Ballot Measure Results in 2016

The 2016 General Election included ballot measures in several states that touched on issues relating to the protection of life or the lack thereof.

Physician-Assisted Suicide

• 65% to 35% - Colorado approved Physician-Assisted Suicide

Colorado made it legal for people to become accessories to suicides.  This will continue to grow as an issue.  We need to prepare for this to spread.  It won by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.  It is one of several movements that twist the language with deceiving phrases like "death with dignity."

Death Penalty

• 54% to 46% - California failed to repeal the death penalty (Prop 62)
• 51% to 49% - California streamlined death penalty cases (Prop 66)
• 61% to 39% - Nebraska repealed a ban; this reinstated the death penalty
• 66% to 34% - Oklahoma empowered the state to set methods of execution beyond lethal injection

The death penalty came up in several states, but in different ways.

California hasn't executed anyone since 2006, when a district court judge blocked an execution as a result of federal litigation regarding lethal injection.  Since then a district court judge ruled that it was unconstitutional.  But it has remained in the law ever since.  A vote to repeal it failed in 2012 in a vote 52-48.  It failed by a wider margin this time.  California did pass a measure to streamline the death penalty process and provide more retribution to the families harmed by the convicted criminals.

Nebraska had a much more interesting story.  Their unicameral legislature passed the repeal of the death penalty, but their governor vetoed it.  Then the legislature successfully passed the override of the veto.  For a while Nebraska was free of the death penalty.  But soon after the veto override, the governor led efforts to put the matter to the voters.  So the vote repealed the ban, thus reinstating the death penalty.  The wording can be confusing, since repeal would normally mean the death penalty would be repealed.  But in this case, it was the ban of the use of the death penalty that was repealed.

Oklahoma was one of many states that used lethal injection.  It was the exclusive method of killing inmates.  So the difficulties in getting the right drugs, various mistakes in administering the injections, and legal challenges led Oklahoma to seek other alternatives.  The voters expanded the options by a 2-to-1 margin.