Citizens of the United States are called to the polls on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 for the midterm elections, which will renew part of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives. But alongside this federal ballot which decides Joe Biden’s room for maneuver until the end of his term as president, the states can organize votes, initiatives or referendums on local issues. There are a total of 131 local polls [lien en anglais]. Here are four of the main “ballot measures” put to the vote during the 2022 midterms.
The protection or prohibition of abortion
Abortion remains at the heart of local polls after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, who protected the right to abortion at the federal level. Each State now has the freedom to adopt more restrictive laws on the subject. This is what is offered to voters in Montana and Kentucky. In Kentucky, an amendment to the State Constitution is put to the vote to indicate that it “does not guarantee the right to abortion”. In Montana, the attack is more subtle: the bill proposed to the vote of the citizens would lead to financially sanctioning health professionals who do not do everything they can to save a child born alive, even in the event of death. failed abortion. Opponents of the plan fear it will further restrict the number of doctors performing abortions.
In California, Vermont and Michigan, the opposite amendments are put to the vote, to protect in the Constitution of each of these States the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy as well as to access to means contraceptives.
Prohibition of slavery in prison
Five states propose to their citizens to abolish slavery during these mid-term elections 2022. Because if the 13th amendment of the Constitution of the United States prohibited slavery in 1865, it establishes an exception: forced labor is permitted if used as punishment for a crime.
As a direct consequence, according to a survey by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, link in English): the 800,000 prisoners who work are not or only very poorly paid. The average salary of American prisoners is between 13 and 52 cents per hour. Seven US states still do not pay inmates who work.
Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont could now remove this exception from their laws.
The legalization of marijuana
Nineteen of the 51 US states already allow recreational cannabis for adults, in addition to the District of Columbia. Five other states could join them after Tuesday’s vote: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. But the results are uncertain: in Missouri and North Dakota, such proposals had already been refused by citizens in 2018. But, as the Associated Press notes, pro-legalizations are better organized and have received more funding than ‘Four years ago.
Changes in the voting system
What if Nevada voters no longer vote for a single candidate in the next election, but rank them? In any case, this is what a text submitted to referendum in this territory in the west of the United States proposes.
Already in effect in Alaska and Maine, this voting system allows voters to rank candidates according to their preference, from best to worst. The two people collecting the most first places are then separated by the number of second places obtained. In Alaska, it led to a by-election for the Senate with victory for Democratic candidate Mary Peltola. [lien en anglais].
Other states are voting on reforms around voting procedures. Arizona and Nebraska want to tighten ID checks at polls, Ohio and Louisiana must decide whether non-Americans can continue to vote in local elections while in Connecticut and Michigan voters are called to decide on an extension of advance or postal voting.