Tomorrow, June 5th, Californians will go to the polls and vote on a number of state and local races, along with tax measures and other proposed laws. Cannabis will play a large role in many of them.

In the gubernatorial primary race the two favorites, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, are both Democrats and they both support the cannabis industry and social justice reforms to right the drug wars’ wrongs. California Treasurer John Chiang is also running for governor and he has made increasing banking opportunities (which we covered here) for cannabis businesses one of his most pressing goals. Even if Mr. Chiang doesn’t win, we hope he continues making progress on this front as lack of access to banking severely hampers cannabis business owners and needlessly creates a danger to public safety. The Republican candidates for governor, John Cox and Travis Allen, hold the same traditional shortsighted and draconian Republican position: cannabis is bad, lock everyone up. To quote the current eloquent speaker in the White House: SAD! Although both Republican candidates are longshots to make the statewide election in November, one of them could get lucky if the Democratic favorites split a large number of votes. That’s because California has an open primary system with the top two vote getters, regardless of party affiliation, moving on to the November election.

Making sure the top two gubernatorial candidates support the cannabis industry and social justice reforms is extremely important but there also a number of other races and measures to keep an eye on tomorrow:

Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher faces what looks like a tough race as he’s being challenged by a Republican and a Democrat. Mr. Rohrabacher is one of the biggest Republican supporters of the cannabis industry (If you’ve never heard of the Rohrabacher-Blumenaur amendment, we covered that for you here.) The best-case scenario is that Mr. Rohrabacher and one of the Democratic candidates receive the most votes. Worst-case scenario is that Mr. Rohrabacher and the other Republican candidate, Scott Baugh, move on the November election and Mr. Baugh wins. Mr. Baugh has chastised Mr. Rohrabacher’s support of the cannabis industry, so a Baugh-Blumenaur collaboration is highly unlikely.

Residents of the Southern California City of Jurupa Valley will vote on whether to allow commercial cannabis activities in certain commercial zones.

Ballot Measure CC in the City of Pasadena would authorize up to six retailers, four cultivators, and four testing laboratories to operate in the City. There will also be a cannabis tax measure on the ballot.

The City of San Rafael, which we recently covered in our California Cannabis Countdown series, will also place a tax measure on its ballot. Measure G would authorize the City to tax cannabis business up to 8%.

There’s also a tax measure on the County of Santa Barbara’s ballot, however Measure T’s passage carries more than just tax consequences – if Measure T fails then the cannabis ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors that would allow commercial cannabis activities will not go into effect.

The County of San Luis Obispo will also put forth a tax measure on its ballot and just as in Santa Barbary County, if the tax measure doesn’t pass then commercial cannabis businesses will not be able to operate in SLO County.

Yolo County is proposing a tax measure that would place an initial four percent (4%) cultivation tax and an initial five percent (5%) tax on all other cannabis businesses.

There are other marijuana related measures that will be on ballots throughout California this Tuesday and it’s extremely important for current cannabis business owners, future entrepreneurs, and cannabis industry supporters to pay close attention to the language of the ballot measures–especially tax measures tied to the enactment of cannabis ordinances–and the cannabis positions on those running for elected office. The cannabis industry has made great strides recently and now is not the time to let up. Get out there on Tuesday and vote!