Ridgecrest Citizens Against B and C

06/19/2026

The voters have spoken!

According to the Daily Independent, Measures B and C have officially been defeated.

Over the past several months, we've shared information, answered questions, put up signs, and had countless conversations with friends and neighbors. Through it all, our goal was simple: to help ensure voters had the information they needed to make an informed decision.

Today, we'd simply like to say THANK YOU!!!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read, ask questions, share our posts, display a yard sign, volunteer, or simply have a respectful conversation with a neighbor. Whether you agreed with us from the beginning or took time to carefully consider the issues before voting, your participation made our community stronger.

This outcome means that Ridgecrest's current SYSTEM - the same voter-approved system that has served our community for the past 14 YEARS - will remain in place.

Democracy works best when citizens are informed, engaged, and willing to participate. We are grateful to everyone who helped make that happen.

Thank you, Ridgecrest.

Measures B and C are both mathematically eliminated and have failed, as of the latest Kern County Elections vote count on Thursday night.

06/13/2026

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨

Ballotpedia updated their status of Measures B and C to DEFEATED!!! 🎉❤️

Thank you to one of our supporters who shared the updated Ballotpedia results from this morning with us. We were so excited to see this news! While results won't be official until every ballot is counted and results are certified, we are certain that when this process is completed, these measures will remain defeated.

And a HUGE thank you to all of our MANY supporters who worked diligently for the past few months to ensure that local voters were aware of the flaws of these poorly conceived and written measures. It was truly a huge team effort my so many people to defeat these measure put forward by the city and our council that would have decreased our ability to hold them accountable and created special loopholes for sitting council members.

06/13/2026

We've been debating whether it would be appropriate to declare Measures B and C defeated, with votes outstanding still. But at the end of the day, unless the race is called by someone else, we feel it's too important to ensure that every vote is counted and voice is heard before we start wrapping up our efforts.

But we definitely agree with the assessment of The Daily Independent that "Measure B, C all but officially dead with latest vote count update."

You can read their full story here:

Measures B and C appear to be all but officially dead, as the measures keep getting deeper into the “no” side with each update from the Kern County Elections Department

06/10/2026

Thank you to The Daily Independent for the update on our local ballot measures! We do agree that it looks like these poorly written measures will be defeated. Hopefully after Thursday's vote updates, we'll have a definitive answer!

https://www.ridgecrestca.com/news/measure-b-c-all-but-officially-dead-with-latest-vote-count-update/article_1a1c2547-2000-4c40-97c6-fcefd43283f2.html

06/07/2026

The latest vote totals show both Measures B and C failing, with each new drop since the early mail-in ballots came in showing about 60% of voters opposing both measures.

However, we missed this KGET news story on the issue before the last ballot drop, and thought it was worth sharing that we're getting attention from folks in Bakersfield!

Vote tally for Ridgecrest measures B and C shows very close race

06/06/2026

Thank you to The Daily Independent for tracking this story! We are confident that voters will reject these poorly conceived and written measures when the final votes are tallied, but we do believe there are at least another thousand or more votes still to be counted and want to ensure that every vote is heard before calling the results prematurely.

Another election twist.

One measure that had been holding onto a narrow lead has now joined the other in failing status as new vote totals were released Friday.

Are the results settled, or could more ballots still change the outcome?

Read the full story in the link below.

https://www.ridgecrestca.com/news/friday-update-measure-c-joins-measure-b-in-failing-status/article_31058fae-fed6-4a1a-a6fb-ff683b853b44.html

06/04/2026

Like everyone else, with both of these measures very much in limbo, we've been anxiously awaiting final, or even updated, vote totals. So we reached out to County Elections this morning... Only to be told they're not expecting to update these anytime soon.

The official word - By the end of the day TOMORROW!

We'll keep our eyes peeled in case anything changes. In the meantime we've been very busily trying to remove all of our signs and banners. If you still have one at your home and could bring that in, we'd appreciate it. And if we've inadvertently missed any, please message our page and we'll get it down as quickly as possible!

Thank you to everyone for your support on these issues and protecting our city! Regardless of the outcome, we are proud to have been part of the effort to ensure the council works under OUR terms, not THEIRS!

06/02/2026

Some last minute coverage on these flawed measures from one of the Bakersfield news stations. Just a reminder to VOTE, and to vote NO on Measures B and C!

https://youtu.be/w5B7jfQSEuQ?si=-7LhjIcgMEOEzJOJ

Measures B and C draw criticism

05/30/2026

With just a few days until election day, we wanted to share our first post outlining the reasons dozens of local voters came together to try and stop these poorly written and poorly conceived measures. If you're still not sure how to vote, we hope this will help you decide to vote NO on Measures B and C.
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OUR Terms. NOT Theirs.
Vote NO on Measures B and C.

In 2012, after decades of frustration with long-term city politicians and a desire for fresh perspectives on our City Council, the citizens of Ridgecrest took action. A citizen-led measure was placed on the ballot to establish term limits for our city’s elected leaders.

The community spoke loudly and clearly: nearly 75% of voters supported term limits, ushering in a new era of accountability and ensuring that no one could hold power at City Hall indefinitely.

That same year, voters were also asked to choose between a two-year or four-year mayoral term. Again, voters made their priorities clear. More than 60% chose a two-year mayor, while only about one-third supported a four-year term. Ridgecrest voters wanted frequent accountability and responsive leadership.

Now, just 14 years later, our City Council is asking voters to undo those citizen-led and approved rules.

Measures B and C would replace the term limits and terms that Ridgecrest voters put in place with new ones written by City Council lawyers. Even more concerning, these changes would reset the clock for current councilmembers’ terms, effectively allowing them to bypass the very term limits voters approved.

In other words, the rules that were supposed to limit time in office would suddenly no longer apply… At least to the people currently in power.

Why did the City Council decide to make these changes? According to councilmembers, during a public meeting, they said there was an issue with how the term limits aligned with the length of council terms. But if that was truly the issue, it could have been addressed without resetting the clock for current councilmembers and without weakening voter accountability.

Term limits were created by Ridgecrest voters to protect accountability and prevent exactly this kind of political maneuvering.

These should be the people’s rules, not rules rewritten by lawyers to benefit the politicians they were meant to limit.

Spread the word. Talk to your neighbors. And on or before June 2, stand up for voter accountability and vote to stop the city from changing OUR Terms.

OUR Terms. NOT Theirs.
Vote NO on Measures B and C.

05/28/2026

We're less than a week from election day! If you haven't mailed in your ballot, you can take it to the drop box by the county courthouse or to your polling place on election day. Or, you can always vote in person like in the olden days...

Whatever you do, we hope you choose to vote and make your voice heard. 🇺🇸❤️ 🤍 💙

And of course we encourage everyone to vote NO on Measures B and C by June 2nd!