U.S. election: Abortion, marijuana, sports betting among measures on ballot

While the world will be focused on who will be elected the next U.S. president, millions of Americans are also deciding on hundreds of ballot issues that will impact their everyday lives.

With 10 states considering measures related to abortion or reproductive rights on Tuesday’s ballots, roughly a half-dozen states are weighing issues such as marijuana legalization, sports betting, housing and minimum wage.

Many of the ballot issues were initiated by citizen petitions, though others were placed before voters by lawmakers.

Here are some of the issues Americans in some states are deciding Tuesday.

While legal in Canada, voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota are deciding whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults.

Tuesday’s election marks the third vote on the issue in the Dakotas. In Nebraska, voters are considering a pair of measures that would legalize medical marijuana and regulate the industry. Ultimately, the issue was rejected by voters in Florida.

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About half the states currently allow recreational marijuana, and about a dozen more allow medical marijuana. Possessing or selling marijuana remains a crime under federal law, punishable by prison time and fines.

Missouri voters are deciding whether to become the latest to legalize sports betting.

Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., already allow sports betting.

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It has expanded rapidly since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it in 2018.

Gradually raising minimum wages to US$15 an hour, while also requiring paid sick leave, are on the ballot in Missouri and Alaska.

Meanwhile in California, a measure would incrementally raise the minimum wage for all employers to $18 an hour.

In Massachusetts, voters are deciding whether to gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees.

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By contrast, an Arizona measure would let tipped workers be paid 25 per cent less than the minimum wage, so long as tips push their total pay beyond the minimum wage threshold.

Californians are deciding whether to repeal a 1995 law limiting local rent control ordinances.

If approved, it would open the way for local governments to expand limitations on the rates landlords could charge.

In Arizona, a proposal being presented to voters links property taxes with responses to homelessness.

If approved, it would let property owners seek property tax refunds if they incur expenses because a local government declined to enforce ordinances against illegal camping, loitering, panhandling, public alcohol and drug use, and other things.

West Virginia voters are deciding whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit medically assisted suicide.

The measure would run counter to 10 states and Washington, D.C., where physician-assisted suicide is allowed.

— with files from The Associated Press