2024 ballot initiatives address abortion, marijuana, electoral systems, wages, and taxes

Welcome to the Wednesday, July 17, 2024 Brew.

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. One-third of the U.S. lives in a state that will decide ballot measures on at least one of five topics: abortion, electoral systems, wages, marijuana, and taxes
2. Both candidates for county clerk in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, complete Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey
3. ICYMI – Election-related legislation in Tennessee and across the country

One-third of the U.S. lives in a state that will decide ballot measures on at least one of five topics: abortion, electoral systems, wages, marijuana, and taxes

Approximately one-third of the U.S. population (118,238,372 people) lives in a state that will decide ballot measures related to at least one of five topics this year: abortion, electoral systems, wages, marijuana, and taxes. Thirty-nine of the 54 ballot initiatives that are either certified for the ballot or have had signatures submitted fall under these five categories.

Let’s take a closer look at ballot measures that fall into these categories.

Record number of abortion-related measures on the ballot in 2024

• Six states (Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota) have placed constitutional amendments relating to abortion on the November ballot.
• All six seek to add abortion as a state constitutional right.

• Six additional initiatives are pending signature verification in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska.

• Five of these measures seek to add abortion as a state constitutional right, while one of the two measures in Nebraska would prohibit abortions after the first trimester.

Measures to change election processes and systems are on the ballot in five states

• Voters in Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, and South Dakota will decide initiatives to change electoral systems. Voters will also decide on a legislatively referred measure in Oregon.
• The Alaska initiative would repeal top-four ranked choice voting, which voters adopted in 2020.
• Voters in Idaho will vote on adopting nonpartisan, top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting for general elections.
• Nevadans will decide on an initiative that would establish open, top-five primaries and ranked-choice voting for general elections.
• South Dakota voters will decide on an initiative to adopt open top-two primaries.
• Voters in Oregon will decide whether to adopt ranked-choice voting for primary and general elections for federal and state executive offices.
• Initiatives have also been proposed in Arizona, Montana, and Washington, D.C.

Initiatives related to wages, paid leave, or both are on the ballot in Alaska and California

• The Alaska initiative would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and require employers to provide paid sick leave.
• The California initiative would increase the minimum wage to $18 per hour.
• Similar initiatives could be on the ballot in four more states—Arizona, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Nebraska.
• The Arizona Legislature also referred a constitutional amendment, Proposition 138, to the ballot. The amendment would allow tipped workers to be paid 25% less per hour than the minimum wage in certain cases. The proposed ballot initiative in Arizona (listed in the above bullet point) would increase the minimum hourly wage to $18 and end the tipped wage. Since the ballot initiative is a statute and the legislative referral is a constitutional amendment, the constitutional amendment would affect the tipped wage should voters approve both.

Voters in six states could address marijuana-related policies

• Voters in Florida and South Dakota will decide on legalizing marijuana for personal or recreational use. These are the only two states where marijuana-related measures are certified for the ballot.
• North Dakota voters may decide to legalize recreational marijuana.
• In Arkansas and Nebraska, voters could decide on ballot measures to legalize or expand medical marijuana programs.
• Voters in Oregon could decide on a ballot initiative about labor policies for cannabis workers.

Voters in four states will decide on tax-related initiatives

• California Proposition 35 would authorize a tax on managed care organizations to fund Medi-Cal, which is California’s Medicaid health care program.
• Colorado voters will decide on an initiative to limit property taxes.
• South Dakota voters will decide on an initiative to prohibit state sales taxes on anything sold for human consumption, excluding alcoholic beverages and prepared food.
• In Washington, the campaign Let’s Go Washington is sponsoring three initiatives related to taxes—one to repeal the capital gains excise tax, one to prohibit carbon tax programs, and one to allow people to opt out of a payroll tax-based program called WA Cares, the state’s long-term services and supports trust health care program.
• North Dakota and Oregon could also see tax-related ballot initiatives. Signatures were filed for an initiative in North Dakota to prohibit property taxes except to provide payments for certain bonded indebtedness. In Oregon, voters could decide on an initiative to increase the corporate minimum tax and distribute revenue from the increase to residents as a rebate estimated at $750 per year.

As of July 15, voters will decide on 127 state ballot measures across 37 states this year. While state legislatures have referred most of the ballot measures to the ballot (103), there are 24 citizen initiatives on the ballot. More than 30 initiatives are pending signature verifications across 12 states.

From 2010-2022, an average of 53 citizen initiatives were on the ballot in even-numbered years. While the number of total certified ballot initiatives has decreased each year since 2016, when 76 were on the ballot, this year is likely to have the most since then. In 2018, there were 58. In 2020, there were 43. In 2022, there were 24.

There are two signature deadlines remaining in 2024. In Colorado, signatures must be filed at least three months before the general election, which is Aug. 5. In Oklahoma, the signature verification deadline is Aug. 27.

Click the link below to learn more about the measures on your November ballot!

Both candidates for county clerk in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, complete Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey

If you’re a regular reader of The Daily Brew, you’ve seen previous stories about our Candidate Connection survey. We created it to help voters better understand their candidates’ motivations and priorities. We believe this information helps voters make informed decisions.

In races where all candidates complete the survey, voters get a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the candidates’ backgrounds, positions, and objectives. Today, we’re featuring the municipal election for county clerk in Bernalillo County, New Mexico (whose county seat is Albuquerque). Michelle Kavanaugh (D) and Clay Pryor (R) are running in the Nov. 5 general election. Both candidates completed the Candidate Connection survey.

Kavanaugh’s experience and platform

Kavanaugh has worked as an activist in Democratic politics and as deputy county clerk since 2020. The following are excerpts from Kavanaugh’s survey, where she wrote the three key messages of her campaign:

• “Expanding education and access to our most underserved and under-represented communities, is my primary goal. Through the use of community partnerships and expanded educational programs, I hope to continue the ethical, transparent, and efficient administration of the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office.”
• “As the Deputy County Clerk since 2020, I have been an active participant and decision-maker in all recent Bernalillo County elections. As seen in a recent MIT study, New Mexico ranks #1 in elections across the country. As the most populous county in the state, Bernalillo leads the way.”
• “I am committed to continue the practice of full transparency and ethical leadership in the office. As a non-partisan, non-political, administrative position, the Bernalillo County Clerk should be someone who is a proven leader. I have earned the respect of employees and stakeholders with regard to the duties of the office.”

Pryor’s experience and platform

Pryor has worked for the Air Force Weapons Labs, the state of New Mexico, and Sandia National Labs. The following are excerpts from Pryor’s survey, where he wrote the three key messages of his campaign:

• “As Bernalillo County Clerk I will work to ensure the utmost level of accuracy and public confidence in our election systems … although we may not be able to know directly how our vote was cast but there are measures in place to detect faulty tabulators during the counting process so we can have confidence that our votes are counted as intended. We just [need] to ensure state laws are followed.”
• “Experience leading technical teams During the course of my career at Sandia National Labs, I was promoted from Member of Laboratory Staff (MLS), to Member of Technical Staff (MTS), and Senior Member of Technical Staff (SMTS) for my technical skills. After demonstrating continuous and consistent leadership skills, I was promoted to [Principal] Member of Technical Staff (PMTS). As a PMTS at Sandia, I led several technical teams in enterprise application development, tester software development, and a major project to replace a custom built enterprise search application with a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) package that saved significant amounts of money and freed up Sandia staff to work on more important projects.”
• “Business process optimization. I realize the County Clerk’s office is more than just elections. I believe my MBA and decades of experience in understanding, adjusting, and automating business systems, in addition to leading technical teams, gives me the ability to appreciate and lead staff in all aspects of County Clerk services.”

Click on the candidates’ profile pages below to read their full responses to our survey questions.

In 2022, 6,087 candidates responded to Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. We ask all federal, state, and local candidates with profiles on Ballotpedia to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Ask the candidates in your area to fill out the survey.

ICYMI – Election-related legislation in Tennessee and across the country

Tennessee lawmakers have adopted 36 election-related bills so far in 2024.

That is the most of any state. Among the new election laws are changes to state voter roll maintenance procedures, an earlier absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline, and new rules for voter registration drives.

Tennessee legislators also adopted the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act, which requires presidential electors and alternates to vote for their party’s nominee or otherwise be replaced as electors. Eleven other states have adopted similar laws since 2011. For a complete list of election-related legislation adopted in Tennessee this year, see here.

This analysis of election-related legislation in all 50 states was published in Ballotpedia’s State of Election Administration Legislation 2024 Mid-Year Report, which provides insights, analysis, and takeaways from the election-related bills we tracked this year.

Ballotpedia’s comprehensive Election Administration Legislation Tracker is the basis for the data and analysis.

And, in the latest episode of our podcast, On the Ballot, we cover the election administration mid-year report. Click here to listen to the podcast on Youtube, or here to access a variety of other ways to listen!

Be sure to check out other episodes of On the Ballot by visiting the podcast’s home page.