Dubbed the Racial Privacy Initiative, the issue is one that University of California regent Ward Connerly worked to put on the ballot. If passed, it would ban any state or local agency from compiling information on race or ethnicity.

But the initiative's opponents say that it would ban the collection of critical information that helps fight chronic diseases like breast cancer, helps prevent hate crimes and domestic violence and that combats discrimination.

A host of organizations have joined forces with the Santa Clara County Coalition for an Informed California to formally oppose Prop. 54, including city governments such as Sunnyvale's.

The city council recently agreed by consensus to oppose Prop. 54. The proposition would restrict all organizations, including cities, from gathering ethnic data, said Councilman Jack Walker.

"Our policy on this is pretty clear. We don't want government interfering with us," said Walker.

"I think that we should be able to determine what the best needs of our community are. If we need to collect information that's ethnically oriented so we can determine those needs, I think we need to be able to do that," said Walker.

Richard Hobbs, co-chair for the county coalition, says the initiative would be a threat to the health and public safety of California residents.

"We're very concerned about the health of all county residents. As we know, diseases and illnesses affect different populations differently," Hobbs said.

Hobbs cited public-health studies, which show that Alzheimer's, breast cancer and osteoporosis impact the white population at higher rates than nonwhite populations, whereas diabetes afflicts the Latino and Native American populations the most, and Asian Americans have the highest rates of hepatitis B.

"Public-health information on SARS, AIDS, heart disease, prostate cancer, providing race-based health risks could no longer be collected if Prop. 54 is approved," said Hobbs.

It's these health-related effects that have prompted the California Medical Association, Kaiser Permanente, the Breast Cancer Fund and numerous other health organizations to oppose Prop. 54, Hobbs said.

Law-enforcement statistics include racial data that shows which populations are most likely to be suspects and victims for which crimes and why. "Immigrants of different national origins may not understand the criminal-justice system and sometimes need community education programs to understand the meaning and consequences of elder abuse and child abuse in the United States," said Hobbs.

According to Sunnyvale public safety Captain Greg Kevin, the initiative would prevent Sunnyvale officers from reporting racial data on traffic stops. But the race information is not specifically for recording incidents of racial profiling, as in other cities such as San Jose that have implemented a specific racial-profiling monitoring program, Kevin said. "Here, the reason race is recorded is for an identification purpose, in case there's a question as to who the driver is," said Kevin.

The initiative would hinder the identification process, but the impact to the city would be minimal, Kevin said.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to oppose Prop. 54, and it is also opposed by Rep. Mike Honda, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and Assemblymembers Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn, Simon Salinas, Sally Lieber and Joe Simitian.

The county coalition is part of the Coalition for an Informed California, a statewide coalition formed to defeat Prop. 54. The statewide coalition will begin airing commercials in the next two months, focusing on the consequences for issues such as providing breast-cancer screening for women of different races.

Connerly, who is of mixed descent, has stirred controversy in the past for his efforts to repeal affirmative action in California and other states. Here in California he backed Prop. 209, which banned the use of race and gender in public hiring, contracting and college admissions.

If passed, Prop. 54 would become effective on Jan. 1, 2005.

Also on the recall ballot this October is Prop. 53, which would set aside several hundred million dollars yearly to build and maintain parks, schools, water projects, roads and other public works.