MARIJUANA BALLOT:CALIFORNIA VOTERS on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have made their state the first in the union to legalise the personal use and possession of marijuana.
Voters there also considered whether to make it easier for state legislators to pass a budget, to suspend a state-passed global warming Bill and to hand over the role of creating legislative districts to a nonpartisan commission.
The measures were among 160 put to voters around the country on issues ranging from the new healthcare law to ideas for balancing state budgets.
California was not the only state dealing with marijuana. In South Dakota, voters rejected an effort to legalise medical marijuana – which California and 13 other states have already done.
Arizona voters were considering a similar measure.
In Oklahoma, voters overwhelmingly backed a measure banning use of international law – including Islamic law, also known as sharia – in state courts. Oklahoma voters approved a measure that would allow them to opt out of requirements of the healthcare Bill passed by Congress this year. Similar measures were on the ballot in Arizona and Colorado.
In Colorado, voters rejected an anti-abortion rights measure to extend the definition of “personhood” in the state constitution to “the beginning of the biological development”.
Another issue on the ballot was the Employee Free Choice Act, which includes a “card check” provision that opponents say would eliminate the secret ballot in union elections. Voters in South Carolina and South Dakota approved the secret ballot for such elections, and voters in Arizona and Utah appeared likely to back similar measures.
Early returns showed Maryland voters on track to approve the call for a constitutional convention for the first time since 1967. Iowa, Michigan and Montana were also holding regularly scheduled votes on whether to draw up new constitutions. – (Washington Post service)