In ballot measures across the country Tuesday, voters mostly expressed support for abortion rights, while affirming voter identification requirements and upholding that only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections.
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citizens → express → elections
The most prominent, and expensive, initiative was a proposed billionaire tax in California, but the outcome remained uncertain as votes continued to be tallied Wednesday.
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votes → propose → California
Still, voters directly determined the direction of policies in their states related to other taxes, voting issues, transgender rights and more.
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voters → determine → taxes
Abortion rights
Four ballot measures asked voters to amend their state constitutions in ways that would affirm or retract abortion rights.
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that → ask → rights
In Nevada and Virginia, where abortion access through fetal viability is legal, voters weighed in on ballot measures that would enshrine those rights in each state’s constitution.
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that → weigh → constitution
Voters in both states overwhelmingly passed those initiatives by a margin of at least 24 percentage points.
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Voters → pass → points
In Nevada, the vote was the second on the measure because the state constitution requires citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to pass in two consecutive general elections.
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constitution → require → elections
In Missouri, voters rejected a GOP-backed ballot measure that proposed stripping language enshrining abortion rights from the state constitution that had been added in 2024.
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that → reject → 2024
That year, voters approved a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights until fetal viability.
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voters → approve → viability
However, in ruby-red Idaho — where abortion is almost completely banned — voters roundly rejected a ballot measure that would have created a statutory right to an abortion through fetal viability.
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that → ban → viability
In Washington state, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have repealed the state’s so-called millionaires tax — a 9.9% tax on annual income over $1 million that Democratic lawmakers enacted just earlier this year.
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lawmakers → reject → that
Meanwhile, California’s billionaire tax, on the ballot as Proposition 40, was trailing by 11 points with 60% of the expected vote in.
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tax → trail → vote
Voter ID and citizenship requirements
Voters in nearly a dozen states also decided on ballot measures that mostly reiterated existing laws regarding voter identification requirements and barring noncitizens from casting ballots in state elections.
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that → decide → elections
West Virginia, South Dakota, Kansas, Alaska and Arkansas voters all approved constitutional amendments affirming that only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections.
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citizens → approve → elections
The laws are expected to prevent any local jurisdictions from moving to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, which some municipalities have sought to do in recent years.
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municipalities → expect → years
The initiatives appeared on the ballot amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on noncitizen voting, which is extremely rare.
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which → appear → voting
Voters in Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada passed measures to add to their state constitutions the requirements that residents present photo ID when voting in person.
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residents → pass → person
In Virginia, voters approved a Democratic-backed measure to enshrine in their state constitution the restoration of all felons’ right to vote after their release from prison.
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voters → approve → prison
In Massachusetts, voters rejected a measure that would have replaced party primary elections with a top-two all-party primary.
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that → reject → primary
Redistricting
The mid-decade redistricting war also extended to the ballot, with voters in two states siding with Democrats.
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voters → extend → Democrats
In Missouri, voters blocked a GOP-drawn congressional map from going into effect after a long-running legal battle.
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voters → block → battle
The new lines sought to carve up one of the state’s two Democratic-held districts.
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lines → seek → districts
Maryland voters, meanwhile, approved a constitutional amendment paving the way for Democrats to redraw their state’s congressional map.
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Democrats → approve → map
The state has just one district represented by a Republican.
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state → have → Republican
Transgender rights
Republicans and conservative groups also placed a series of measures targeting transgender individuals on the ballot in several states, including Arizona, Colorado and Washington.
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Republicans → place → Arizona
Several were still too early to call as of Wednesday, but in Arizona, voters approved a GOP-backed measure requiring schools to designate sports and intramural teams as male, female or coed based on athletes’ sex assigned at birth.
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schools → call → birth
The Aporia
