FILE - In this June 10, 2020, file photo, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, left, receives congratulations from fellow Assembly members Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, center, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, after the Assembly approved her measure to place a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot to let voters decide if the state should overturn its ban on affirmative action programs, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. A national awakening on race has driven a well-funded campaign in California to reinstate affirmative action in public hiring, contracting and college admissions. Voters are deciding Tuesday whether to allow the nation's most populated state to grant preferential treatment based on race and gender. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 1997, file photo, Ward Connerly, then-chairman of the Proposition 209 campaign, speaks at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. A national awakening on race has driven a well-funded campaign in California to reinstate affirmative action in public hiring, contracting and college admissions. Voters are deciding Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, whether to allow the nation's most populated state to grant preferential treatment based on race and gender. But public polling indicates that Proposition 16 is struggling, suggesting that voters may not be ready to repeal a quarter-century-old ban on affirmative action. Opponents, including Connerly, an African American businessman and former University of California regent who pushed for the 1996 ban, say government should never discriminate by race or gender and the only way to stop discrimination is to end the practice. (AP Photo/Steve Yeater, File)