Abortion, legalized slavery, workers' rights, marijuana, and voting policies are on state ballots this midterm
Is your state on the list?
By: Zeynab Day
News
Early voting is marking a high turnout for the 2022 Midterms. While voters are also focused on elections, ballot measures in states across the country are poised to make lasting impacts on issues such as voter rights, abortion, marijuana decriminalization, and worker rights.
Voting
Changes to voter laws are on the ballot in Connecticut, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, and Ohio.Â
The measures in Ohio and Louisiana would eliminate non-citizens' ability to vote in municipal and local elections. While non-citizens are currently not permitted to vote in federal elections, most states allow for the participation of non-citizens in local and municipal elections.
New voter identification requirements are up for a vote in Arizona and Nebraska and a measure for early voting is on the ballot in Connecticut.
Voter rights advocates have raised concerns that the measures in Arizona and Nebraska could restrict access for voters. Currently, seven states (Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, West Virginia, Virginia, and Delaware) have voter identification requirements in place that do not require photo ID, and 22 states have laws requiring photo identification requirements.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has voiced concerns that photo identification laws could greatly hamper turnout and create barriers for voters due to cost barriers, homelessness, and difficulty obtaining the required documentation to secure the identification.
If Nevada’s Question 3 passes rank choice voting (RCV) would be implemented statewide and they would be joining Alaska and Maine as one of only three states to implement statewide RCV for all elections. RCV is a voting counting system that allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference instead of choosing one preferred candidate. Candidates that receive more than 50% of the overall vote win among the pools of candidates. Suppose none of the candidates receive the 50% in the initial round of voting. In that case, continuing rounds of voting and elimination processes are put in place until a winner is chosen through a 50% majority vote.
North Dakota also has a voter-related measure on the ballot, Constitutional Measure 1, if passed would create term limits for state legislators and the governorship.Â
Marijuana DecriminalizationÂ
The legalization of medicinal and recreational cannabis accounts for an $11 billion annual industry nationwide. South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri, and Maryland are aiming to get into the market as widely popular proposals for the decriminalization of marijuana are on the ballot this November, marking them to join the 13 states that have implemented legalization.Â
While four of the states listed are legalizing recreational marijuana use, South Dakota’s measure will loosen restrictions on usage by allowing for up to an ounce of cannabis to be distributed or carried, and the growth of plants in areas without a licensed retailer.
Cannabis is not the only substance on the ballot this cycle. Colorado’s Proposition 122 would decriminalize the regulated distribution of various hallucinogenic plants and fungi for use in clinical therapy. The substances include dimethyltryptamine (DMT); ibogaine; mescaline (excluding peyote); psilocybin; and psilocin.
Workers’ Policy
Slavery was eliminated in all sectors except for our prison systems and remains enshrined in the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and several state constitutions. According to the ACLU incarcerated workers often make no pay, or only between $0.12 cents to $0.52 cents per hour. The ACLU also estimates that two out of three incarcerated individuals are workers equaling more than 800,000 individuals who have not been covered by minimum wage and labor protections, with no rights to refuse work. According to the same study, prison workers account for $2 billion in goods sold to state entities.
Five states, Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont, have ballot measures that will repeal language in their constitutions that currently permit enslavement or servitude as punishment for crimes.Â
A handful of states will also be voting on measures that pertain to minimum wage floors and unitization laws.Â
Tennessee’s Right to Work Constitutional Amendment 1 would make it illegal to require unitization membership as a condition for employment. The amendment would also codify that workers cannot be penalized or fired for joining or creating a union. Various union groups are staunchly opposed to the amendment, arguing that a constitutional amendment would be nearly impossible to undo once passed, and could weaken unions within the state. While proponents of the legislation widely argue that the laws would allow for the individual choice to participate in unitization, free from legal restrictions imposed by state legislation.
Illinois’s Amendment 1 is a constitutional amendment that protects the right for workers to organize amongst themselves and collectively bargain with their employers.
Inflation is creating burdens across the country as the cost of housing, food, gas, and utilities are on the rise. Nebraska and Nevada have initiatives to raise the minimum wage on the ballot. Nevada’s Question 2 would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour, while Nebraska’s Initiative 433 would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour if passed.
In Washington D.C. Initiative 82 would increase the minimum wage for tipped employees to the minimum wage for non-tipped employees. The federal minimum wage for tipped employees has not changed since 1991 and remains at $2.13 an hour.Â
Abortion On The BallotÂ
States across the country have been scrambling to either solidify the right to abortion or pushed to criminalize abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that reversed the once enshrined constitutional right and put the decision in the hands of the states.
California, Michigan, and Vermont all have state constitutional amendments on the ballot that would solidify the right to abortion and reproductive care within their states.Â
Kentucky’s Amendment 2 states that Kentucky’s constitution cannot create a right to abortion or require any government funding for abortion. Many conservatives in the state are arguing that the law is too broad, imposes on personal freedoms, and promotes big government. While human rights activists warn that the amendment restricts challenges to Kentucky’s already deeply restrictive legislation that bans abortion in the state. This month the Kentucky Supreme Court denied a request for an emergency review of a lower court’s ruling that reinstates the state’s ban on abortions, leaving Kentucky’s current ban in place.
In a massive turnout, voters in Kansas rejected a similar amendment during their primary elections on August 2nd. The amendment proposed in Kansas was nearly identical to the one currently on the ballot in Kentucky and would have prevented any protections for abortion or government funding for abortions to be written into the Kansas Constitution. The amendment would have also enshrined that the Legislature had the power to pass laws regarding abortion.Â
Sources for this article included ballotpedia.org and The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Both sites include comprehensive lists of state ballot measures up for a vote on November 8th.Â
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