We also offer Future Referendum Ideas — creative ideas to research and develop.
See also Past Referendums for 2020, 2023, and 2024. There were none worth reporting for 2021.
There were no referendums this year on the death penalty nor euthanasia, nor any that could be construed as relating to war.
California
Proposition 1:
Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment
Result: 76% voted yes
Kansas
Value Them Both Amendment
Result: 59% voted no
.
Kentucky
Amendment 2:
No Right to Abortion in Constitution Amendment
Result: 53% voted no
Michigan
Proposal 3:
Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative
Result: 56% voted yes
Montana
Montana LR-131:
Medical Care Requirements for Born-Alive Infants Measure
Result: 54% voted no
For those who wonder how Montana voters could be so heartless as to vote down a measure to give medical care to infants born alive, including those surviving an abortion attempt, Wesley J Smith explains: The first paragraph would have established a newborn as a person worth protecting, but the second paragraph added a requirement that all life-saving medical care must happen. That means a baby who’s going to die soon even with that care must be subjected to it, rather than being comforted in mom’s arms. That scenario is indeed heartless, and that second paragraph may have caused the loss.
This underscores the importance of careful vetting of the wording before putting a measure on the ballot, including seeing how opponents will attack it.
Vermont
Proposal 5:
Right to Personal Reproductive Autonomy Amendment
Result: 77% voted yes
Colorado
Reduce Income Tax Deduction Amounts to Fund School Meals Program Measure
Result: 57% voted yes
Note: we didn’t have this on our original list of referendums we were tracking because we didn’t know about it through our normal online search methods.
This underscores the importance of people bringing good referendums to our attention. Ballotpedia is our main source, and since they don’t have a topic for alleviating poverty, it slipped by us. Ballotpedia also covers only state-wide referendums, not local ones, and we’d like to cover local ones as well.
Send any information to:
referendums @ consistent-life.org (remove spaces)
Nebraska
Minimum Wage Increase Initiative
Result: 56% voted yes
Nevada
Minimum Wage Increase Amendment
Result: 54% voted yes
South Dakota
Constitutional Amendment D: Medicaid Expansion Initiative
Result: 56% voted yes
Alabama
Alabama Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question
While many aspects of this lengthy and complex question don’t interest us, this includes the removal of several racist provisions of Alabama’s previous constitution and therefore helps clean up the lethal legacy of racism. This includes removing an exception on abolishing slavery for those convicted of a crime, an exception that’s still in the U.S. Constitution’s 13th amendment.
Also, this state constitution retains a previous no-right-to-abortion provision.
The “Yes” vote was 76%.
Louisiana
Remove Involuntary Servitude as a Punishment for a Crime Constitution Amendment
This one is more complicated. Short version: wording was unclear, so another attempt was to be made with better wording. This hasn’t happened yet.
Oregon
Remove Slavery as a Punishment for a Crime Constitution Amendment
Result: 55% voted yes
Tennessee
Remove Slavery as a Punishment for Crime from Constitution Amendment
Result: almost 80% voted yes
Vermont
Prhibit Slavery and Indentured Servitude Amendment
Result: 89% voted yes
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