Voting in the 2018 midterm elections? Don’t forget the ballot measures!
Below is a list of important state ballot measures, organized by topic. This list is not comprehensive. You can find more in-depth information on several of these state ballot measures here. Your ballot may have local ballot measures, too. Find out what’s on your sample ballot here. Please read/skim through Ballotpedia’s summaries on your state’s ballot measures; some of the ballot measures have misleading names and/or language. Find your polling place here.
Administration of Government
Colorado Amendment V, Reduced Age Qualification for General Assembly Members Amendment
Florida Amendment 10, State and Local Government Structure Amendment
North Carolina Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment
North Carolina Legislative Appointments to Elections Board Amendment
Government Accountability:
Florida Amendment 12, Lobbying Restrictions Amendment
Massachusetts Question 2, Advisory Commission for Amendments to the U.S. Constitution Regarding Corporate Personhood and Political Spending Initiative
North Dakota Measure 1, Ethics Commission, Foreign Political Contribution Ban, and Conflicts of Interest Initiative
South Dakota Constitutional Amendment W, State Campaign Finance and Lobbying Laws, Government Accountability Board, and Initiative Process Amendment
Government Budgets/Spending:
Indiana Public Question 1, Balanced Budget Amendment
Banking
Colorado Proposition 111, Limits on Payday Loan Charges Initiative
Civil and Criminal Trials
Florida Amendment 11, Repeal Prohibition on Aliens’ Property Ownership, Delete Obsolete Provision on High-Speed Rail, and Repeal of Criminal Statutes' Effect on Prosecution Amendment
Louisiana Amendment 2, Unanimous Jury Verdict for Felony Trials Amendment
New Hampshire Question 1, Taxpayer Standing to Bring Legal Actions Against Government Amendment
Ohio Issue 1, Drug and Criminal Justice Policies Initiative
Washington Initiative 940, Police Training and Criminal Liability in Cases of Deadly Force Measure
Education
School vouchers:
Arizona Proposition 305, Expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Referendum
Elections
Felony Enfranchisement:
Florida Amendment 4, Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative
Additional link
Louisiana Amendment 1, Felons Disqualified to Run for Office for Five Years Amendment
Redistricting:
Colorado Amendment Y, Independent Commission for Congressional Redistricting Amendment
Colorado Amendment Z, Independent Commission for State Legislative Redistricting Amendment
Michigan Proposal 2, Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative
Missouri Amendment 1, Lobbying, Campaign Finance, and Redistricting Initiative
Utah Proposition 4, Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative
Voter ID:
Arkansas Issue 2, Voter ID Amendment
North Carolina Voter ID Amendment
Voter Registration/Voting Policies:
Maryland Question 2, Election-Day Voter Registration Amendment
Michigan Proposal 3, Voting Policies in State Constitution Initiative
Nevada Question 5, Automatic Voter Registration via DMV Initiative
Environment
Arizona Proposition 127, Renewable Energy Standards Initiative
Colorado Proposition 112, Minimum Distance Requirements for New Oil, Gas, and Fracking Projects Initiative
Florida Amendment 9, Ban Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling and Ban Vaping in Enclosed Indoor Workplaces Amendment
Nevada Question 3, Changes to Energy Market and Prohibit State-Sanctioned Electric-Generation Monopolies Amendment
Nevada Question 6, Renewable Energy Standards Initiative
Washington Advisory Vote 19, Non-Binding Question on Oil Spill Tax Repeal
Washington Initiative 1631, Carbon Emissions Fee Measure
Guns
Washington Initiative 1639, Changes to Gun Ownership and Purchase Requirements Measure
Health care
Abortion:
Alabama Amendment 2, State Abortion Policy Amendment
Oregon Measure 106, Ban Public Funds for Abortions Initiative
West Virginia, Amendment 1, No Right to Abortion in Constitution Measure
Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare):
Idaho Proposition 2, Medicaid Expansion Initiative
Montana I-185, the Extend Medicaid Expansion and Increase Tobacco Taxes Initiative
Nebraska Initiative 427, the Medicaid Expansion Initiative
Utah Proposition 3, Medicaid Expansion Initiative
Hospitals/Clinics:
California Proposition 8, Limits on Dialysis Clinics' Revenue and Required Refunds Initiative
Massachusetts Question 1, Nurse-Patient Assignment Limits Initiative
Universal At-Home Care:
Maine Question 1, Payroll and Non-Wage Income Taxes for Home Care Program Initiative
Human Rights
Civil Rights:
Colorado Amendment A, Removal of Exception to Slavery Prohibition for Criminals Amendment
Immigration:
Oregon Measure 105, Repeal Sanctuary State Law Initiative
LGBTQIA Rights:
Massachusetts Question 3, Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Veto Referendum
Additional link
Labor Rights
Minimum Wage:
Arkansas Issue 5, Minimum Wage Increase Initiative
Missouri Proposition B, $12 Minimum Wage Initiative
Marijuana
Colorado Amendment X, Definition of Industrial Hemp Amendment
Michigan Proposal 1, Marijuana Legalization Initiative
Missouri Amendment 2, Medical Marijuana and Veteran Healthcare Services Initiative
Missouri Amendment 3, Medical Marijuana and Biomedical Research and Drug Development Institute Initiative
Missouri Proposition C, Medical Marijuana and Veterans Healthcare Services, Education, Drug Treatment, and Public Safety Initiative
North Dakota Measure 3, Marijuana Legalization and Automatic Expungement Initiative
Utah Proposition 2, Medical Marijuana Initiative
Taxes
California Proposition 2, Use Millionaire's Tax Revenue for Homelessness Prevention Housing Bonds Measure
Florida Amendment 5, Two-Thirds Vote of Legislature to Increase Taxes or Fees Amendment
Oregon Measure 103, Ban Tax on Groceries Initiative
Oregon Measure 104, Definition of Raising Revenue for Three-Fifths Vote Requirement Initiative
Nevada Question 2, Sales Tax Exemption for Feminine Hygiene Products Measure
Nevada Question 4, Medical Equipment Sales Tax Exemption Amendment
New Mexico Bond Question B, Public Libraries
Washington Initiative 1634, Prohibit Local Taxes on Groceries Measure
Transportation
California Proposition 6, Voter Approval for Future Gas and Vehicle Taxes and 2017 Tax Repeal Initiative
Colorado Proposition 109, "Fix Our Damn Roads" Transportation Bond Initiative
Colorado Proposition 110, "Let's Go Colorado" Transportation Bond and Sales Tax Increase Initiative
Connecticut Amendment 1, Transportation Revenue Lockbox Amendment
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Hey, friends. This is important to me and my family. Please read it.
It’s SVTFOE hiatus, and you’re like “omg is Brian going to leak something about the new season” and I won’t (or will I?), but I am going to take time out of my day (during which I really need to write the music that brought you all here in the first place) to write about something very important to me. I hope over the years I have gained enough of your respect and trust that you will read this to the end. It’s about health care, but mostly about me and my family and how this bill screws us.
You probably know that the Graham-Cassidy bill is being set up for a vote sometime soon in the Senate (so that they can decide its fate before Sept 30, which is the deadline for them to only need 50 votes to pass it; after Sept 30, they will need 60, which would require bipartisan support). Let’s get it out in the open now: this is an unequivocally a bad bill. The last time the Senate brought forth a bill like this (the “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare), that bill had 12% support from the American public, and the Graham-Cassidy bill is WORSE than the “skinny repeal” bill in many respects. I’ll let Jimmy Kimmel explain, because he’s funnier than I am:
K cool. We’re all up to speed. This bill sucks, all the major medical associations that you rely on oppose it, and the creators of the bill do not want you to know its details because they know you will hate it.
Here’s how this all affects me, personally.
A lot of you know that I had cancer in my 20s. I’ve discussed it openly here. It sucked, it was out of my control and probably written into my DNA and thus unavoidable, and while I am totally in remission now, it is something I think about every day, as I am at higher risk for certain other cancers in the future due to my treatment.
I am also a creative professional, as is my wife. We do not receive insurance from our employers. We are eligible for health insurance through our unions, but we have to log enough official union hours to qualify. THE MUSICIANS UNION DOES NOT INCLUDE COMPOSERS. I can log union hours as an orchestrator or instrumentalist, but only if a show I am working on is a “union show” and I “hire myself” to orchestrate, which is weird. I have never composed for a union show. Some of us composers never will. (There are very few union shows. That’s a whole other issue.) Basically, it is almost a certainty that I will never qualify for health insurance on my own.
My wife, on the other hand, is part of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA), and whenever she works on a show (she’s on The Flash, Tuesdays this fall on the CW!), it is highly likely that she will qualify for insurance. Very good insurance. But, she is under the same constraints as me, in that she must earn a certain amount of money in a year to qualify. If she works on a short gig, or if she goes on maternity leave and misses a TV season, then we will not qualify for union insurance and will have to purchase it out-of-pocket.
Okay, here’s where the Graham-Cassidy bill royally screws us over. Check out this map from the The Washington Post (or go here and then come back).
See California way over there to the left? We could lose $78 BILLION in funding if this bill passes. That is almost double the state that would lose the second most (New York). This funding is used to stabilize the health insurance market. It’s very complicated to explain why, so I won’t try to do that here because I’d probably get it wrong anyway. If you’re curious, Google (and time – health insurance is super convoluted) is your friend.
What will that loss of funding do? NO ONE FUCKING KNOWS. IT’S SO MUCH. UC Berkeley kind of guessed, hypothesizing that 6.7 million people would lose their insurance. Or that essential services would be cut. And that kids, or people with disabilities, or senior citizens would suffer the brunt.
(Difficult to spot SVTFOE S3 spoiler, not located at the end of this post because I know some of you might just scroll to the end: I scored an entire episode for season 3 primarily with nylon Latin guitar, to reflect a specific character who is the focus of the episode. It doesn’t sound like any other episode to date.)
The Graham-Cassidy bill allows states to decide whether to let insurance providers charge more for people with preexisting conditions. How much more? Well take a look at this chart.
Hey look, there’s “other cancers” on the third line and there’s that absurd surcharge of $73,000. And oh look there’s fucking PREGNANCY (successful, perfectly healthy pregnancy, like my wife had), and there’s a rise in cost of $17,000. That’s an additional $90,000. Great. Would California eliminate pre-existing condition protections? I mean, probably not, we’re super progressive. BUT WHO KNOWS, WE MIGHT LOSE $78 BILLION IN FUNDING.
So what’s the better alternative? There’s enough discontent about Obamacare that, yes, the bill should be reviewed and strengthened. BUT. This should be done with MEMBERS OF BOTH PARTIES (and they’re trying right now, but the GOP is like nah, let’s pass this shitty bill instead because we hate Obama hardcore). If Graham-Cassidy fails, then the Senate will HAVE TO create a bipartisan solution, because they will need 60 votes to pass it.
Listen, I didn’t ask to get cancer. I have never smoked, I have maybe like 4 drinks a year. I exercise multiple times a week. Our home is vegetarian. I did everything right, and I still got sick. When Obamacare passed, I sighed a huge sigh of relief, because I was protected from being gutted by insurance companies (which are profit-based). Now? Now I’m pretty fucking stressed. If my wife and I aren’t working, it means we aren’t making any money, and this is exactly the situation in which the Graham-Cassidy bill would expect us to pay MORE money for health insurance. How does that make any sense?
What can you do? Call 202-224-3121. Tell them this bill sucks. ESPECIALLY CALL if you live in Arizona or Alaska or West Virginia or Maine. Your senators will most likely be the deciding votes. But everyone call. It only takes a few minutes but can protect millions of Americans like me.
Thanks for reading.
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