Category: Ballot measures
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Campaign behind ballot initiative to increase California’s medical damages cap decides to aim for 2022 ballot due to coronavirus pandemic
On April 30, 2020, the campaign behind a ballot initiative to increase California’s medical damages cap announced that 988,000 signatures had been collected. At least 623,212 of those signatures need to be valid. However, proponents have decided to hold off on submitting the signatures until after the deadline for 2020. Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court,…
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Massachusetts becomes the first state to allow electronic signatures for 2020 ballot initiative petitions
On April 26, the campaigns sponsoring the Massachusetts “Right to Repair” Initiative, the Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative, the Nursing Homes Medicaid Ratemaking Initiative, and the Beer and Wine in Food Stores Initiative filed a joint lawsuit against Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow the campaigns to gather the…
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Voters in Ohio’s four largest cities decided tax measures, bond issues, and charter amendments on April 28
Voters in Ohio’s four largest cities decided eight local ballot measures on April 28, 2020. The election used mail-in absentee ballots, with disabled voters and those without a home address allowed to vote in-person at vote centers. Mail-in ballots needed to be postmarked by April 27 and will be counted if received by May 8.…
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Massachusetts ballot initiative campaigns file a joint lawsuit seeking permission to gather signatures electronically
On April 26, the campaigns sponsoring the Massachusetts “Right to Repair” Initiative, the Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative, the Nursing Homes Medicaid Ratemaking Initiative, and the Beer and Wine in Food Stores Initiative filed a joint lawsuit against Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin asking the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the campaigns to gather the second…
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Voters in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, approve property tax increase to fund health and human services
On Tuesday, voters in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, approved the Issue 33 ballot measure, which increased the county’s property tax to provide funding for health and human or social services. Under Issue 33, the property tax is increased from $390 to $470 per $100,000 of assessed property value. In Ohio, assessed property value for taxation is…
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Lawsuit concerning voting rights restoration in Florida goes to trial
Florida voters approved Amendment 4, a citizen initiative, in 2018 by a vote of 65% in favor to 35% against. The initiative was designed to automatically restore the right to vote for people with prior felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense, upon completion of their sentences, including prison, parole,…
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California to vote on realtors-backed property tax transfers and exemptions initiative in November
On April 23, 2020, the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that a random sample of signatures projected that enough were valid for the California Association of Realtors’ (CAR) initiated constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot for November 3, 2020. Some of the ballot initiative’s provisions are similar to CAR’s 2018 ballot…
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Signatures filed for California ballot initiative related to dialysis clinic requirements
Californians could vote on a ballot initiative related to dialysis clinics for the second general election in a row. In 2018, 59.9 percent of voters rejected a proposal, titled Proposition 8, to require dialysis clinics to issue refunds to patients or patients’ payers for profits above a defined threshold. The SEIU-UHW West, a labor union…
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U.S. Supreme Court overturns Oregon ballot measure from 1932 that enacted non-unanimous jury verdicts
On April 20, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Oregon ballot measure from 1932 in its ruling on Ramos v. Louisiana. In 2016, Evangelisto Ramos was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on a 10 to 12 jury verdict. He appealed his conviction to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, arguing his…
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Kentucky voters to decide constitutional amendment changing the terms and requirements for certain judicial offices
On the last day of its legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly certified the Terms of Judicial Offices Amendment for the November ballot. The amendment would make the following changes to the Kentucky Constitution: increase the terms of circuit court clerks and commonwealth’s attorneys from six years to eight years starting in 2030; increase the…