U.S. VOTERS AFFIRM 63% OF ALL BALLOT MEASURES

Drug Policy Reformers May Be Biggest Winners

WASHINGTON - As they confronted ballot measures, voters shied away from
making sweeping social changes, rejecting, for example, school vouchers and
physician-assisted suicide.

But they broke new ground in the struggle over changing drug policies.

"The far-reaching measures were defeated because it's easy to demagogue
them. It's easy to make people think there's a lot of uncertainty around
them,'' said M. Dane Waters, president of the Initiative and Referendum
Institute, which tracks ballot measures. "It showed voters are cautious.
They do think about these things. They're just not going to pass something
if they're uncertain about it.''

Mr. Waters said the results show voters generally defy liberal or
conservative labels and vote their consciences on ballot measures.
Massachusetts voters, generally perceived as liberal, defeated measures
that would have banned greyhound racing, adopted universal health care
coverage, and implemented drug policy reform. But they did approve a tax cut.

The drug policy reform movement scored some of the biggest victories.
Colorado and Nevada voters approved the use of medical marijuana. Utah and
Oregon passed measures making it more difficult for police to seize drug
offenders' assets. If seized, such assets are to go to drug treatment and
education programs, not to law enforcement.

California approved a measure to replace automatic prison sentences with
treatment for some nonviolent drug offenders; Massachusetts defeated a
similar measure. Still, drug policy reformers counted five of six possible
victories on state ballot measures.

"I think people have grown very skeptical of all the wasted money and
wasted lives that have gone into the drug war over the past 25 years,''
said Bill Zimmerman, executive director of the Campaign for New Drug
Policies, funded by financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance chairman
Peter Lewis of Cleveland, and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling.

Mr. Zimmerman said voters are searching for cheaper and more humane
solutions to the nation's drug problems. He estimated the California
measure, known as Proposition 36, will keep 36,000 people out of jail
annually and save taxpayers $200 million.

In a year of peace and prosperity, education measures were widespread.
Michigan and California voters soundly rejected voucher proposals to offer
public money to permit more students to attend private and religious
schools. Washington state increased teacher pay and lowered class size.
Colorado and Oregon increased spending on public education.

Gay rights advocates suffered setbacks in Nebraska and Nevada, where voters
voted against legalizing same-sex marriage. Nebraska's ban is especially
broad, changing the state constitution to make same-sex civil unions and
domestic partnerships invalid. In Maine, voters defeated an attempt to
prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The one solace for gay rights supporters occurred in Oregon. Voters
defeated a proposal to prohibit public school teaching that "encourages,
promotes, or sanctions'' homosexuality and bisexuality.

Some noteworthy ballot measures were unique to particular states but offer
some insight into the mood of the electorate.

Utah made English its official state language, and Arizona banned bilingual
education. Two years ago California banned bilingual education.

Colorado declined to impose a 24-hour waiting period before a woman may
obtain an abortion.

Maine defeated physician-assisted suicide, rejecting a proposal to permit a
terminally ill adult of sound mind to seek and receive a doctor's help to die.