Referendums for November 3, 2026: Voting Against Violence
by Rachel MacNair
Since 2020, we’ve been running a project website that tracks U.S. state and local referendums dealing with socially-approved killing of human beings (abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, war), or related structural violence that leads to killing (poverty and discriminatory practices).
Peace and Life Referendums
Abortion is frequently a ballot topic, especially since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe. The death penalty and euthanasia do make occasional appearances, but not much. War is something that looms large in policy but not in state and local referendums — yet there have been some, especially dealing with war memorials, gun policy that isn’t mere regulation but gets into war relationships, and treating police work as if it were military. Racism will include matters of immigration policy, many symbolic actions that impact how people think, and finally abolishing all slavery by removing the exception for prisons. Quite a few different approaches to alleviating poverty pop up. More details are explained in the Topic Pages.
means we think a yes vote would be best for diminishing violence
means we think a no vote is needed since the referendum encourages socially-approved violenceAbortion:
Idaho – a successful petition drive put a pro-abortion statute on the ballot to overturn the state’s abortion ban.
Missouri – the state legislature put on an amendment to the state constitution to overturn the pro-abortion amendment passed in 2024. Nevada – they already voted overwhelmingly in 2024 for a pro-abortion constitutional amendment in a state where no abortion bans were ever contemplated. The rules state they have to vote on it twice before it goes into effect.
War:
Arizona – turning policework into the war mindset, the measure seeks to define drug trafficking as terrorism and therefore use war tactics to counter it. Massachusetts – a petition drive put a veto referendum about firearm regulations passed by the legislature on the ballot. We focus only on those that relate to preventing mass shootings, as a form of war.Poverty:
Oklahoma – a successful petition drive for a rise in the minimum wage should have put this on the ballot in 2024, but government officials’ shenanigans delayed it until now.Abortion, Poverty, Racism, War:
Colorado – one of the very few that connects several of our issues, a successful petition drive wants to overturn state legislation stopping federal overreach and instead have local authorities turn any undocumented immigrants (or those that can’t prove otherwise right away) accused of a violent crime over to ICE. This bypasses the court system that knows how to adjudicate these properly, in favor of an agency that doesn’t even try to.
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