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Elections are a time of reflection. There is the moment that commands our attention—and there is also the long-view. Thanks to your unwavering support, and your steady encouragement, The HSUS has taken the plight of farm animals to voters twice before we launched Prop 2—and won both times.

In November 2002, Florida voters led the way by phasing out the two-foot by seven-foot metal gestation crates that confine breeding pigs. In November 2006 Arizona voters followed suit, banning gestation creates and also the horrible crates used to confine veal calves.

Reverberations extended far beyond the borders of those states. Oregon’s government became the first in the nation to ban gestation crates for breeding pigs through the action of the legislature in June 2007. Colorado’s governor Bill Ritter went a step further in May of this year, by signing landmark legislation phasing out gestation crates and veal crates.

If we win tonight in California, the effects will be seismic, even if we win by a single percentage point.