California voters on Tuesday approved a November ballot measure that would impose tougher penalties for repeat theft and fentanyl-related crimes, a departure from recent progressive policies that critics blamed for increasing lawlessness.

The Associated Press declared the passage of Proposition 36 about an hour after polls closed, an indication of strong voter support for the measure.

Proposition 36 makes it a felony for someone to steal goods of any value after two prior felonies and could result in lengthy jail or prison sentences.

The ballot measure also allows judges to sentence convicted drug dealers who traffic large amounts of hard drugs, including fentanyl, or are armed with a gun while smuggling the drugs to state prisons instead of county jails. It will also create a “treatment-requiring offense” as a new crime category by giving some eligible drug offenders the option of treatment instead of prison.

The measure reverses key parts of a 2014 ballot measure, Proposition 47, which voters overwhelmingly approved at a time when the state’s Democratic leaders sought to reverse what they saw as an ineffective tough-on-crime era, that caused the state’s prison population to swell to unconstitutional levels.

Proposition 36 is expected to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Passage of this measure is expected to reduce approximately $100 million in annual savings that went to anti-recidivism programs.

Supporters of the measure spent $16.23 million. Early backers included Walmart, Home Depot and Target. Others included the California Republican Party, which contributed $1 million. Mayors of major cities such as San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego supported the measure, as did prosecutors and law enforcement leaders, including the California District Attorneys Assn. and the California Sheriff’s Assn.

Opponents of the measure were overwhelmed, raising just over $7.5 million. Those funders included criminal justice reformers Patty Quillin, Stacy Schusterman, Elizabeth Simons and her husband Mark Heising, and Quinn Delaney. Unions representing health care workers and teachers also made important contributions to the opposition.