U.S. Voters Pass Abortion Rights and Voting Restrictions
Voters across three dozen U.S. states approved abortion rights protections and stricter voting requirements while rejecting several election reform and tax measures.
Voters in more than three dozen U.S. states decided nearly 150 ballot measures on Tuesday, demonstrating broad support for abortion rights and stricter voting requirements. In Nevada and Virginia, voters overwhelmingly passed initiatives to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, while Missouri voters rejected a GOP-backed effort to strip such protections. Conversely, Idaho voters rejected a measure that would have created a statutory right to abortion.
Election reforms saw mixed results across the country. U.S. voters in West Virginia, South Dakota, Kansas, Alaska, and Arkansas approved amendments limiting voting to U.S. citizens, while Ohio, North Carolina, and Nevada passed photo ID requirements. In Alaska, voters rejected Ballot Measure 2, the second failed attempt to repeal the state's nonpartisan Top Four primary system and ranked choice voting. Massachusetts voters similarly rejected a transition to a nonpartisan Top Two system.
Direct democracy protections gained ground in the Midwest. Missouri voters rejected a Republican-drawn congressional map and approved Amendment 6, which limits the ability of lawmakers to overturn voter-approved laws. Montana voters also approved protections for citizen initiative rights, while Utah voters rejected an effort to raise the approval threshold for tax-related initiatives.
Other notable outcomes included the restoration of felon voting rights in Virginia and the approval of a measure in Arizona requiring school sports to be designated by sex assigned at birth. In Washington, voters maintained a 9.9% millionaires tax, while California's proposed billionaire tax trailed by 11 points as of Wednesday.
