While electing the officials responsible for making and enforcing laws, voters in dozens of states also weigh in on more than 140 ballot propositions affecting how people legally live, work and die.
While 10 states are considering measures related to abortion or reproductive rights in Tuesday’s elections, about a half-dozen states are considering legalizing marijuana for recreational or medical use. About two dozen measures are focused on future elections, including several that specifically ban non-citizen voting. Other state measures affect wages, taxes, housing and education.
Many ballot measures were initiated by citizen petitions that bypass state legislatures, although others were brought to voters by lawmakers.
Legalization of marijuana
Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota are deciding whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. The election marks the third vote on the issue in North Dakota and South Dakota. In Nebraska, voters are considering a pair of measures that would legalize medical marijuana and regulate the industry.
About half of states currently allow recreational marijuana, and about a dozen more allow medical marijuana. Possession or sale of marijuana remains a crime under federal law, punishable by prison time and fines.
In Massachusetts, a ballot measure would legalize the possession and supervised use of natural psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms. It would be the third state to do so, after Oregon and Colorado.
Immigration
An Arizona measure, drafted amid growing immigration, would make it a state crime to enter from a foreign country except through official ports of entry, and to do so for someone already present illegally in the United States to apply for public benefits using false documents.
The border crossing measure is similar to a contested Texas law that the U.S. Justice Department says violates federal authority.
School choice
A proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution would allow lawmakers to use public funds for private schools. A Colorado measure would create a constitutional right to school choice for students in grades K-12.
In Nebraska, voters are deciding whether to repeal a new state law that funds private school tuition with state money.
The majority of states offer some sort of state-supported program to help cover private school costs.
Sports betting
Missouri voters are deciding whether they will be the last to legalize sports betting. A total of 38 states, as well as Washington, D.C., already allow sports betting, which has grown rapidly since the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way in 2018.
Taxes
A Colorado proposal would make it the second state after California to impose a tax on gun and ammunition sales, the revenue from which would go primarily to services for crime victims. The federal government already taxes gun and ammunition sales.
North Dakota voters are considering a measure to eliminate property taxes. If approved, local governments could need more than $3 billion every two years in replacement revenue from the state.
A South Dakota measure would repeal the state’s sales tax on groceries, a step already taken in most other states.
An Oregon measure would raise the minimum tax on large businesses to finance a tax cut for residents.
Accommodation
California voters are deciding whether to repeal a 1995 law limiting local rent control ordinances. If approved, it would pave the way for local governments to expand limits on rates that landlords could charge.
A unique Arizona proposal links property taxes to responses to homelessness. This would allow property owners to seek a property tax refund if they incur expenses because a local government has refused to enforce ordinances against illegal camping, loitering, panhandling, public consumption of alcohol and drugs, etc.
Climate
Voters in Washington state are weighing whether to repeal a 2021 law that caps carbon emissions and creates a market for companies above the threshold to buy allowances from others. Washington is the second state to launch such a program, after California.
Citizen vote
Republican-led legislatures in eight states – Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin – have proposed constitutional amendments declaring that only citizens can vote.
A 1996 U.S. law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and many states already have similar laws. But Republicans have highlighted the potential for non-citizen voting after an influx of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Although non-citizen voting has been historically rare, examinations of voter rolls before the election flagged potential non-citizens registered in several states.
Some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington, DC allow non-citizens to vote in some local elections.
Voting methods
Connecticut voters are weighing whether to allow no-excuse absentee voting, joining most states that already allow it.
The measures in Montana and South Dakota would create open primary elections in which candidates from all parties appear on the same ballot, with a number of them advancing to the general election. Measures in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada also propose open primaries bringing together candidates from all parties, with a number of them advancing to general elections using ranked-choice voting. An Oregon measure would require ranked-choice voting in primaries and general elections.
Ranked-choice voting is currently used in Alaska and Maine. But Alaska voters are weighing whether to repeal provisions of a 2020 initiative that established open primaries and ranked-choice general elections.
Arizona voters must choose between competing ballot propositions that would require either open primaries with candidates from all parties or the state’s current method of partisan primaries. If conflicting measures both pass, the provision with the most votes will go into effect, but that could be up to a court to decide.
Electoral redistricting
An Ohio initiative would create a citizens’ commission to manage the redistricting of legislative seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and states, taking the task off elected officials.
Minimum wage
Ballot measures in Missouri and Alaska would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour while also requiring paid sick leave. A California measure would gradually raise the minimum wage for all employers to $18 an hour.
A Nebraska measure would require many employers to provide sick leave, but would not change wages.
A Massachusetts measure would gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees. In contrast, a measure passed in Arizona would allow tipped workers to be paid 25 percent less than the minimum wage, provided the tips push their total wages above the minimum wage threshold.
Assisted suicide
West Virginia voters are deciding whether to amend the state constitution to ban physician-assisted suicide. The measure would go against 10 states and Washington, D.C., where physician-assisted suicide is permitted.
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