By Canadian Press

Future voting rights, marijuana laws at stake in states

Nov 3, 2020 | 8:07 PM

A proposal intended to diminish partisan politics in redistricting was ahead in Virginia and legal marijuana was leading in New Jersey as voters across the country decided scores of ballot measures on Tuesday affecting their future voting rights, criminal penalties and other issues.

A total of 120 proposed state laws and constitutional amendments were on the ballot in 32 states. They touched on an array of issues that have roiled politics in recent years — abortion, racial inequalities, taxes and education, to name a few.

But none directly dealt with the dominant theme of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic. That’s because the process to put measures on the ballot began, in most cases, before the virus surged to the forefront.

The Virginia constitutional amendment would take power away from members of the Democratic-led Legislature to draw voting districts for themselves and members of Congress based on census results. It instead would create a bipartisan commission of lawmakers and citizens to develop a redistricting plan that the Legislature could approve or reject, but not change.

Virginia is the sixth state in the past two general election cycles to vote on measures intended to prevent gerrymandering — a process in which politicians draw voting districts to benefit themselves or their political parties. Voters in Missouri, which passed a redistricting reform measure in 2018, were deciding Tuesday whether to roll back key parts of it before it can be used next year.

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The Missouri measure would repeal a nationally unique model to employ a nonpartisan demographer to draw state House and Senate districts to achieve “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness.” Republicans who control the Legislature put forth a new ballot measure this year that would return redistricting duties to a pair of bipartisan commissions and drop “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” to the end of the criteria.

In both states, advocates of redistricting reforms outraised their opponents by millions of dollars, drawing donations from across the country. In Missouri, TV ads urged people to vote down the “dirty tricks” of politicians who placed the redistricting changes on the ballot alongside a slight reduction in lobbyist gift and campaign contribution limits.

Voter Ruth Larson, in Kansas City, Missouri, said the ballot measure appeared “misleading.”

“The first bullet on there was about banning the lobbyists and the gifts and those things, but the next was about redistricting. Maybe I want to do one but not the other. So I said no,” Larson said.

Voters in several states were deciding whether to legalize marijuana. The Democratic-led New Jersey Legislature decided last December to place a measure on the ballot asking voters whether they should legalize marijuana for adults age 21 and older. Citizens’ initiatives led to recreational marijuana measures on ballots in Arizona, Montana and South Dakota. Medical marijuana initiatives also are being decided in Mississippi and South Dakota.

A decade ago, recreational marijuana was illegal in all 50 states. Voters allowed it in Colorado and Washington in 2012, sparking a movement that already included 11 states and Washington, D.C., heading into Tuesday’s elections. Supporters hope additional victories, especially in conservative states, could build pressure for Congress to legalize marijuana nationwide.

Voters in Oregon were considering whether to go even further. One proposal there would legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelic mushrooms. Another would make Oregon the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine while also funding drug treatment efforts. The state Democratic Party endorsed the measure; the state Republican Party denounced it as radical.

Tax proposals were on the ballot in more than a dozen states, including higher property taxes on California businesses and higher income taxes on the wealthy in Illinois and Arizona. The additional tax revenue in Arizona would fund pay raises for teachers and other school personnel.

Among the many California ballot issues was one asking voters to repeal a 1996 initiative that prohibits affirmative action programs granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, colour, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education or contracting.

In Mississippi, voters were deciding whether to approve a new state flag with a magnolia design after legislators in June ended the use of a flag bearing a Confederate battle emblem. In Rhode Island, whose official name is “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” voters were deciding whether to eliminate the final three words, which some say evoke a legacy of slavery.

Anti-abortion measures were on the ballot in two states. A Louisiana measure would assert there is no state constitutional right to abortion — a move that could come into play if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

A Colorado measure would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks unless the pregnant woman’s life is endangered. Previous Colorado ballot initiatives to limit abortion failed in 2008, 2010 and 2014.

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Associated Press reporter Dave Skretta contributed to this report.

David A. Lieb, The Associated Press