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  • Ten states where abortion rights are on the ballot this election day | US elections 2024

    Americans in 10 US states are voting on Tuesday on whether to enshrine the right to abortion into their state constitutions.

    In some states, like Arizona and Florida, they have the opportunity to overturn bans that state legislatures passed after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022, doing away with the federal right to an abortion. In others, like Colorado and New York, they are voting on whether to boost protections for the procedure and make them harder to roll back in the event conservatives take power. And in one state – Nebraska – two competing measures will ask voters to choose between enshrining an existing 12-week ban or replacing it with more expansive abortion protections.

    Since Roe was overturned, seven states have held abortion-related ballot referendums, and abortion rights supporters have won all of them. The results of Tuesday’s measure will not be the final word; states that vote to overturn bans will see litigation or legislation before those bans are repealed. But taken together, the results will indicate how potent the issue remains after two years without Roe.

    Results will begin rolling in after 8pm ET, when the final polls close in Florida, Missouri and Maryland. However, it could take days for a complete tally of all of the votes.

    Arizona

    Abortion rights supporters in Arizona, a key battleground state in the presidential election, are vying to pass a measure that would enshrine the right to abortion until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks, in the state constitution. Abortion is currently banned in the state after 15 weeks.

    Colorado

    Colorado’s measure, which needs to garner 55% of the vote, would amend the state constitution to block the state government from denying, impeding or discriminating against individuals’ “right to abortion”. There is currently no gestational limit on the right to abortion in the state.

    Florida

    Florida’s measure would roll back the state’s six-week ban by adding the right to an abortion up until viability to the state’s constitution. It needs 60% of the vote to pass.

    Maryland

    Legislators, rather than citizens, initiated Maryland’s measure, which would amend the state constitution to confirm individuals’ “right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end the individual’s pregnancy”. There is currently no gestational limit on the right to abortion in the state.

    Missouri

    Voters will decide whether to overturn the state’s current, near-total abortion ban and establish a constitutional guarantee to the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom”, including abortion care until fetal viability.

    Montana

    Abortion in Montana is currently legal. If passed, the measure would amend the state constitution to explicitly include “a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion” up until fetal viability, or after viability to protect a patient’s life or health.

    Nebraska

    Nebraska is the lone state with two competing ballot measures. If both measures pass, the measure that garners the most votes would take effect.

    The first would enshrine the right to abortion up until viability into the state constitution.

    The second would enshrine the current 12-week ban.

    Nevada

    Nevada’s measure would amend the state constitution to protect the right to abortion up until viability, or after viability in cases where a patient’s health or life may be threatened.

    New York

    New York state legislators added a measure to the ballot to broaden the state’s anti-discrimination laws by adding, among other things, protections against discrimination on the basis of “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health”. It does not explicitly reference abortion, but advocates say its pregnancy-related language encompasses abortion protections. Abortion is protected in New York until fetal viability.

    South Dakota

    South Dakota’s measure is less sweeping than other abortion rights measures, because it would only protect the right to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Although this measure will appear on the ballot, there will be a trial over the validity of the signatures that were collected for it. Depending out the outcome of the trial, the measure – and any votes cast for it – could be invalidated.

  • Voters deciding ballot issues on marijuana, immigration, taxes and more

    Voters deciding ballot issues on marijuana, immigration, taxes and more

    While electing officials to make and enforce laws, voters in dozens of states are also deciding on more than 140 ballot proposals affecting the way people legally live, work and die.

    As 10 states consider measures related to abortion or reproductive rights on Tuesday’s ballots, about a half-dozen states are weighing the legalization of marijuana for either recreational or medical use. About two dozen measures are focused on future elections, including several specifically barring noncitizens voting. Other state measures affect wages, taxes, housing and education.

    Many of the ballot measures were initiated by citizen petitions that sidestep state legislatures, though others were placed before voters by lawmakers.

    Marijuana legalization

    Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota are deciding whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. The election marks the third vote on the issue in both North Dakota and South Dakota. In Nebraska, voters are considering a pair of measures that would legalize medical marijuana and regulate the industry.

    About half the states currently allow recreational marijuana and about a dozen more allow medical marijuana.

    In Massachusetts, a ballot measure would legalize the possession and supervised use of natural psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms. It would be the third state to do so, following Oregon and Colorado.

    Immigration

    An Arizona measure crafted amid a surge in immigration would make it a state crime to enter from a foreign country except through official ports of entry, and for someone already in the U.S. illegally to apply for public benefits using false documents.

    The border crossing measure is similar to a challenged Texas law that the U.S. Justice Department says violates federal authority.

    School choice

    A proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution would allow lawmakers to use state funds for private schools. A Colorado measure would create a constitutional right to school choice for K-12 students.

    In Nebraska, voters are deciding whether to repeal a new state law that funds private school tuition with state dollars.

    A majority of states offers some sort of state-backed program to help cover private school costs.

    Sports betting

    Missouri voters are deciding whether to become the latest to legalize sports betting. A total of 38 states and Washington, D.C., already allow sports betting, which has expanded rapidly since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it in 2018.

    Taxes

    A Colorado proposal would make it the second state after California to impose a sales tax on firearms and ammunition, with revenue going primarily to crime victims’ services. The federal government already taxes sales of guns and ammunition.

    North Dakota voters are considering a measure to eliminate property taxes. If approved, local governments could need more than $3 billion biennially in replacement revenue from the state.

    A South Dakota measure would repeal the state’s sales tax on groceries, a move already taken in most other states.

    An Oregon measure would raise the minimum tax on large corporations to fund a tax rebate for residents.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

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    Housing

    California voters are deciding whether to repeal a 1995 law limiting local rent control ordinances. If approved, it would open the way for local governments to expand limitations on the rates that landlords could charge.

    A unique proposal in Arizona links property taxes with responses to homelessness. It would let property owners seek property tax refunds if they incur expenses because a local government declined to enforce ordinances against illegal camping, loitering, panhandling, public alcohol and drug use, and other things.

    Climate

    Voters in Washington state are considering whether to repeal a 2021 law that caps carbon emissions and creates a market for businesses exceeding the mark to purchase allowances from others. Washington was the second state to launch such a program, after California.

    Citizen voting

    Republican-led legislatures in eight states — Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin — have proposed state constitutional amendments declaring that only citizens can vote.

    A 1996 U.S. law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and many states already have similar laws. But Republicans have emphasized the potential of noncitizens voting after an influx of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican border. Though noncitizen voting historically has been rare, voter roll reviews before the election flagged potential noncitizens registered in several states.

    Some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C., allow noncitizens to vote in certain local elections.

    Voting methods

    Connecticut voters are considering whether to authorize no-excuse absentee voting, joining most states that already allow it.

    Measures in Montana and South Dakota would create open primary elections in which candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot, with a certain number advancing to the general election. Measures in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada also propose open primaries featuring candidates from all parties, with a certain number advancing to a general election using ranked choice voting. An Oregon measure would required ranked choice voting in both primaries and general elections.

    Ranked choice voting is currently used in Alaska and Maine. But Alaska voters are considering whether to repeal provisions of a 2020 initiative that instituted open primaries and ranked choice general elections.

    Arizona voters are deciding between competing ballot proposals that would require either open primaries with candidates of all parties or the state’s current method of partisan primaries. If conflicting measures both pass, the provision receiving the most votes takes effect, but that could be up to a court to decide.

    Redistricting

    An Ohio initiative would create a citizens commission to handle redistricting for U.S. House and state legislative seats, taking the task away from elected officials.

    Minimum wage

    Ballot measures in Missouri and Alaska would gradually raise minimum wages to $15 an hour while also requiring paid sick leave. A California measure would incrementally raise the minimum wage for all employers to $18 an hour.

    A Nebraska measure would require many employers to provide sick leave but would not change wages.

    A Massachusetts measure would gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees. By contrast, an Arizona measure would let tipped workers be paid 25% less than the minimum wage, so long as tips push their total pay beyond the minimum wage threshold.

    Assisted suicide

    West Virginia voters are deciding whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit medically assisted suicide. The measure would run counter to 10 states and Washington, D.C., where physician-assisted suicide is allowed.

  • Abortion is on US ballot in 2024 elections

    Abortion is on US ballot in 2024 elections

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in nine states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.

    Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.

    The future legality and availability of abortion hinges not only on ballot measures, as policies could shift depending on who controls Congress and the presidency. Same with state governments — including legislatures that pursue new laws, state supreme courts that determine the laws’ constitutionality, attorneys general who decide whether to defend them and district attorneys who enforce them.

    If all the abortion rights measures pass, “it’s a sign of how much of a juggernaut support for reproductive rights has become,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law and an expert on the history of reproductive rights in the U.S.

    “If some of them fail,” she added, “then you’re going to see some conservatives looking for guidance to see what the magic ingredient was that made it possible for conservatives to stem the tide.”

    Voters have been supporting abortion rights

    Abortion rights advocates have prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the nationwide right to abortion. That decision opened the door to bans or restrictions in most GOP-controlled states — and protections of access in most of those controlled by Democrats.

    The abortion rights campaigns have a big fundraising advantage this year. Their opponents’ efforts are focused on portraying the amendments as too extreme rather than abortion as immoral.

    Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.

    The bans also are part of a key argument in the presidential race. Vice President Kamala Harris calls them “Trump abortion bans,” noting former President Donald Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade. Harris, meanwhile, has portrayed herself as a direct, consistent advocate for reproductive health and rights, including Black maternal health.

    Trump has struggled to thread a divide between his own base of anti-abortion supporters and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights, leaning on his catch-all response that abortion rights should be left up to individual states.

    His shifting stances on reproductive rights include vowing in October to veto a national abortion ban, just weeks after the presidential debate when he repeatedly declined to say. Trump also has regularly taken credit for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

    Trump’s attempt to find a more cautious stance on abortion echoes the efforts of many Republican congressional candidates as the issue has emerged as a major vulnerability for the GOP. In competitive congressional races from coast to coast, Republicans distanced themselves from more aggressive anti-abortion policies coming from their party and its allies, despite their records on the issue and previous statements opposing abortion rights.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

    News outlets around the world count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.

    The measures could roll back bans in five states

    While the ballot questions have similar aims, each one occupies its own political circumstances.

    There’s an added obstacle to passing protections in reliably Republican Florida: Supporters of the amendment must get at least 60% of the vote.

    Passing it there and rolling back a 6-week ban that took effect in May would be a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who has steered state GOP funds to the cause and whose administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.

    Nebraska has competing ballot measures. One would allow abortion further into pregnancy. The other would enshrine in the constitution the state’s current law, which bars most abortions after 12 weeks — but would allow for further restrictions.

    In South Dakota, the measure would allow some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. Because of that wrinkle, most national abortion-rights groups are not supporting it.

    In some states, notably Missouri, passing amendments may not expand access immediately. Courts would be asked to invalidate the bans; and there could be legal battles over that. Clinics would need to staff up and get licenses. And some restrictions could remain in effect.

    Arizona, a battleground in the presidential election, bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

    The ballot measure there gained momentum after a state Supreme Court ruling in April found that the state could enforce a strict abortion ban adopted in 1864. Some GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to repeal the law before it could be enforced.

    The measures would enshrine current access laws elsewhere

    In the Democratic-controlled Colorado and Maryland, the ballot measures would largely put existing policies into the state constitutions, though Colorado’s version could also remove financial barriers to abortion. It would take 55% of the vote to pass there.

    Measures maintaining access also are on the ballot in Montana, where a U.S. Senate race could help determine control of the chamber, and Nevada, a battleground in the presidential election.

    In Nevada, where control of the state government is divided, the ballot measure would have to be passed this year and again in 2026 to take effect.

    New York also has a measure on the ballot that its supporters say would bolster abortion rights. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

  • Abortion and open primaries are on the ballot in Nevada. What to know about the key 2024 measures

    Abortion and open primaries are on the ballot in Nevada. What to know about the key 2024 measures

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — It’s been more than three decades since Nevada voters overwhelmingly approved a law allowing abortions until 24 weeks of pregnancy. Now they must decide if they want to make it a constitutional right.

    Nevada is one of nine states where abortion rights are on the ballot, as supporters in the state and elsewhere try to strengthen abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that made abortion legal nationwide for 50 years.

    It’s a key issue that could drive voters to the polls in Nevada, a crucial presidential battleground, even if abortion access has been protected by state law since 1990.

    Here’s a closer look at the key ballot measures in Nevada:

    Abortion rights

    The 2024 election is only the first test of the measure seeking to enshrine the right to an abortion until the fetus can survive outside the womb, known as “fetal viability” which doctors say is after 21 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or protect her health. Voters would again have to approve it in 2026 in order to amend the state constitution.

    It wouldn’t expand current abortion access in the state, but supporters and organizers of the initiative say it adds an extra layer of protection. State laws in Nevada are more vulnerable to change — the current 1990 law could be reversed by another voter referendum — but proposed changes to the state constitution have to pass in two consecutive elections.

    Las Vegas resident Laura Campbell, 36, said she supports the initiative to strengthen Nevada’s abortion access. Without it, Campbell said she isn’t sure she would be alive today.

    At 27 weeks, she said she learned that her pregnancy was nonviable, meaning the fetus couldn’t survive outside her womb. Her doctor took her hand and promised to take care of her.

    “I was able to come out of that healthy and able to get pregnant again,” Campbell said. A year later, she gave birth to her daughter, now 3. “I could have been a tragic story.”

    Opponents say the proposed amendment goes too far because it doesn’t clearly define “fetal viability.”

    “It opens up a huge can of worms,” Davida Rochelle, 68, said.

    Anti-abortion group Nevada Right to Life also said in a recent ad that the initiative is “deceptively worded” because it doesn’t make clear that abortion is already legal in the state.

    Voting process

    Two different measures going before voters could alter the way Nevada residents cast their ballots.

    An initiative to open up primaries and implement ranked choice voting would fundamentally change elections in a key swing state where nonpartisan voters outnumber registered Democrats and Republicans, and where 42% of voters do not belong to one of the major parties. Supporters of the measure say opening up primaries would give a voice to more than 1 million voters in the state who currently do not have a say in the nomination of major-party candidates for Congressional races and statewide office.

    If it passes, all registered voters in Nevada starting in 2026 can vote in primary races for Congress, statewide office and the state Legislature. It would not affect presidential primaries and races for elected office at the local level.

    Under the proposed system, the top five primary candidates, regardless of their political affiliation, would move on to the general election, in which voters would rank by preference up to five candidates. The first candidate to receive more than 50% of the vote would be declared the winner.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

    News outlets around the world count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.

    If none of the candidates immediately win the majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes would then be redistributed to the voter’s next highest ranked candidate. The process would repeat until a winner is declared.

    The citizen-led initiative has faced opposition from both Republican and Democratic party leaders who say ranked choice voting is too confusing.

    Another measure on the ballot would require that voters show photo identification at the polls. It’s the first time the Republican-led measure is going before voters and would have to again pass in 2026.

    Slavery as punishment

    Nevada voters this election could vote to reject slavery or indentured servitude as a criminal punishment, which is still on the books in the state constitution.

    Around 10,000 people are currently imprisoned in Nevada. Some make as little as 35 cents an hour.

    There is no formal opposition against the proposed amendment.

  • Pennsylvania election officials weighing in on challenges to 4,300 mail ballot applications

    Pennsylvania election officials weighing in on challenges to 4,300 mail ballot applications

    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — More than 4,000 mail ballot applications have been challenged across 14 Pennsylvania counties, leaving election officials to decide voter eligibility during hearings that will extend well past Election Day.

    State elections officials say the “mass challenges” focused on two separate groups — people who may have forwarded their mail without also changing their voter registration and nonmilitary U.S. voters living overseas. The overseas voters are only entitled to cast ballots under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act for president and congressional seats.

    The state had a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to for anyone to challenge mail-in ballot applications; any ballots from those voters whose applications were challenged must be sequestered until the county elections board officials hold a hearing to adjudicate the claims. Those hearings must be no later than Friday, three days after Election Day.

    Pennsylvania is a critical swing state that could be a deciding factor in the contest between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump, a very close race on the eve of Election Day. If the margin is tight, the 4,300 mail ballots at issue could be enough to determine who wins the state and its 19 electoral votes.

    The effort follows a federal judge’s ruling last week to throw out a lawsuit by six Republican members of Congress seeking to make Pennsylvania election officials institute new checks confirming military and overseas voters’ eligibility and identity.

    The first county elections board hearing, conducted Friday in suburban Philadelphia’s Chester County, resulted in rejection of all of the challenges made to mail ballot applications, claims that people have moved and should have changed where they vote.

    “The scary part was that they had sent this letter with a voter registration cancelation form and claimed they got 2,300 voters to cancel voter registration” in Pennsylvania, Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell, a Democrat, said Monday.

    The challenges cost $10 a voter and it’s not entirely clear who filed each of them. In Chester County, they were filed by Diane Houser, a Trump supporter who said they were nonpartisan and from a grassroots network.

    Lycoming County will conduct a hearing Friday on the 72 challenges it received from Karen DiSalvo, a lawyer with PA Fair Elections, a conservative group that has fueled right-wing attacks on voting procedures. DiSalvo said she made the challenges in her capacity as an individual and not as a member of any organization.

    “The challenges submitted simply point out that the county election officials must properly process the voter registration applications that they already have for these applicants. The voters do not need to do anything –- all have received their ballot. To resolve the eligibility issues noted in the challenges, county officials should properly register the applicants,” DiSalvo wrote in an email.

    In York County, all the challenges — 354 — were denied Monday by the elections board, but chief clerk Greg Monskie said the board agreed to keep those ballots segregated during a period in which an appeal can be made.

    The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, said that by Saturday there were some 3,700 challenges to mail ballot applications by overseas voters pending in 10 counties. There were also challenges pending in four counties to 363 voters based on supposed changes of address — plus the 212 that were rejected or withdrawn in Chester County in that category.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Eric Roe, Chester’s Republican commissioner, said people who had been challenged included active-duty military members, college students and people who left Pennsylvania seeking medical care.

    “That is alarming to me that someone take up such an approach to disenfranchise legitimate Pennsylvania voters,” Roe said. “And I can’t think of anything less American than that.”

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania says filling out a change-of-address form does not necessarily mean a voter has moved out of the state permanently — those forms can also be used to get mail forwarded.

    There are also 52 challenges being reviewed in Lawrence County, said Tim Germani, director of voter and elections services in Lawrence, and it appears most if not all relate to overseas mail ballot requests. The elections board may need to conduct a hearing by Friday, he said.

    In suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks County, where about 1,300 challenges were filed — most of them by Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman — officials were trying to notify voters Monday about a hearing scheduled for early Thursday. Until then, those votes will be segregated during the vote counting, said Bucks governmental spokesman Jim O’Malley.

    “We are doing our best to provide notice today to those voters and that notice will include information about how to contact the Board of Elections,” O’Malley said in a phone interview Monday.

    A message seeking comment was left for Coleman.