Puerto Rico will vote on a statehood referendum at the general election on November 3, 2020. The ballot measure will ask, “Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted into the Union as a state?” Congress has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico and would decide if and how to respond to the election results. Should the ballot measure…
Seven bond issues (totaling $5.16 billion combined) are on the ballot for voters in Maine, on July 14, and Colorado, New Mexico, and New York on November 3. A bond issue is a measure placed on the ballot by the state or local government that asks voters to approve the issuance of bonds. A bond is…
A recall election seeking to remove four of the five trustees of the Priest Lake Library District board in Idaho is on the ballot on May 19, 2020. Trustees Debbie Sudnikovich, Laurel Smith, Nancy Bushman, and Lori McReynolds were targeted for recall after they voted to fire library director Beverly Richmond in a 4-1 vote…
Voters in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, approved five local ballot measures on May 12. Unofficial election results indicate that Omaha voters approved Question 1 and Question 2 with 72.86% and 64.70% of the vote, respectively. Question 1 authorized the city to issue $200 million in bonds to fund street maintenance, and Question 2 authorized the…
The Maryland Sports Betting Expansion Measure, a legislatively referred state statute, was certified for the ballot on May 7. The ballot measure would authorize sports and events wagering at certain licensed facilities. The state revenue generated by such activities would be primarily dedicated to funding public education. On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court…
North Dakota Voters First, proponents of the North Dakota Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting, Redistricting, and Election Process Changes Initiative filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota Eastern Division on May 6, 2020. Plaintiffs argued that North Dakota’s requirement that petitioners physically witness each signature and that each petition be signed by a…
Voters in Blythe and four special districts within Contra Costa, Mendocino, Plumas, Riverside, and Sonoma counties voted on five different local tax measures on Tuesday. According to unofficial election night results, three were approved, and two were defeated. Voters in the city of Blythe approved an additional 1% sales tax, thereby increasing the total sales…
On May 5, 2020, the campaign Californians for Stem Cell Research, Treatments & Cures filed signatures for a ballot initiative to issue $5.5 billion in general obligation bonds for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). CIRM was created in 2004 when voters approved Proposition 71 and funded with $3.00 billion in bond revenue. As…
On May 4, 2020, the campaign Californians for Consumer Privacy reported filing more than 900,000 signatures for a ballot initiative to expand the provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was passed in 2018. At least 623,212 of the signatures need to be valid to qualify for the ballot. As the suggested deadline…
Healthcare for Missouri, the sponsor of the Missouri Medicaid Expansion Initiative, was the only campaign targeting the Missouri 2020 ballot to submit signatures by the May 3 deadline. The campaign reported submitting over 350,000 signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State. A total of 160,199 valid signatures are required to make the ballot. The Medicaid Expansion…