in california, a look at the race for secretary of state, who is running and what's at stake. and 20 years later, the legacy of a controversial ballot measure that targeted illegal immigration. >> the way prop 7 was written, it could have really torn apart families. plus on its 29th anniversary, we'll remember the loma prieta earthquake and the world series it interrupted. >> it was beautiful indian summer weather, golden light as it started to get to the end of the day. it was a picture perfect, sort of enchanted setting.

♪ good evening. welcome to kqed newsroom. i'm scott schaefer. tonight with an election day less than three weeks away, a look at california elections. how we vote and the person who oversees the whole process, the secretary of state. vying for the top elections job is ron padilla, a state senator from los angeles, and pete peterson who runs an institute at pepperdine university. joining me now from sacramento, government editor john meyers. john, you moderated a debate last week between these two gentlemen. tell us, first of all, what do you see as the key differences between them? >> you know, scott, i think really the key difference is outside or inside? alex padilla has been in the

legislature for years in the state senate. he knows how government works in sacramento. has been involved in issues more this year than he has in the past. pete peterson, a republican would shake things up. republicans haven't won an election in eight years in california. i think that experience, inside or outside, and of course the democratic majority in sacramento, california will be the real difference. >> being an outsider, would that be an advantage? sacramento is very much controlled by democrats. what would the challenge be to someone like pete peterson who would have to work with the legislature and the government? >> i think the bottom line for secretary of state is there's limited power, anyway. you certainly don't control the laws of elections. you actually don't control the elections themselves. elections are conducted on the county level. you get a little bit of a bully pulpit on issues of election administration, voting rights, money in politics, so i think he would have to be an independent

voice. but peterson has won a lot of endorsements in this race. newspapers up and down the state has said he's the guy to pick instead of pa deedilla, "the insider," and i think that will be his momentum in the next few weeks. >> and who is the one the secretary of state will have to tackle? >> i'm going to pick one, because in the debate last week, both of them picked the same issue that they would do as job one, and that is a statewide voter data base. this would be a database we've been working on for years that would allow registrars in every county to share information fully so that we would know who actually is registered to vote. you know, people move, people die, the voter rolls have to be updated. we are some 10 years behind federal standards that have mandated a statewide voter database. we're the only state in america that is this far behind, for a number of reasons, and we can talk about those.

but both men say they would fix that database as job one. >> the winner of that race would have a lot to say about how campaigns and elections are held in the future. joining me to discuss that is josh richmond, bay area news group political reporter, and michelle romero, a policy director at the green line institute. welcome to both of you. let me begin with you, michelle, because you were one of the panelists in that debate last week. what was your mission and how did it overlap with the secretary of state? >> the green line institute is really about making sure communities of color have access to the american dream. we're seeing voter i.d. law and voter i.d. law in other states. we need a secretary of state who understands. california needs to be the counter-example. >> has that come up at all in this race? >> a little bit. as a community panelist, they had a chance to ask a couple questions. asian and latino voters in california, they have the lowest registration rates and turn out at much lower rates, too, so what are they going to do about that? >> josh, turnout has been low in

these off-year elections. is there anything the secretary of state can do or try to do? >> try, definitely. and both candidates have talked a lot about how to try to goose that civic engagement into higher gear. it's such a multi-faceted problem that it's hard to see how somebody without policy making authority can do it other than going out there and screaming to the high heavens, get to the polls, get to the registration. you can register on line now. we have voter materials in nine or ten languages. >> as john said, use the bully pulpit. >> use the bully pulpit. >> john meyers, we're seeing this year a couple reforms already playing out. one of them is the top 2 primary. we're seeing that in the rocana-micondra race down in the bay. how is that playing out, how is it shaking things up? >> i think it remains to be seen somewhat.

this is only the second election cycle that we've had it. if you look around the state and that race is one great example in the bay area, but if you look around california, there are many instances of those fights, democrat versus democrat, republican versus republican. david campos to david chew, nasty race. if you looked from nevada to california, they are both liberal democrats in a lot of ways. so how do the voters use this power, how engaged can voters get? back to what michelle and josh were talking about, too, how do you engage more voters in that process to possibly get more outcomes and maybe get legislators who you think are more effective. >> is it someone who engages folks, someone who you want to have access to the polls and get excited about an election. >> no, not by itself.

i think one of the things we heard would be implemented was the voters could now vote for whoever they wanted, there was more at stake, and because of that people would be rushing to the polls. and that's not the case. we need to do a lot of education. if anything, we just made power elections more complicated, and we really need to break that down. >> rank choice voting, very controversial in oakland. four years ago don pirata lost to jean quan after many rounds of counting. what is your decision of rank choice voting more exciting, more confusing to voters? >> i think it's exciting and confusing to them. i think it forces candidates to get out there and really engage with voters in a very different way than they did in a traditional campaign. instead of saying, vote for me instead of that other guy, they're saying, vote for me, but if i'm not your top choice, write to me in second or third, and i think this other person is a good choice for you as well.

a lot of coalition building goes on in rank choice voting. it also makes candidates hard to predict. especially when they're joke jockeying for the second or third on the ballot. >> and michelle, if the person you put down aren't in it in the end, they might not even be in it. >> we're seeing vote by mail. vote by mail seems to be helping voters but there are a lot of common mistakes youth are making, not turning their ballot in on time, or people who don't speak english very well. >> john, let me ask you a question about money in politics which is always an issue in california. they run this cow access website who allows people, citizens and others to track cash that goes into campaigns. how well is that running? you hear a lot of criticism of it, don't you? has it been improved at all in the last eight years under the incumbent debra bowen?

>> let's call it what it is, scott, it is a disaster. reporters use it more than anybody. it's slow, it's hard to track the money between candidates and committees and donors. it uses a pdf system which is clunky sometimes at best. debra bowen has tried to do a lot of it, yi don't think it's her fault. bowen has been quiet in the last few years, certainly in the last few months. there's been questions about her health that may have been a factor. but the bottom line here is money. the state legislature has not spent money on voting issues, and i do think going forward, whoever the secretary is and whoever these elected officials are, there has to be money in the system to run elections. these two guys who want to be secretary of state both say they're going to fight for it. as a matter of fact, both of them said we may need a state bond measure to borrow the money to try to conduct elections better, and i think that campaign system is one example.

>> and it almost seems like the politicians don't really want to fix that system. or at least it isn't a priority, clearly. >> it certainly isn't a priority. we've seen the budget get scaled back and scaled back, and now that jerry brown is holding the line on spending pretty consistently, much like the courts, much like the other programs that got slashed deep, there's not going to be a flood of money coming to us any time soon. i'm not sure that it's by design. the politicians don't want to be transparent about campaign finance spending. it's out there if you look for it, it's just very laborious to get to it. >> who does it well is mapflight. >> and they're doing it with data. >> exactly. >> how do they do it so much more effectively? >> it's become a priority. it's about putting the voter first. >> just quickly, michelle, what would be at the top of your wish list for the next secretary of state? >> i want a secretary of state who understands that closing the civic gaps between people of

color is very important to things like fraud. i want someone actively engaged to close the gap, i want to make sure latinos are registered to vote and are going to be bold about it. >> john meyers, kqed senior politics and government editor, thank you very much. political history was made in los angeles this week with the swearing in of the first latino president pro temperature of the c -- pro tem since 1983. he was elected in 1984 for prop 11. >> i was raised by my mother with a fourth grade education. she emigrated to california to give my two sisters and me a better life. >> the controversial ballot measure aimed at keeping illegal immigrant from accessing public

services, including health care and education. california voters passed it overwhelmingly but it was later struck down in federal court. 20 years later, the legacy of prop 187 is still being felt as i found on a visit to san diego this week. sandwiched between the navy and shipyards is where kevin deleon grew up. today it's represented in the state assembly by democrat lorraine gonzalez. she was a grad student when prop 187 was on the ballot. but as the campaign heated up, she says her mother convinced her to pursue public service. >> i think if you can identify one thing that singlehandedly brought together the latino community to empower themselves and start ensuring that people who were qualified could get their citizenship, making sure they were registered to vote, make sure they actually voelted it was prop 187.

>> she said her family felt targeted by the measure, regardless of whether they were here legally or not. among the controversial proposals was a ban on letting an illegal immigrant use health care and other publicly funded services. it also would have prevented undocumented children to attend schools while having to verify all students and their parents. >> the way prop 187 was written, it really could have torn apart families. children in my position, born here legally, might not be able to have a parent in a parent-teacher conference. it didn't really make sense, but it brought us together as a community. >> this is the border crossing shown in a 1994 tv ad. its provocative images of people screaming illegally from mexico to california. >> this fall we can send a message to washington to stop illegal immigration by passing

proposition 187, the s.o.s. initiative. >> pete nunez, a co-author of prop 187, serves as an attorney under president ronald reagan. >> we are standing just at the port of entry in encino, california. it's the busiest port of entry in california. most of what you see today wasn't there then because it was overrun by illegal immigrants. there was no fence, there were no lights, there were no cameras, so it really served as the focal point for everything that was wrong with our immigration policy. >> nunez said the measure tapped into public anger over illegal immigration. >> they had recently done a study at the cost of the taxpayers, and it was in the billions of dollars. so the idea was we needed to save california from this ongoing invasion from mexico. >> public outrage over illegal immigration was so strong that some democrats, including

senator diane feinstein, who was up for reelection that year, started talking tough on border security. >> many nights, 3,000 illegal immigrants try to cross this border. our border patrol agents are outnumbered 60 to 1. >> one of the few california republicans who spoke out against prop 1878 was ron hunz. he challenged governor wilson in the 1984 primary, warning that anti-immigrant measures were bad for california and for the gop. >> the main impact has been that the republican party in california, which had been the dominant party for decades, has been destroyed. there is effectively almost no republican party left in california. it's not a viable statewide party. and the reason for that is that the party ended up becoming viewed as incredibly hostile to the new immigrant groups in the state who are now an important part of the electorate.

>> let's remember what prop 187 did was authorize state workers to withhold government services from anyone they suspected of being an undocumented alien. so even latinos of several generations in the united states felt like it really was targeted toward the entire latino population. >> sagura points out that before 1984, latinos and other immigrant groups often split their votes between republicans and democrats. but the fear of prop 187 provoked, changed all that. >> as a consequence, people mobilized. latinos started registering to vote, latinos got very active. >> after the 1984 election, the federal courts validated most of prop 187, so it was never enforced. 20 years later, the issue of illegal immigration still sparks strong feelings in california. this summer demonstrators protested the large number of unaccompanied minors entering the u.s. illegally from central america. >> we don't want you here! >> angry crowds in mirietta,

just north of san diego county, blocked a bus full of women and children heading to a process facility. it was a reminder that public concern over illegal immigration still lingers, said public activist joyce harms. >> we have this strong influx of kids coming from central america, and prop 187 was primarily to prevent state funds from covering public welfare for illegal immigrants into the state. >> things have gotten worse. illegal immigration is worse. in 1994, we had maybe 2 to 3 million. we now have 11 to 12 million people in the country illegally. we have gone the entire wrong direction. >> the political direction in california is being driven by changing demographics. this year latinos hedged past non-hispanic whites as the single largest ethnic group in california. and voter attitude has changed, too. a recent poll has found that 98%

of voters proposed a path of citizenship for illegal immigrants who learn english and pay back taxes. with latino legislators flexing their muscles in sacramento, new laws have been passed helping undocumented immigrants. at the san jose office of the non-profit siren, staff attorneys advise clients how to navigate the new legal landscape. one law allows undocumented immigrants to get a driver's permit starting in january. and young people who came to the u.s. illegally can obtain work permits without fear of deportation. they marvel at how much immigration policy has changed. >> nobody anymore will say a latino immigrant or the child of an immigrant can't be part of the american dream. that's now what california expects. that is the california dream story. ♪ >> although prop 187 was never implemented, governor jerry

brown signed legislation last month formally removing it from the books. the author of that bill? democrat kevin deleon. moving to another anniversary. it's been 25 years since the loma prieta earthquake shook northern california at 5:34 p.m. it was minutes before the start of game 3 of the world series between the san francisco giants and the oakland a's. san francisco filmmaker john leona dykus was at candlestick park with his brother tim, both lifelong giants fans. john brought along his video camera to document the game. i'll be talking to him in a moment, but first a clip from his film, the day the world series stopped. >> minutes before the quake struck, i left our seats to pick up some dinner. i walked up here to get a hot dog because they have a stand here against the wall. i'm waiting in line with everybody to get my dog, and bam! i can hear the ground growning

underneath the concrete. i look around to see where i'm going to protect myself from falling debris. there was nowhere to go because it was completely packed. then i looked up above and i saw this huge upper lip of the stadium above me. and boy, if that thing comes down, it's all over. >> john dykus, welcome. >> good to be with you. >> i was watching your film and realized we have a couple things in common. i was 31 years old at the time of that game. i was also in line at candlestick for a hot dog. the power went out. i stayed in line and got my hot dog. what did you do? >> the hot dog vendor said, there is no power so all sales are cash only. i wanted to get back to my seat to find out what was going on and be with my brother. i headed back to the seat, and it was a totally different scene. social media back then was just transistor radios. >> and those big cell phones. it didn't feel like a big deal,

but that wasn't the case where you were? >> i would agree. it didn't feel gigantic, because we were insulated by a giant slab of concrete. it did feel strong, but it didn't feel as bad as it really turned out to be. >> and i think the worst shaking, as i recall, was up in the stands, right? there were those big concrete upper deck, which if it had collapsed -- thank god it didn't, but if it had, it would have been a real disaster. >> huge. they put expansion joints in a few years earlier, and that really made a big difference, but those folks got out of there right quick. >> of course, they ultimately stopped the game. we want to take a look at the clip of the film to see how the crowd reacted at a time when it wasn't really clear what was going to happen. let's watch. >> i noticed all of a sudden that the whole dish here started to undulate and go back and forth. all of a sudden the crowd started to react. they're going, whoa, whoa, like you were on a roller coaster ride. people didn't know how to react

or what to do next. people with tvs, radios, whatnot, started to say, hey, we just had a big earthquake in the bay area here. you came back within two or three minutes. >> i remember when i came back and sat down, the scene had changed dramatically. and then the fans started chanting, let's play ball! let's play ball! as if to say, hey, it was just another earthquake, let's get back to the business of the world series. >> and john, that's you with your brother in that clip, and of course, you've been to many games with your brother, including that one. >> indeed. we were sitting in our very seats. >> yep. yep. you say in the film you thought you dodged a bullet that day. say more about that. >> well, we were lucky where we were. i think the people who died and the people who were injured, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. had those expansion joints not been put into candlestick park, that stadium could have collapsed and i could have gotten crushed by that upper

section of the stands. it was pure luck. >> the huge baseball fan that you and your brother are, you probably wanted the series to resume as quickly as possible. it took about ten days, i think, before game 3 was ultimately played. was that the right call? >> i think so. they had to inspect both stadiums. they were still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and i think there needed to be respect shown for that. the communities needed to heal a little bit. >> what role do you think the resumption of the world series ten days later had on the city, do you think? >> i think it brought people back to a sense of their normal lives before the tragedy occurred. and i think it also allowed the two communities that were polar opposites ruining for separate teams to come together as one community, and to celebrate the bay area that had pulled itself out of the ashes. they pulled hope out of those ashes to reclaim their communities. >> so, you see, in some ways the series was a bit of a metaphor for the city in kind of the bay

area rising from the ashes, literally. >> very much so. very much so. >> it kind of reminds me a little bit, it harkens back to 1963 when kennedy had been assassinated, and there was a big controversy whether that weekend the nfl should resume its games. they decided that it should. but you see how sports is so interwoven into our culture, our politics and everything, right? >> absolutely. and i think pete rosell of the nfl was the biggest mistake he made scheduling those games for that weekend. this, i think, was a different scenario. we really needed to get that game going again. it was time. >> of course, then tcit was the bay bridge series. there was a lot of excitement. the fact it turned out not to be the better series -- game 3 was kind of a disaster. the giants fans lost 13-7. would it have made a difference, do you think, if the series had gone on longer? was the bay area wanting that, do you think? >> that's a tough one to answer.

i certainly know giants fans would have loved for it to go on longer, i would have loved for it to go on longer. we were just swept by a team that was superior. it may have been a little bit more of a salve to the community if it had gone on longer, but either way, i think it worked out well. >> this film is clearly a love letter to the city, the giants, the fans, your brother. what is it about baseball that's so meaningful? you've done, i think, three documentaries about baseball. you're working on a fourth. what is it about baseball that's so important. >> baseball has always been a reflection of the american society, and it predates the civil war. it was one huge, constant thread and narrative that runs through american history. i like to create documentaries that tell the human side of the game. those typically fly under the radar but they resonate with people emotionally. just as we're seeing now, baseball provides a kind of drama and a kind of magic that you don't see in other sports. >> and 25 years later, lo and

blobe ho behold, we're back where we w e were. go, giants. >> go, giants. tune in next week for a special report at the ballot box, including proposition 1. that's the water bond. for more coverage, please go to kqed.org. we finish with our archives. tui vu will be back next week. thanks for joining us. good night. at first light this morning, we could see some of the devastation had been cleaned up. but what was left behind was still frightening and buildings that had partially collapsed last night threatened to collapse completely. >> are you okay? i can't get home. he following k

was produced in high definition. ♪ every single bite needed to be -- [ laughter ] >> twinkies in there. >> wow. >> it's like a great big hug. >> it's about as spicy as i can handle. put chili powder in my baby foot. >> it's all over the table and a lot of