Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In 37 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in scores of local jurisdictions, they voiced their worries in a dizzying array of ballot measures that made or staved off new laws.
Some results may bring enormous change.
Oregon may have to wait until Friday to learn whether voters passed the ``Death With Dignity'' proposal, which would free doctors to prescribe lethal medicine to dying patients.
The outcome hinges on 265,000 uncounted absentee ballots, 21 percent of the vote. On Wednesday, 39,000 votes separated the pros and cons, for a tentative spread of 52 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed.
Elsewhere, voters rejected handgun bans, casino developers, campaign spending caps, a state-run health care plan and opportunities to control their taxes through the popular vote.
``The referendum process was part of the voter rebellion that we saw at the polls,'' Larry Sabato, professor of government at the University of Virginia, said Wednesday.
``Term limits succeeding almost everywhere, criminal justice measures, the immigration measure [Proposition 187 in California] - there are many manifestations of voter anger in these returns.''
Sabato noted a libertarian streak, too. ``The defeat of the two anti-gay initiatives [in Idaho and Oregon], that says to me that the conservative wave now sweeping the country also has a libertarian edge to it. `Don't tread on me, anti-government, leave the individual alone, to the extent possible,''' he said.
Sometimes it was enough to say no. Colorado voters said no to campaign reform, rejecting limits on campaign contributions. So did people in Massachusetts, rejecting a novel ban on corporate contributions to public referendums.
Oklahoma voters said no to a penny entertainment tax that was to support breast cancer research. In Colorado, they rejected a 50-cent increase in the cigarette tax that would have helped pay for health care for the poor and for anti-smoking programs. Arizona barely passed a similar measure, which will add 40 cents to a pack of smokes.
Given the chance to hold all new taxes up to voter approval, Oregon, Missouri and Montana backed away. Voters in Massachusetts, with an opportunity to lower taxes for most residents, rejected a graduated tax rate and held onto a flat rate that's the same for everyone.
Floridians recoiled from the vision of 47 casinos around the state. Casino measures also failed in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Colorado and on the Navajo Reservation. Colorado said no to slot machines at airports; Missouri said yes to slots on riverboats.
Not surprisingly, the country's grouchiness extended to crime measures.
Georgia enacted the nation's sternest sentencing law, a ``two-strikes'' measure promising life without parole to anyone who commits a second violent felony.
California cemented its ``three strikes, you're out'' law, passed first by the Legislature and now by voters. It requires prison terms of 25 years to life for three-time offenders.
Oregon stiffened mandatory sentences for violent crimes, and Vermont made it easier for judges to deny bail to people accused of violent crimes. Ohio, which has 134 men on death row but has not executed anyone in 31 years, chose to speed up the execution process by removing the appeals court phase. Appeals now will go directly to the state Supreme Court.
The term-limits juggernaut rolled on. Congressional and other term limits approved in Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Nevada brought to 21 the number of states that have reined in their politicians. Colorado tightened existing term limits, but Utah decided not to reduce its terms any further.
by CNB