Politicians of all stripes spend much of election season telling Americans what voters believe, what they want, and which policies enjoy popular support.
But when it comes to ballot measures, Americans get an opportunity to speak for themselves.
This November, voters across the country will consider ballot measures addressing some of the nation’s most divisive cultural and political questions. Unlike a vote for a candidate, which can be influenced by everything from personality to party loyalty, ballot measures ask voters to consider particular policies.
The results won’t provide definitive answers to every political disagreement, of course. But they could offer a revealing look at public opinion on issues that have generated considerable attention in Washington and state capitals.
Here are some particularly interesting ballot measures worth watching in 13 states on November 3.
What’s on the ballot?
1. Alabama: School Prayer and Patriotism. Two proposed constitutional amendments address patriotic and religious activities in public schools. Amendment 3 would require schools to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance daily and adopt policies allowing student-initiated, student-led prayer, with participation voluntary for both the Pledge and prayer. Amendment 4 would require schools to broadcast or arrange an approved performance of the national anthem’s first stanza at least weekly.
2. Arizona: Girls’ Sports and Locker Rooms. Proposition 318 would expand existing sex-based athletic eligibility restrictions to additional schools and athletic organizations. It would also require certain restrooms, locker rooms, and other private athletic facilities to be used according to biological sex as recorded at birth, in addition to allowing athletes to sue for knowing violations.
3. Colorado: School Athletics and Medical Procedures. Voters will consider two separate measures involving transgender minors, with Proposition 134 establishing sex-based eligibility requirements for school and collegiate athletics, and Proposition 135 prohibiting certain surgeries performed on minors in response to their perception of sex or gender, with specified medical exceptions. The fact that these are separate votes could reveal whether voters distinguish between the sports and surgery questions.
4. Nebraska: A Constitutional Sports Restriction. Initiative 442 would amend the state constitution to require covered school athletic teams to be designated male, female, or coeducational, and prohibit students classified as male from competing on female teams. The proposal covers certain K-12, collegiate, and intramural athletics.
5. Washington: Parental Rights and Women’s Sports. Two initiatives would revisit contentious education policies. IL26-001 would restore provisions of a 2024 parental-rights law addressing access to school records, instructional materials, and certain notifications. IL26-638 would restrict biological males from participating in female-only K-12 athletic competitions and require health care provider verification of biological sex for students participating in those competitions.
6. Missouri: Reversing an Abortion Vote. In 2024, Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, including abortion through fetal viability. Just two years later, Amendment 3 would repeal those protections, allowing lawmakers to restrict abortion to specified circumstances involving medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, or incest, while also prohibiting certain gender-transition procedures for minors. The contest is particularly interesting because voters would be reconsidering a policy they recently approved.
7. Virginia: Abortion, Marriage, and Voting Rights. Virginians will decide three constitutional amendments concerning abortion, marriage, and voting rights. The marriage proposal would remove the state’s existing constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage and establish protections for lawful marriages regardless of sex, gender, or race. (It’s worth noting that same-sex marriage has already been legal in Virginia since 2014.) The abortion measure would enshrine abortion rights in Virginia’s constitution, while allowing restrictions during the third trimester with exceptions for medical reasons. The voting measure would automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies upon their release from incarceration.
8. Nevada: Voter Identification. A voter ID amendment approved in 2024 returns for the second vote required under Nevada law. Question 7 would require specified photo identification for in-person voting and identifying information for mail ballots. Both must win again to become constitutional provisions.
9. Vermont: Equal Protection. Proposal 4 would amend Vermont’s constitution to explicitly prohibit the state from denying equal treatment based on characteristics including race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
10. Wisconsin: Religious Liberty and Affirmative Action. Two proposed constitutional amendments touch on different cultural debates. Question 2 would prohibit the government from closing places of worship or forbidding gatherings there in response to emergencies, including public health emergencies. Question 3 would prohibit governmental discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, education, contracting, and administration, subject to specified exceptions.
11. Massachusetts: Marijuana and Firearms. Two ballot questions would revisit existing laws. Question 8 would eliminate licensed recreational marijuana retail sales while preserving medical marijuana access and allowing limited adult possession, with tighter possession limits than current law. Question 9 asks whether to retain or repeal a 2024 firearms law addressing matters including untraceable guns, firearm licensing, and restrictions on certain weapons.
12. California: Taxing Billionaires. Proposition 40 would impose a one-time tax of up to 5 percent on the covered wealth of California residents with net worth exceeding $1 billion as of January 1, 2026. Certain assets, including real estate and retirement accounts, would generally be excluded. A competing measure, Proposition 42, would prohibit new state taxes on financial assets and other personal property, as well as certain retroactive taxes. If both measures pass, Proposition 42 could potentially block the billionaire tax from taking effect if it receives more votes.
13. Alaska: Ranked-Choice Voting. Alaskans will decide whether to repeal the state’s top-four primary and ranked-choice general election system, adopted by voters in 2020. Ballot Measure 2 would restore partisan primaries, eliminate ranked-choice general elections, and make related changes to runoff elections and campaign-finance requirements. It offers another opportunity to see whether voters stand by a decision from the not-too-distant past.
What the voters might tell us
These contests offer more than a preview of which policies might become law; they provide an opportunity to assess how Americans feel about particular issues when those questions are considered separately from the politicians most closely associated with them.
For example, someone who typically votes for Democrats might also be fine with voter ID requirements. And a voter who generally supports abortion rights might nevertheless oppose a particular constitutional amendment based on the scope of its protections.
Of course, ballot measures have limitations as indicators of national opinion. States have different electorates, campaigns have different resources, and the wording of each proposal matters.
Still, the results should offer useful information for both parties, showing where voters seem to stand on some controversial issues.
And for anyone interested in understanding American politics beyond the fortunes of individual candidates, those results may be among the most revealing of election night.