Election-Day Ballot Measures Offer Preview of 2024 Fights
Ahead of next year’s presidential election, voters will weigh state and local proposals on abortion, taxes and housing.
Protesters at a 2022 abortion rights rally in Dayton, Ohio. A state ballot initiative on a constitutional right to reproductive freedom is a test case for 2024.
Photographer: Whitney Saleski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Political polarization has helped make 2023 the biggest off-year for ballot measures in more than a decade in the US, and this November voters across the country will directly decide on measures ranging from abortion rights to affordable housing funds.
Historically, odd numbered years boast fewer such initiatives because turnout tends to be lower than in years with national congressional and presidential elections. But the state and local measures that voters will decide this November offer a window into some of the fights that will animate next year’s major federal, state and local races.