Abortion to weed: what else is on the ballot this November 5?

Nov. 5 is more than just the date for the 2024 Presidential and Congressional elections. In 41 states, voters will also get to make decisions on a variety of ballot measures – the propositions, initiatives and referendums that have helped define America’s democracy since the Progressive Age at the turn of the twentieth century, even as some would like to restrict that exercise.

These measures are highly ideological in nature and often – but not always – are highly polarizing questions that often break along party lines. Some states are even considering constitutional amendments that would make this kind of direct democracy more difficult or impossible to engineer, Politico reported.

Matthew Schweich, executive director of the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project, has also registered the Voter Defense Association, an organization that works to prevent further erosion of the voter’s right to decide important questions outside of the legislative process.

“What we’re seeing right now is what has become the norm: A steady stream of legislatively referred ballot questions to restrict the ballot initiative process,” Schweich told Politico.

While abortion remains a hot issue with ballot measures, it is just one of dozens of other issues that will populate ballots this November. Here are a few of the others:

Ranked choice voting remains a controversial practice where voters list their preferences for candidates and the results are tabulated so that the winner ends up with a majority. Supporters say it is more democratic because no one can win with 35 percent of the vote but detractors maintain it promotes mediocrity, where a second or third choice candidate is elevated to the top of the list, Politico noted.

Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C. are all considering ranked choice voting, with the first three states going one step further with a measure that would end party primaries and replace them with non-partisan elections where the winners are automatically candidates in the general election, regardless of which party they choose to support.

Another white hot measure is voting rights for noncitizens. Eight states — Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin — will be able to vote for or against a constitutional amendment that would stop illegals from voting in federal elections.

Marijuana remains a popular question in 2024 after many states have opted to make weed legal. Voters in five states — Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota — will decide whether to legalize cannabis, decriminalize it or leave things as they are. Liberal Massachusets is going one step further with Question 4, which would legalize psychedelic drugs for personal use. The state would then tax the proceeds.

Same-sex marriage has been the law of the land since the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in 2015. But California, Colorado and Hawaii are worried about a conservative court reversing course and are asking voters to approve efforts to purge state documents from any language suggesting that marriage should be preserved as a union between a man and a woman.