Voters across the country this November will decide more than who will sit in White House. States will weigh several different issues this election, such as whether to legalize marijuana, limit access to abortion, reform voting and more. A state’s full list of approved ballot questions can typically be found on its secretary of state’s website.
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Here are some of the top ballot measures to watch this Election Day:
Marijuana legalization
Eleven US states have legalized recreational marijuana, and four more could join them this year. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota will consider efforts to legalize marijuana, allow cannabis sales and make drug-related criminal justice reforms.
Arizona’s Proposition 207 allows adults 21 or older to possess, use, or transfer up to one ounce of marijuana and cultivate no more than six plants for personal use, but bans smoking the drug in public. It would allow retail sales of marijuana while imposing a 16% excise tax that would fund public programs in the state. A “yes” vote on the proposition would also permit courts to vacate and expunge certain arrests, charges, convictions and sentences for marijuana.
Montana will vote on two initiatives related to marijuana. Initiative 118 would amend the state constitution to allow for establishing the legal age for purchasing, consuming or possessing marijuana. Initiative 190 would make recreational marijuana legal for adults 21 and older. If approved, marijuana would be sold in the state commercially and taxed at 20%. The initiative also would allow for an individual currently serving a sentence for marijuana-related offenses to apply for re-sentencing or an expungement of their conviction.
New Jersey’s Public Question No. 1 is a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for personal, non-medical use by adults 21 and older. The state has already created a commission to oversee the medical market that – if the amendment is passed – would regulate the personal market.
South Dakota could become the first state to approve both medical and recreational marijuana simultaneously. Amendment A would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for all adults and Measure 26 would establish a medical marijuana program. The state currently has tough penalties for possession of small amounts of cannabis.
Mississippi has two competing ballot measures that would legalize marijuana for medical use. The state’s unique ballot’s structure asks voters whether they are for approving either Initiative 65 or Initiative 65A, or against both. Voters are then also asked to vote for one: Initiative 65, which would allow qualified patients with debilitating medical conditions – as certified by Mississippi licensed physicians – to use medical marijuana, or Initiative 65A, which would establish a program to allow the medical use of marijuana products by qualified persons with debilitating medical conditions. Even if a person votes against both, they still have the opportunity to choose between the two.
Meanwhile, Washington, DC,’s Initiative Measure No. 81 will decide if e