Californians have chosen to make permanent the hospital fee program that helps fund Medi-Cal, the state's subsidized healthcare program for low-income residents.

Early election returns show the measure passing with more than 70% of the vote. Proposition 52 will hobble state lawmakers' ability to change or end the hospital fee program.

Through the program, hospitals pay to generate a federal contribution to Medi-Cal that results in a net benefit to the hospitals. During the fiscal year that ended in June 2016, the program generated $4.4 billion in federal funding for Medi-Cal.

How did the newly weakened Voting Rights Act impact election results? 

In short, it's very hard to know yet.

Tuesday election was the first since a monumental Supreme Court ruling in 2013 struck down key part of Voting Rights Act, leading to sweeping changes in voting rules across a swath of Southern states and several other districts or states that had historically discriminated against minorities.

For most of the last four months, the USC/L.A. Times Daybreak tracking poll has been the great outlier of the 2016 campaign -- consistently showing a better result for Donald Trump than other surveys did.

In light of Tuesday’s election returns, the poll now looks like the only major survey to see the wave coming.

Most of the summer and fall, the poll's results have been about 6 percentage points more favorable to the Republican than the polling averages. As of Tuesday morning, the poll's final forecast for the election showed Trump leading by a little over 3 points, 46.8% to 43.6%.

An ambitious measure to raise the Los Angeles County sales tax and dramatically expand the mass transit system took an early lead Tuesday night in early and absentee voting, just passing the two-thirds threshold needed for victory with 9% of precincts reporting. 

The early tally showed 67.28% of voters favored the half-cent sales tax increase. That's above the 66.67% threshold it needs to win. 

"I'm superstitious. I don't ever declare victory until the end," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. But, he added, early results looked "very promising." 

Hillary Clinton had been leading all along. Or that's what the polls said for months, and thus what the poll-tracking sites said for months. That's part of the story of tonight: the mood of mild certainty that had rippled through Clinton supporters' friend circles and their Facebook feeds. It had given Democrats the deceptive feeling of a tailwind as they glided out of the final years of the Obama administration. That's all gone now.

The L.A. Times' Mark Barabak and Michelle Maltais catch you up on the latest election results.

The path he started on years ago led Joe Arpaio to a red-lit stage in July, his hand outstretched as thousands cheered “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

Never before had a presidential candidate so embraced the man who calls himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a founding father of the strong-borders movement whose hardened views on immigration seemed to square up perfectly with those of the Republican nominee. Donald Trump gave Arpaio a full five minutes in front of the Republican National Committee.

It marked what probably was the last major national appearance of Arpaio’s political career.

Proposition 51, a $9-billion bond for school construction and repairs, has a lead in early returns.

The measure leads with 52.4% of the statewide vote. Proposition 51 had struggled in public polls throughout the fall. It never trailed, but hadn't reached majority support. The state's four most recent school bond measures passed, and school bonds in general tend to see strong support. 

Rep. David Valadao won a third term representing the Central Valley's 21st District, holding 58.3% of the vote with nearly two-thirds counted.

The race between the Hanford Republican and Democratic attorney Emilio Huerta, the son of labor rights icon Dolores Huerta, was one of the more closely watched in the state.

Democrats hoped Huerta's name recognition would turn the tide and that the district's nearly 75% Latino population would be spurred to vote by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's comments about Mexicans and immigrants.

Public schools in California will have more power to develop their own bilingual and multilingual programs after voters on Tuesday approved a measure repealing English-only instruction across the state.

With nearly 21% of 24,849 precincts reporting, Proposition 58 appeared to coast to victory, with 73% support among voters. Twenty-seven percent of voters sought to defeat it.

Proposition 58, the product of 2014 legislation written by Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), overhauls key parts of a 1998 law that requires students to take classes taught only English, unless parents sign a waiver requesting otherwise.