Oct 28 (Reuters) – While the battle for Congress in November’s US midterm elections captures most of the attention, voters in more than three dozen states will also decide around 150 ballot measures, from the rights of transgender athletes, to abortion access, to the world’s first billionaire tax.
Here are some of the most notable measures before voters on November 3:
TRANSGENDER ISSUES
Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska and Washington will decide whether to bar transgender girls and women from playing for all-female sports teams.
Republican candidates have sought to highlight the issue on the campaign trail, after political strategists credited President Donald Trump’s attacks on transgender rights in 2024 with helping him to victory. Proponents of the limits say they protect girls and women, while critics say they discriminate against transgender students.
Arizona and Nebraska have passed laws that prohibit transgender girls and women from teams that align with their gender identity. But Arizona’s referendum would expand its law to apply to private schools and require all schools to ensure bathrooms and locker rooms are open only to athletes whose birth certificate matches the gender associated with the facility.
Nebraska’s measure would codify its ban into the state constitution, making it more difficult for lawmakers to reverse.
Washington’s law would require any athlete seeking to join a girls’ team to have their “biological sex” verified by a healthcare provider, a provision some opponents have said could result in unnecessary and invasive examinations.
Two states will also vote on restricting gender-affirming care for minors. A ballot measure in Colorado would ban transition-related surgeries for minors. In Missouri, where a law already prohibits gender-affirming medical treatment for children, voters will decide whether to add that ban to the state constitution.
ABORTION
Idaho voters will decide whether to establish the right to abortion up to fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The state has banned virtually all abortions since 2022, when the US Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right.
In Missouri, two years after voters overturned the state’s abortion ban, a ballot measure would reverse that decision and again prohibit most abortions.
While the 2024 referendum was citizen-initiated, this year’s ballot measure was brought forward by the Republican-controlled legislature. The measure also includes a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
VOTING RIGHTS
California, Colorado and Nevada will decide whether to require voters to provide the last four digits of a government identification card, such as a Social Security number or a driver’s license, when voting by mail.
Arizona has a referendum that would require photo ID for mail-in ballots, but the measure’s language does not specify how that would work.
REDISTRICTING
Starting in 2025, Trump led a Republican push to draw new congressional maps in several states aimed at transforming Democratic-held seats into Republican-leaning districts. The resulting fight between both parties appears likely to extend to 2028, and two notable ballot measures will shape the battlefield.
Missouri residents will vote on a Republican-drawn map that would break up the state’s only Democratic-leaning seat, after courts ruled it can only take effect with voter approval.
In Maryland, voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to make it easier for lawmakers to draw new congressional districts, opening the door for the Democratic-controlled legislature to eliminate the state’s only Republican-leaning seat in 2028.
MISCELLANEOUS
A California ballot measure, Proposition 40, would create the world’s first billionaire tax, imposing a one-time 5% wealth tax on the worldwide assets of each of the state’s roughly 250 billionaires. Most of the revenues would be earmarked for healthcare programs.
Though taxing the ultrawealthy is broadly popular, especially among Democrats, the referendum has divided California Democrats. Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, opposes the measure, warning it could drive successful tech companies to other states.
In Montana, voters will decide whether to bar corporations from spending money on elections, a novel legal strategy to sidestep the US Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United ruling in 2010. That decision found corporations and unions have a constitutional right to spend unlimited funds on campaigns independently from candidates, opening the door to super PACs and “dark money” groups that do not disclose their donors.
Alaskans will decide whether to retain the state’s unusual “ranked-choice” election system, which asks voters to rank each candidate in order of preference. If no candidate reaches 50%, the candidate with the lowest total is dropped, and their supporters’ votes are reallocated to the next choice on the list, until a winner emerges.
The system has received extra attention this year due to a competitive Senate race between Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, as well as another Republican candidate on the ballot also named Dan Sullivan.
Trump has accused the other Sullivan of trying to confuse voters and criticized ranked-choice voting as a “scam.” Proponents argue the system eliminates wasted votes while ensuring the candidate with the broadest support wins.
In Alabama, a ballot measure would require schools to play the national anthem at least once a week.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Paul Thomasch and Alistair Bell)
