California voters rejected Proposition 40, the one-time 5 per cent tax on the net worth of the state's billionaires, the Associated Press projected at 6:28 p.m. Pacific time on Monday. With about 83 per cent of the expected vote counted, 5,909,778 people had voted no and 5,288,379 yes, according to KQED's results, which carry AP data. The margin was 621,399.

On the same ballot, 6,728,879 people voted yes on Proposition 3, which makes the state's higher income tax rates on top earners permanent. That is 1,440,500 more yes votes than the billionaire tax received, by our arithmetic from the same count. Californians did not turn against taxing the rich. They turned down this tax.

They approved a tax on high incomes that already exists and rejected a new tax on wealth. Proposition 3 removes the 2031 expiry date from rates that voters first approved in 2012 and extended in 2016. According to KQED, those rates apply to individuals earning around $371,000 and couples earning about $743,000, and bring in roughly $10 billion a year. The AP called it at 12:15 a.m. on 4 November, a little after midnight on election night, and it stood at 60.5 per cent yes.