2016 ballot measures: November election results analysis
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Of the 162 statewide measures decided in 2016, 154 of them were on the ballot on November 8, 2016.
- 110 were approved
- 44 were defeated
| Topic | On the ballot |  Approved
|
 Defeated
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Marijuana | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Minimum wage | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Healthcare | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Gun laws | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| All[1] | 68 | 46 | 21 |
Marijuana
The number of U.S. residents living in a state with legal recreational marijuana nearly quadrupled from 17.4 million to 67.5 million, with 1.3 million residents in Maine awaiting a possible recount of election results for Maine Question 1, which was approved by a margin of just over 2,600 votes according to the first count.
Arizona voters rejected recreational marijuana legalization, but voters in the following states approved it:
Medical marijuana measures were approved in Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota, and the program in Montana was expanded by removing the three-patient limit for providers.
| Ballot Measure: | Outcome: | Yes (%): | No (%): |
| California Proposition 64, California Marijuana Legalization | | 7,979,041 (57.13%) | 5,987,020 (42.87%) |
| Arizona Marijuana Legalization, Proposition 205 | | 1,233,323 (48.68%) | 1,300,344 (51.32%) |
| Maine Marijuana Legalization, Question 1 | | 381,768 (50.26%) | 377,773 (49.74%) |
| Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization, Question 4 | | 1,769,328 (53.66%) | 1,528,219 (46.34%) |
| Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization, Amendment 2 | | 6,518,919 (71.32%) | 2,621,845 (28.68%) |
Minimum wage
Proponents of initiatives increasing the minimum wage saw success at the ballot box, continuing a decades-long trend. All four minimum wage initiatives on the ballot were approved, increasing the minimum wage in the following states:
- Arizona - Proposition 206 - $12 per hour by 2020 (with paid time off)
- Colorado - Amendment 70 - $12 per hour by 2020
- Maine - Question 4 - $12 per hour by 2020
- Washington - Initiative 1433 - $13.50 per hour by 2020 (with paid time off)
Also, voters in South Dakota overturned the state legislature's attempt to decrease the minimum wage for those under 18 through the veto referendum Referred Law 20. Thus, the minimum wage for youth in South Dakota will be $8.50 per hour according to the will of the voters instead of $7.50 per hour as state legislators wanted.
| Ballot Measure: | Outcome: | Yes (%): | No (%): |
| Arizona Minimum Wage and Paid Time Off, Proposition 206 | | 1,465,639 (58.33%) | 1,046,945 (41.67%) |
Gun control
Measures in Maine and Nevada were designed to require background checks before the sale or transfer of a firearm between people who are not licensed firearm dealers. Voters in Nevada narrowly approved the measure, and voters in Maine narrowly defeated the measure. In California, an initiative requiring certain individuals to pass a background check in order to purchase ammunition was approved. Voters in Washington approved Initiative 1491, authorizing courts to issue extreme risk protection orders to remove an individual's access to firearms.
| Ballot Measure: | Outcome: | Yes (%): | No (%): |
| California Proposition 63: Background Checks for Ammunition Purchases and Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazine Ban | | 8,663,159 (63.08%) | 5,070,772 (36.92%) |
Death penalty
The future of capital punishment was addressed at the ballot box on November 8, 2016. Electors in all three states featuring death penalty-related measures voted in favor of the death penalty or against efforts to repeal it:
- California Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty in California, was defeated.
- Nebraska voters chose to overturn the state legislature's effort to end the death penalty by voting "repeal" on Referendum 426. Thus, the death penalty will remain in Nebraska according to the will of the voters instead of being repealed as the state legislature wanted.
- Oklahoma State Question 776 was approved, constitutionally protecting the death penalty in the state.
Moreover, a proposition in California to speed up the appeals process for death row inmates was narrowly approved.
| Ballot Measure: | Outcome: | Yes (%): | No (%): |
| Oklahoma State Question 776, Allow State to Impose Death Penalty Amendment | | 942,504 (66.36%) | 477,717 (33.64%) |
| California Proposition 62, Abolition of Death Penalty Measure | | 6,361,788 (46.85%) | 7,218,625 (53.15%) |
| California Proposition 66, Death Penalty Procedures Measure | | 6,626,159 (51.13%) | 6,333,731 (48.87%) |
Notable or first-of-its-kind measures
- By spending over $109 million on their campaign, big pharmaceutical companies succeeded in narrowly defeating this measure designed to tie what state government agencies pay for prescription drugs to what the Department of Veteran Affairs pays.
- This measure would have required condoms or other protective barriers to be used in pornographic films, and it allowed the proponent, Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, to defend the enforcement of the initiative through litigation. It was this last point that many opponents focused on. The measure was ultimately defeated.
- The approval of Question 5 is a first-of-its-kind, significant change to a state-level election process, doing away with primaries and general elections and enacting an instant-runoff process. Now the state must figure out what changes to the constitution could be required to implement Question 5.
- Although this measure led in the polls early in the year, and proponents raised significantly more campaign funds, support for this measure swung sharply downward as the opposition campaign characterized it as deceptive and inhibitive to solar expansion, rather than beneficial to it. Moreover, media outlets almost exclusively opposed Amendment 1. Voters ended up evenly split on Amendment 1, with just over 50 percent voting in favor—not even close to the 60 percent supermajority required for the approval of constitutional amendments in Florida.
- This proposal to establish universal healthcare paid for through a 10 percent income tax—split between employers and employees for payroll income—never had the funding, the public support, or the key endorsements required to pass. It was, however, the first time a statewide single-payer healthcare proposal has gone before voters.
- Oklahoma Question 780, Drug Crime Penalty Reduction and Oklahoma Question 781, Prison Savings Allocation
- This pair of measures changed most felony drug crimes to misdemeanors and allocated money saved because of the shorter and less numerous prison sentences to rehabilitation programs.
- Marsy's Laws (three states): After successfully passing a victim's bill of rights called Marsy's Law in California in 2008, Henry Nicholas, the billionaire co-founder of Broadcom Corp., started campaigning for this kind of legislation to increase the rights and privileges of victims and adding regulations surrounding parole hearings and bail across the nation. He single-handedly funded petition drives to put initiatives on the ballot in the following states, where voters approved all three:
Approval stats and campaign funds
Approval stats for types of measures
The chart below shows the total number of measures broken down by type, along with how many measures were approved and how many were defeated. As is usual, the approval rate for legislatively referred measures is higher than the approval rate for citizen-initiated measures. This pattern exists because citizen initiatives often deal with more controversial issues or issues that spur gridlock or outright opposition in the state legislatures.
There were four veto referendums on the ballot on November 8, 2016. A veto referendum is a measure put on the ballot through a signature petition to challenge a bill passed by the state legislature. In one case, California Proposition 67, voters upheld the bill passed by the legislature. In the other three cases, as well as in another veto referendum election in June 2016, voters overturned the state legislature's bill.
| Type of ballot measure | Total | Approved | Defeated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legislatively referred constitutional amendments | 24 | 20 | 4 |
| Initiatives | 34 | 18 | 15 |
| Veto referendums | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Legislatively referred state statutes | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Advisory questions | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Bond issues | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| Total | 68 | 46 | 21 |
David and Goliath races
- See also: Ballot measure campaign finance, 2016
- Note: The following figures are based on campaign finance reports released as of December 14, 2016. Post-election reports are likely to reveal more spending, and Ballotpedia will release a finalized report when this data is available.
As of December 14, 2016, Ballotpedia had tracked at least $984 million in spending on campaigns supporting or opposing ballot measures in 2016, and over 93 percent of that campaign funding was spent on campaigns surrounding the 71 citizen initiatives and four citizen veto referendums that were on the ballot, indicating the importance and controversial nature of citizen-initiated measures as compared to measures put on the ballot by state legislatures. Many of these citizen-initiated measures featured "David and Goliath" contests, with one campaign outspending the other by a significant margin. Below is a breakdown:
Of the 75 citizen-initiated measures on the ballot, campaigns surrounding 70 of them were unbalanced from a campaign finance perspective, meaning that the difference between the war chests on each side was a significant percentage (20 percent or more) of the total spent. In many cases, one side spent millions or tens of millions of dollars more than the other. Out of those 70 races, the side with more money won at least 49, or 70 percent of the time:
- Total citizen-initiated measures: 75
- Unbalanced campaign finance: 70
- Balanced campaign finance: 5
- Out of the 70 unbalanced races, the breakdown of victories and losses is below:
- Victories after greater spending: 49
- Losses after greater spending: 21
Footnotes
- ↑ The total will not be a sum of the sub-categories, since some measures do not fall under the featured sub-categories and some measures could fall under more than one sub-category.
