Abortion
Initiatives coping with being pregnant have surged in response to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling that ended a nationwide proper to abortion and shifted the difficulty to states.
At the very least 9 states will think about constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. Most would assure a proper to abortion till fetal viability and permit it later for the well being of the pregnant lady.
Nebraska is the solely state with a competing measure. It will place into the structure the state’s present 12-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and to avoid wasting the lifetime of the pregnant lady. If each go, the one with essentially the most votes will take impact.
A proposed modification in New York would not particularly point out abortion however would prohibit discrimination primarily based on “pregnancy outcomes” and “reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
Assisted suicide
A proposed West Virginia modification to ban medically assisted suicide is the one such measure this yr. Doctor-assisted suicides are allowed in 10 states and Washington, D.C.
Citizen voting
Republican-led legislatures in eight states proposed amendments declaring that solely residents can vote.
A 1996 U.S. legislation prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and lots of states have already got comparable legal guidelines. But particular constitutional bans are being proposed in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin. The measures are a part of a Republican emphasis on immigration and election integrity.
Although there isn’t a indication of widespread voting by noncitizens, some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C., do permit it for sure native elections.
Crime
A California proposal would toughen punishments for repeat shoplifters and fentanyl sellers and create a brand new drug court docket therapy program for individuals with a number of drug possession convictions. The measure would reverse parts of a 2014 initiative that diminished penalties for nonviolent drug and property crimes to deal with jail overcrowding. The most recent measure comes after a surge of teams committing smash-and-grab thefts at shops.
An Arizona measure would require life imprisonment for sure little one intercourse trafficking convictions. Two Colorado proposals would deny bail in first-degree homicide circumstances and lengthen necessary jail phrases earlier than parole eligibility for individuals convicted of sure violent crimes.
Elections
Measures in Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota would create open main elections, wherein candidates from all events seem on the identical poll and a sure quantity advance to the overall election. Arizona voters will determine between competing proposals that may require both open primaries or the state’s present methodology of partisan primaries. If each go, the one with essentially the most votes will take impact.
A Florida measure would increase partisan elections to highschool boards, reversing a 1998 modification that made them formally nonpartisan, eradicating occasion labels from ballots.
Measures in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon suggest ranked selection voting, wherein voters rank their preferences for candidates, with votes solid for the lowest-finishing candidates getting reallocated till one particular person obtains a majority.
Ranked selection voting presently is utilized in Alaska and Maine. However Alaska voters will think about whether or not to repeal provisions of a 2020 initiative that instituted open primaries and ranked selection common elections. Missouri’s citizens-voting measure additionally would ban ranked selection voting.
A Connecticut modification would authorize no-excuse absentee voting. A Nevada proposal would require photograph identification to vote in-person or the final four-digits of a driver’s license or Social Safety quantity to vote by mail. If accredited, the Nevada measure would require a second affirmative vote in 2026 to take impact.
Taxing weapons
A Colorado proposal would make it the second state after California to impose a gross sales tax on firearms and ammunition. Income would go primarily to crime victims’ companies. The federal authorities already taxes gross sales of weapons and ammunition.
Immigration
An Arizona measure would make it a state crime to enter from a overseas nation besides by official ports of entry, and for somebody already within the U.S. illegally to use for public advantages utilizing false paperwork. The border crossing measure is just like a challenged Texas legislation that the Justice Division says violates federal authority and would create chaos on the border.
Arizona’s measure additionally would make it a felony to promote fentanyl that causes an individual’s demise.
Marijuana
Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota will determine whether or not to legalize leisure marijuana for adults. It is going to be the third vote on the difficulty in each North Dakota and South Dakota. About half the states presently permit leisure marijuana and a few dozen extra permit medical marijuana.
In Massachusetts, an initiative would legalize the possession and supervised use of pure psychedelics, together with psilocybin mushrooms.
Marriage
Although the U.S. Supreme Court docket legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015, some states nonetheless have unenforceable provisions towards it. Measures in California, Colorado and Hawaii would repeal these provisions. The California measure would go additional, declaring: “The right to marry is a fundamental right.”
Pay and advantages
A California measure would step by step elevate the state’s minimal wage for all employers to $18 an hour. Measures in Alaska and Missouri would step by step elevate minimal wages to $15 an hour whereas additionally requiring paid sick depart. A Nebraska measure would offer paid sick depart however not change wages.
A Massachusetts measure would step by step elevate the minimal wage for tipped workers till it matches the speed for different workers. Against this, an Arizona measure would let tipped staff be paid 25% lower than the minimal wage, as long as suggestions push their complete pay past the minimal wage threshold.
Jail labor
Proposals in California and Nevada would repeal constitutional provisions that permit “involuntary servitude” as punishment for crime. Some supporters are looking for to curtail pressured jail labor.
Colorado started the development by revising its structure in 2018 to ban slavery and involuntary servitude. Utah and Nebraska adopted in 2020 and Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont in 2022.
Property taxes
North Dakota voters will think about a first-of-its-kind transfer to get rid of property taxes. If accredited, native governments may need greater than $3 billion biennially in alternative income from the state, which collects billions in taxes from the fossil gasoline trade.
Rising property values even have spurred measures to cap or reduce assessed property values or taxes in Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New Mexico.
Arizona has a novel proposal linking property taxes and responses to homelessness. It will let property house owners search property tax refunds in the event that they incur bills as a result of a neighborhood authorities declined to implement ordinances towards unlawful tenting, loitering, panhandling, the obstruction of public thoroughfares, public urination or defecation, or the general public consumption of alcohol or unlawful medication.
Redistricting
An Ohio initiative would create a residents fee to deal with redistricting for U.S. Home and state legislative seats, taking the duty away from elected officers. A proposed modification in Utah would let lawmakers repeal or revise voter-approved initiatives — a response to a state Supreme Court docket ruling that lawmakers had exceeded their authority by revising a voter-approved redistricting initiative.
Sports activities betting
Missouri voters will determine whether or not to legalize sports activities betting by way of a measure backed by its skilled sports activities groups. A complete of 38 states and Washington, D.C., already permit sports activities betting, which has expanded quickly because the U.S. Supreme Court docket cleared the best way for it in 2018.
