Voters Face State Ballot Measures on Rights, Taxes

Voters in several states face ballot measures on reproductive rights, taxation and constitutional rules. Virginia’s Amendment 1 would establish a constitutional right to reproductive freedom, including decisions about abortion and contraception; a lawsuit challenging its placement on the ballot remains on appeal, and separate questions would remove the state’s unenforced same-sex-marriage ban and automatically restore voting rights to people who have completed their sentences. Missouri voters are also considering an abortion-rights amendment, while Michigan voters are being asked whether to call a convention to rewrite the state constitution. Georgia’s ballot includes amendments on farmland tax assessments and probate-court elections, along with local sales-tax questions for some metro Atlanta voters. A Hawaiʻi proposal would let counties use tax-increment financing in designated development districts, which critics say could constrain public-service revenue and put upward pressure on taxes; Tennessee’s Amendment 2 would bar a state property tax, which has not been collected since 1949, without changing local governments’ taxing authority.