California voters approved a tougher-on-crime measure on Tuesday as retail theft and drug problems became a top issue in the Golden State this election season.

The measure, called Proposition 36, would allow law enforcement to pursue felony charges against people who commit certain drug or theft crimes — such as those who have two prior convictions for theft and steal property worth $950 or less, which were classified as misdemeanors.

The Associated Press called the race because early vote counts showed the measure leading by wide margins — 70.6 percent of voters support it, with 43 percent of the votes counted so far.

The proposal reverses parts of the state’s Proposition 47, which was passed by voters in 2014 in hopes of reducing mass incarceration by classifying some drug and property crimes as felonies. Yet as the state grappled with shoplifting, thefts that forced stores to lock up many of their products, and the fentanyl crisis, a wide coalition of residents, businesses and civic leaders said the decade-old Proposition 47 has led to these “unintended consequences,” including repeated retail theft, store closings and “difficulty getting people to seek drug and health treatment mental”.

The coalition argued that by increasing penalties for drug and theft crimes, Proposition 36 would “create real accountability for those who routinely break these laws and make our communities less safe.”

Before the election, polls indicated the measure was favored to pass, with 73 percent of likely voters planning to vote for the measure per poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. Of ten California ballot measures on issues including climate change and the minimum wage, the crime proposal is the one voters said they were most interested in, as the Sun reported.

The measures were opposed by top Democrats in the state, including Governor Newsom. Critics of the measure, such as the Prison Policy Initiative, said it would be a “big step back toward more incarceration” and that the state prison population is “projected to grow by 35 percent over the next 5 years.” Proposition 36 would “undo a decade of progress toward ending mass incarceration without any benefit to public safety,” the group argued.