Why do we have daylight saving time — and didn’t California vote to stop time change?

It’s that time of year again when we turn back our clocks one hour and mutter to ourselves — “Didn’t we vote to stop this?”

Daylight saving time is ending on Sunday, Nov. 5, and despite widespread support in California to end the biannual time change, clocks still need to be adjusted.

Why do we have daylight saving time?

Generally, shifting one hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the fall helps to increase the amount of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere.

Germany and Austria were the first countries to start this ritual in 1916, according to WebExhibits, an online museum by Idea, an education non-profit. They did it to conserve fuel for electricity.

The United States later adopted the plan in 1918 to save daylight and create standard time, but it was repealed in the next year after World War I. It then became optional for local governments and states. Time change remained inconsistent in the U.S. as former presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon would make laws during their administrations on how the clocks should be set.

For example, Roosevelt re-enacted daylight saving time for a whole year during World War II, calling it “War Time.” It ended Sept. 30, 1945, according to the History Channel.

By 1966, the Uniform Time Act was established and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, creating daylight saving time. After a few amendments to save energy, daylight saving time would begin on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November.

Didn’t California vote to get rid of daylight saving time?

The opposite, actually.

In 2018, more than 7.1 million California residents voted yes to Proposition 7 to keep daylight saving time year-round, effectively ending the time change. This was nearly 60% of the total vote.

The ballot measure gave the Legislature the authorization to switch to permanent daylight saving time, as long as California received approval from the federal government.

An assembly bill was then introduced by Assemblyman Kansen Chu in 2019. The bill would require a two-thirds vote from both the Assembly and Senate in order to become law.

But it didn’t make any movement and eventually withered in committee.

After Chu left office, Irvine Republican Assemblyman Steven Choi introduced Assembly Bill 2868 in 2021, proposing year-round daylight saving time under Proposition 7. The bill died in November 2022.

What about the bill in Congress?

On a national level, Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the Sunshine Act in 2018 and re-introduced it this year in the Senate, with Rep. Vern Buchanan introducing it in the House.

If passed, it would result in permanent daylight saving time in the U.S., meaning people would not have to change their clocks back one hour in November. According to the act, it wouldn’t change time zones or amount of sunlight hours.

There’s no action yet for the latest proposals in the Senate or the House, other than that they were introduced in March and referred to separate committees.

There are two states with their own laws, currently. Hawaii and most of Arizona observe permanent standard time.

What it takes for the country to have permanent times

In order for the Sunshine Act to be enacted across the country as a law, it needs to get majority votes and pass the House, Senate and then the president.

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The Bee Capitol Bureau’s Andrew Sheeler contributed to this story.