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A ballot box is seen during early voting at the Polk County Election Office, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) ORG XMIT: IACN113 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Lost in the hullabaloo of the presidential election were 146 ballot propositions that were voted on in 41 states.
Issues included abortion rights, election laws, minimum wage, school choice, criminal penalties and legalization of recreational marijuana. Overall, $1.2 billion was spent on these campaigns.
While progressives and conservatives each had issue victories to celebrate and defeats to ponder on Nov. 5, progressives fell short of hopeful expectations in various states. On criminal justice, California veered away from progressive policies and increased penalties for repeat offenders convicted of drug crimes and thefts.
Coloradans abolished the existing right to bail for first-degree murder. They also voted to require violent offenders to serve a greater portion of their sentences before being paroled and established a new state fund for police recruitment, retention and training. Ron Faucheux Legalizing recreational marijuana lost in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Even though legalization won a majority in Florida, it fell 4% short of the 60% needed to pass a constitutional amendment. Notably, $153 million was spent to pass Florida’s legalization proposal and $33 million was spent to beat it. Arizonans cast ballots to allow state and local police to enforce immigration laws.
They also passed propositions increasing penalties for the sale of fentanyl, requiring life imprisonment for child sex traffickers and allowing police to arrest noncitizens who enter Arizona from foreign countries. On the other hand, seven states strengthened abortion rights (Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York and Nevada) with voter majorities between 52% and 75%. Nebraska defeated an abortion rights proposal (51% to 49%) but passed another one (55% to 45%) that banned abortion after the first trimester of pregnancy.
South Dakota beat an abortion rights proposal 59% to 41%. Democrats calculated that by putting the abortion issue on the ballot in two key swing states, Arizona and Nevada, it would help turn out more votes for Kamala Harris. But in the end, Donald Trump carried both states and abortion ranked a lackluster fourth in voter importance, according to exit polls.
While an abortion rights measure got support from 57% of the electorate in Florida, another state Trump carried, the proposal fell short of the 60% threshold required to change the state constitution. Proponents of the measure vastly outspent opponents, $118 million to $11 million. Missouri barely passed a state constitutional amendment legalizing sports betting.
Alaska and Missouri voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and California voted to raise its wage to $18. Massachusetts voted to gradually increase wages for tipped employees, and Arizona defeated decreasing wages for tipped workers. Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska defeated school-choice measures that included vouchers, scholarship programs and public funding for private school tuition , similar to Gov.
Jeff Landry’s proposals for Louisiana. California voters beat back Prop 33, which would have allowed cities and counties to control rents on housing. Supporters of rent control spent $50 million and opponents spent $121 million.
California, Colorado and Hawaii passed largely symbolic measures to remove same-sex marriage bans from state constitutions. Also at issue was ranked-choice voting — a process that gives voters the option to vote for candidates by ranking them in order of their preferences (first, second, third, etc.), thus avoiding runoffs.
It passed in Washington, D.C., plus three or four other cities, but was defeated in Oregon, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho.
Missouri voted to prohibit it. Based on current returns, Alaska is headed toward repealing its ranked-choice voting system. Arizona and South Dakota defeated proposals to eliminate party primaries and move to a Louisiana-style open elections system.
Connecticut approved no-excuse absentee voting, and Iowa allowed 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the next general election to vote in primaries. Ohio voted against a citizen-led redistricting process. Voters in eight states (Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Missouri) voted to require U.
S. citizenship to vote in all elections. Louisiana passed a constitutional amendment to put federal revenues derived from a wide variety of energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf into a special state fund for wetlands preservation, coastal restoration and hurricane protection.
On Dec. 7, Louisiana will consider four additional amendments related to legislative procedures, judicial disciplinary actions and administration of property tax sales. Unlike many other states, Louisiana has no provision for citizens to put a question on a statewide ballot; only the Louisiana Legislature can do that.
Still, like them or not, these results show that direct democracy — at least in state politics — lives on..
