Americans heading to the polls for next month’s midterm elections are not just choosing whom to send to Washington, or their state capitols. There are also 145 statewide measures on ballots across 39 states, polling voters on actions from a novel wealth tax on California’s billionaires to requiring Alabama’s public schools to broadcast or perform the first stanza of the national anthem each week.
Voters in Idaho, Nevada and Virginia are asked to protect abortion rights; voters in Missouri are asked to give those rights back. Property tax issues appear on dozens of state ballots. Several state referendums ask voters to bar trans athletes from competing in women’s sports, or bar gender-affirming medical care for minors.
