POLITICS: HOW THE BALLOT MEASURES PLAYED OUT

Appropriately for this closely divided political year, voters voiced
mixed sentiments when voting on ballot measures. Liberals may cheer
victories on public-school issues, gun control and abortion, but many
will sulk about major losses on environmental issues, gay rights and
campaign finance. Conservatives, for their part, can bask in the
success of a bilingual-education rollback and several new
tough-on-crime measures, but they also received mixed messages on tax
cuts.

"When it comes to ballot measures, you can't put voters into an
ideological box," said Dane Waters, president of the Initiative &
Referendum Institute, a Washington-based group that tracks ballot
measures. "Voters like to be able to pick and choose."

Here are the results of some key ballot measures this
year:

Education: Supporters of public education-but especially teachers'
unions-prevailed in most major education measures. Well-funded
school-voucher initiatives in Michigan and California lost by sweeping
margins. Oregon voters passed a measure that urges the legislature to
fully fund education, but they rejected an initiative that would have
required teachers to be paid based on performance rather than tenure.
Two education measures in Washington state passed by wide margins-one to
reduce class sizes and another to boost teacher salaries. A pro-charter
schools measure opposed by teacher unions was narrowly behind.

Gun control: Voters in Colorado and Oregon easily passed measures that
require background checks for weapons purchases at gun shows.

Gay issues: Gay-rights advocates suffered massive losses in Nebraska
and Nevada, where measures that sought to rein in same-sex marriage
passed. Gay-rights advocates were narrowly behind in a Maine measure
that would outlaw discrimination against gays and lesbians, while they
were narrowly ahead in an Oregon measure that would have banned
teaching about homosexuality in the classroom.

Environment: Environmentalists took a beating. Despite commanding
late-summer leads, anti-sprawl measures in Arizona and Colorado garnered
a mere 30 percent of the vote on election day, thanks to concerted
opposition by business and developer groups. A more modest Arizona
proposal to preserve state lands lost narrowly. In Maine, voters
overwhelmingly rejected an anti-clear-cutting measure for forests. If
early returns hold up -- and they may not -- Oregon voters will have
approved a "takings" measure that requires the state government to pay
landowners compensation if they are prevented by regulations from
developing their land. Legal challenges are likely.

Drug policy: Financier George Soros and his allies appear to have won
three of the four measures they helped sponsor to promote the
treatment of drug violations as health, rather than criminal, matters.
Voters in California, Oregon and Utah passed Soros-backed measures. A
Soros measure in Massachusetts was losing narrowly. In addition,
Colorado and Nevada voters approved Soros-sponsored initiatives to
allow marijuana use for medical purposes. However, Alaska voters
rejected a more radical proposal to decriminalize marijuana that had
been sponsored independently of Soros.

Campaign finance: Campaign-finance advocates went zero for three,
losing measures in Missouri and Oregon that would have enacted a
limited public-financing system for campaigns. In the meantime,
Californians have a solid win to a campaign-donation-limits measure
that had been opposed by such groups as Common Cause for being too
permissive.

Union issues: Unions in Oregon were in a nip-and-tuck battle to stave
off two measures that would make it harder for labor unions to
influence the political system. Pro-union interests were successfully
staving off the two initiatives, but narrowly.

Abortion: Abortion opponents won a battle in Colorado: Roughly 60
percent of voters rejected a measure that would have imposed a waiting
period for abortions.

Assisted suicide: In Maine, a measure that would have allowed assisted
suicide was trailing narrowly.

Health care: A Massachusetts measure to promote universal health care
was also trailing narrowly.

English-language issues: Arizona voters voted by roughly a 2-1 margin
to roll back bilingual education. Utah voters declared English to be
the state's official language.

Hunting: Animal-welfare groups-something of an initiative powerhouse in
recent years-had a mixed day. Oregon apparently rejected a measure to
ban certain traps and poisons even as its neighbor to the north,
Washington, approved a similar measure. Activists in Montana and Alaska
managed to pass stricter rules on game hunting, but hunters convinced
voters to approve new constitutional language protecting hunting rights
in North Dakota and Virginia.

Criminal justice: New Jersey approved the posting of information about
individual sex offenders on the Internet. Oregon decisively rejected
the idea of eliminating mandatory-minimum sentences.

Tobacco settlement money: Anti-tobacco activists won their ballot
battles. Measures that would assign how tobacco-settlement money is
spent passed easily in Arkansas, Montana, Oklahoma and Utah. In
Arizona, two tobacco-settlement measures passed, but the more
ambitious of the two garnered the most votes and stands to be put into
effect. According to early returns, Oregon voters appeared to be
heeding the wishes of tobacco-prevention groups by rejecting two
separate tobacco-settlement proposals--but the margins were close.

Government operations: Arizona voted to create a commission that will
take over a big share of redistricting duties from state
legislators.

Transportation: Washington voters appeared to reject a measure that
would have required 90 percent of state transportation funding to be
used for roads, rather than for transit. Florida voters narrowly
approved a measure to build a high-speed train. Massachusetts voters
appeared to reject a measure that would provide tax rebates for tolls
paid on state roads.

Business regulations: Arizona voters resoundingly rejected a measure
proposed by Qwest Communications that would have given local phone
companies greater autonomy in setting their rates. Oregon voted by a
similarly wide margin to deny utilities the right to write off certain
investments on retired facilities.

Taxes: Massachusetts voters shed their state's "Taxachusetts" label by
approving a tax cut measure backed by GOP Gov. Paul Cellucci. However,
Oregon voters rejected several anti-tax measures.

Term limits: Nebraska approved term limits for its state senators. New
Mexico decided to continue term limits for its county officials.

Initiatives about initiatives: Ballot-access advocates had a good day.
They shot down measures in Alaska and Arizona that would have made it
harder to pass initiatives dealing with animal welfare or hunting. Two
Nebraska initiatives that would have placed additional hurdles in the
way of initiative sponsors went down to defeat. But voters nixed an
Oregon measure that would have required changes to the initiative
system to be made via initiative only.

Interracial marriage: Alabama voters voted to remove language from
their state constitution that bars interracial marriage. But roughly
40 percent of voters--more than a half million Alabamians--voted to
keep the language as it is.