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October 27, 2002
Go easy on marijuana smokers, get tough on cigarette smokers, start a state lottery, secede from Los Angeles. Those are among the options facing voters in 40 states with initiatives and referendums on their Nov. 5 ballots.
While the national spotlight focuses on the battle to control Congress, many voters will have other chances to vent their feelings on some of America's most contentious social issues.
Nevadans, for example, will vote on whether their state should be the first to legalize marijuana and also on an amendment to reinforce a ban on gay marriage.
Proposed cigarette-tax hikes are on the ballots in Missouri and Arizona.
Voters in Tennessee and North Dakota will decide whether to approve state lotteries. That would be a milestone for Tennessee, which at present joins Hawaii and Utah as the only states without legalized gambling.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 202 proposals will be on state ballots, including 53 resulting from citizen petition drives. Legislators drafted the others. Many voters will face local and regional questions, including the proposed secession of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood from Los Angeles.
Oregon, traditionally a leader in placing citizen-backed initiatives on its ballot, has seven this year, including two that would set national precedents.
One would require labeling of food produced from genetically engineered crops and livestock; another would provide full, taxpayer-financed medical insurance for every Oregonian.
"It's the richest benefits package known to man," said J.L. Wilson, a leading critic of the measure. "You would have to pay for people to go to a massage therapist four days a week because it's deemed "medically necessary.' "
Volatile education issues are on the ballots in several states.
In Colorado and Massachusetts, voters will decide whether to eliminate bilingual education and replace it with a one-year English-immersion program. Both measures had financial backing from Ron Unz, a Palo Alto, Calif., millionaire software developer who in past elections helped push through similar ballot measures in California and Arizona.
An education measure on California's ballot this year has a celebrity patron. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, considered a future gubernatorial candidate, has pumped $1-million into a campaign to shift $550-million annually in state money to after-school programs for elementary and junior high students.
Voters in Washington state and two populous regions of Virginia face a pocketbook dilemma at the polls: whether to raise taxes to finance highway and transit projects intended to ease ever-worsening traffic jams.
On almost all of the ballot questions, the federal government has stayed on the sidelines. Not so with Nevada's marijuana measure and an Arizona proposal to make possession of small amounts of pot a noncriminal offense comparable to a traffic violation.
The federal drug czar, John Walters, has visited both states to oppose decriminalization, which he calls "a stupid, insulting con."
Nevada's measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana, which would be sold legally only at state-licensed stores. Pot smoking would be allowed in homes, not in cars or public places.
Drug offenses also figure in Ohio and South Dakota ballot items that are backed by drug-law reformers and opposed by most criminal justice officials.
The Ohio initiative would require judges to sentence first- and second-time drug offenders to treatment rather than prison. The South Dakota proposal would allow a defendant to tell jurors they can disregard a law if they don't like it.
A ballot measure in Oklahoma would create a new crime: cockfighting. Oklahoma is one of only three states, along with New Mexico and Louisiana, where it is legal.
Measures in Colorado and California would allow voter registration on Election Day; a referendum in Idaho would restore term limits that the Legislature repealed.
In North Dakota, voters will consider a unique proposal to stem the exodus of young people. The measure offers up to $5,000 to repay student loans and an income tax credit of up to $1,000 annually for five years to 21- to 29-year-olds who have jobs and have lived in the state at least six months.