The Good

It was a big night for marijuana legalization advocates as Washington and Colorado became the first political jurisdictions in the world to vote to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. Both states will now allow the licensed cultivation and distribution of marijuana, a move that, if other states follow suit, would put certain drug cartels out of business.

While decriminalization of marijuana is an important first step in undoing the devastation wrought by decades of the drug war, the fight isn’t over for Washington and Colorado because these ballot initiatives do nothing to change federal law, which classifies cannabis as an illegal narcotic. As Reuters points out:

The Obama administration has recently pressed an enforcement crackdown against pot dispensaries and greenhouses deemed to be engaged in large-scale drug trade under the pretense of supplying medical cannabis patients in California and elsewhere.

Before Tuesday’s election, the administration had been largely silent on latest state ballot initiatives seeking to legalize recreational pot for adults.

Several former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration directors had urged Obama officials to come out forcefully against the measures, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder did when he criticized a 2010 California pot legalization referendum that was soundly defeated by voters.

Furthermore, the Justice Department released a statement reminding the nation that “The Department of Justice’s enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged.” It continued, “We are reviewing the ballot initiative and have no additional comment at this time.”

So, as exciting as these new initiatives are, federal authorities are unlikely to respect them, meaning we’ll have to keep our eyes on these states to see how this plays out.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts voted to scrap state criminal and civil penalties for medicinal marijuana, making it the 18th state in the country to approve the use of medical marijuana.

Another issue that states are leading on is same-sex marriage, which has been approved in Maryland and Maine.  the New York Times does a good job summarizing where same-sex marriage stands following these latest ballot initiatives:

In Minnesota, in another first, voters rejected a proposal to amend the State Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, a measure that has been enshrined in the constitutions of 30 states. A state law barring same-sex marriage remains on the books there, but with the defeat of the amendment, the door remains open to change by the legislature or the courts.

While six states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage through judicial or legislative decisions, voters had rejected it more than 30 times in a row.

Final results in Washington, the fourth state voting Tuesday on marriage equality, were not available Wednesday morning, but with half the votes reported, the proposal to legalize gay marriage had a small majority.

Maryland voters also proved to be awesome in the realm of immigration in their approval of the DREAM ACT. Seth Freed Wessler at Colorlines writes:

Maryland will join a dozen other states that grant in-state college tuition to undocumented  immigrants. Maryland passed the DREAM Act last year but conservatives gathered enough signatures to send it to voters. The state is now set apart as the only one where the DREAM Act has passed through a voter initiative rather than through legislation.

In other exciting news, California voted to reform their inhumane three strikes law by eliminating the requirement for draconian penalties for nonviolent crimes. It will also allow for the resentencing of prisoners who are serving life sentences for nonviolent third strike convictions.

The Bad

California voted not to repeal the death penalty. I was slightly conflicted about this measure, not because I’m for the death penalty (I’m firmly against it), but due to the objections of of death row inmates who point out that being on death row is the only way to access decent legal assistance. As the Los Angeles Times explained:

If Proposition 34 passes, death row inmates will be merged into the general prison population and have their sentences commuted to life without parole. …convicted murderers, like other felons, would still be entitled to appeal their convictions in state court with government-paid lawyers.

But except in rare circumstances, they would not be given lawyers to investigate and file habeas corpus petitions, which raise evidence the trial court did not hear and which can be heard in federal court once state appeals are exhausted.

Unlike capital inmates, the lifers must either file their own habeas petitions, persuade a judge to appoint a lawyer for them or find an advocate willing to take on their case.

In California, death row inmates have a higher chance of dying from old age, natural causes or suicide than by lethal injection, so it makes sense that they’d rather stay on death row if that means access to legal representation they otherwise could not afford. If anything, this ballot measure revealed unacceptable inequalities in our legal system.

In other not so great news, Massachusetts decided against legalizing doctor assisted suicide at the request of terminally ill patients.

The Ugly

The prize for ugliest ballot measure results goes decisively to Montana, where voters decided (70.3% to 29.7 percent) to require parental notification for abortions. “Girls under age 16 who seek an abortion will have to notify a parent or seek judicial bypass prior to terminating a pregnancy,” reports RH Reality Check. “The notification must be done 48 hours before an abortion is performed, or the physician will be fined $500 and receive a six month jail sentence.” Sorry 14-year-old girl who was raped by her dad, apparently Montana believes your parents own your body.

Montana also voted (79.2 to 20.8 percent) to deny state services to undocumented immigrants, or more specifically, people who cannot prove their legal status. Undocumented immigrants are now officially excluded from accessing unemployment, disability, scholarships, state licenses, rehabilitation services if they’re hurt on the job, ect.

Although Montana approved a ballot measure that declares corporations are not people, which is good, I feel it doesn’t warrant celebration since Montana has simultaneously declared that girls under 16 and undocumented immigrants are not people either.

Moving on, Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning affirmative action in public employment, education and contracting sectors. According to the Associated Press, the state GOP, which sponsored the measure, said “the amendment’s purpose is to help the state get past racism by showing that a person’s qualifications are more important than skin color.” I guess the best way to “get passed racism” is to pretend it doesn’t exist? I’m surprised this isn’t getting more attention considering the Supreme Court will soon be deciding the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education. Given the Court’s ideological makeup, there’s a real chance affirmative action could be wiped out.

Although this wasn’t a ballot measure, it deserves mention as an ugly result of yesterday’s elections: Joe Arpaio was re-elected to his sixth term as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona.

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This list is obviously not exhaustive. These are just the ones that stood out to me. Feel free to include any important ballot measures I might have missed in the comments section.