No less than 17 states will be voting on legalizing marijuana, either for medical or recreational use, on Election Day, 2016. (For details of the various state initiatives, see this.) Democrats are reportedly counting on left-leaning younger people who don’t normally vote coming to the polls to legalize marijuana, and while they are at it, casting a vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. (The Democrats are apparently unaware of libertarians, who tend to vote Republican.)
The Democrats are counting on the stoner vote to carry battleground states like Ohio and Florida, both of which will be voting on legalizing the weed. Meanwhile, of the Republican candidates, only Chris Christie and John Kasich are making a big deal of opposing it. Even social conservative Ted Cruz says he would leave it up to the states. And libertarian Rand Paul positively supports it.
What do you think about this? Should Republicans make it an issue? What does this strategy tell us about today’s Democratic party? Do you think the Democrats’ strategy will work, or will the measures bring out just as many Republican voters?
From Dems want high voter turnout, use pot legalization to get it | Oklahoman.com:
On Election Day, Nov. 8, 2016, people waiting in line to vote may be less interested in choosing a president than in legalizing marijuana.
A total of 17 states will have marijuana measures on their ballots next year, almost triple the number in 2012, when there were pot questions in just six states.
Democrats hope these reefer referendums will bring more left-leaning voters to the polls and have an impact on all the other questions on the ballot, most especially, who should be president. But the unintended consequences of politicizing pot have already materialized in states that have just begun experimenting with the drug.
Of the 17 states that could vote on marijuana next year, 10 went red for Mitt Romney in 2008 (including Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming) and seven went blue for President Obama (including California, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico).
Florida had 29 electoral votes in 2012 — its number of electoral votes has increased in every census since 1930 — and pot may help the Democratic Party keep the Sunshine State in its column come 2016.
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