ELECTION 2018
Voters Make Policy Citizens had their say on more than 150 ballot measures that could transform their states.
BY PATRICK R. POTYONDY
I
f you tuned in to any of the major television news stations on election night, you couldn’t miss the focus on candidates for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governorships. You no doubt heard about the state legislators, secretaries of state, attorneys general and others vying for office. But, on top of all that, voters enacted policies across 37 states, saying “yes” or “no” to 155 statewide ballot measures (with 13 having been decided earlier in the year). Of them, as of press time, 107 passed. The measures included legislative referrals (when a legislature places an item on the ballot), initiatives (when enough signatures are gathered to place an item), popular referendums (when voters are given the power to “veto” a bill) and a handful of other items. Ballot measures
Patrick Potyondy is a Mellon-ACLS public fellow and a legislative policy specialist with NCSL’s Elections and Redistricting Program.
can amend constitutions or statutes, with wildly different rules governing the process in each state. This year, voters weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of our day—elections, redistricting, ethics, health care, revenues, transportation, criminal justice, housing, energy, the environment and more.
Elections and Public Office Perhaps the major election issue of the night was the passage of an amendment in Florida that will re-enfranchise individuals with a felony conviction once they have served their sentence—which is about 1.4 million people, predominately African-Americans. The measure excludes those who were convicted of murder or sexual crimes. The pendulum swung in the opposite direction in Louisiana where voters chose to bar anyone with a felony from holding public office for five years after completing their sentence. Maryland voters passed Election Day
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STATE LEGISLATURES
registration. Nevadans will now have automatic voter registration. And Michiganders passed a sweeping measure that included a package of voting policies from automatic registration to post-election audits. Voters went in a different direction in Arkansas and North Carolina by passing new photo ID requirements. Voters in Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico and North Dakota were keen to pass ethics-related issues, while Arkansas tightened its term limits from 16 to 10 years.
Redistricting Redistricting reformers— who support increased, direct public control and oversight of the process—had a good night. Colorado voters passed two measures with 70 percent of the vote, falling just short of Ohio’s 75 percent margin when that state passed redistricting reform earlier in the year. Sixty-one percent of Michigan voters approved using a redistricting commission,