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The narrative has developed that 74% of the individuals who went to the polls in November supported medical marijuana legalization. However in actuality, the convoluted course of enacted by legislators used to position an alternative choice to a citizen-sponsored initiative on the poll makes it tough to gauge the exact stage of assist for medical marijuana.
Nonetheless, that narrative led to the creation of the “We’re the 74” group and Fb web page referencing the 74% of voters who presumably voted in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. “We’re the 74” is the rallying cry of a lot of individuals who need the Legislature to approve medical marijuana — sooner slightly than later — after the Mississippi Supreme Court docket struck down the medical marijuana initiative authorized overwhelmingly by voters.
It’s inaccurate to say that 74% of people that went to the polls in November favored the legalization of medical marijuana. It will be true to say that the November vote signifies a powerful majority favored medical marijuana legalization.
Granted, within the grand scheme, it makes little distinction whether or not medical marijuana assist on the polls in November was at 65%, 75% or another overwhelming quantity. Nonetheless, you will need to present correct data and the context of that assist.
The 74% is the proportion of people that voted for the citizen-sponsored Initiative 65, which legalized medical marijuana, in comparison with the 26% who voted for the legislative various. Each legalized medical marijuana, although the legislative various did so with many extra restrictions than did the citizen-sponsored initiative. However primarily based on that final result, 100% of voters supported legalizing medical marijuana in some method.
However to argue that 100% of individuals voted in favor of medical marijuana additionally can be a false narrative.
What’s vital to recollect is that Mississippians are confronted with two questions when the Legislature opts to position on the poll another — competing proposal — to a citizen-sponsored initiative. Some argue that the Legislature deliberately developed the convoluted, two-question course of to enact a citizen-sponsored initiative to make it harder to cross any proposal opposed by the Legislature.
Beneath that convoluted course of, the primary query offers voters two choices: to assist both the citizen-sponsored initiative or the legislative various, whereas the second possibility is to oppose each.
If opposition to each receives extra votes than the assist for both the citizen-sponsored initiative or the legislative various, then that’s the ballgame. Each are defeated. However this previous November, 816,107 (68.5%) voted in favor of the citizen-sponsored initiative or the legislative various, whereas 374,931 (31.5%) voted in opposition to each, in line with official outcomes from the Mississippi Secretary of State.
Maybe it could possibly be argued, primarily based on the primary query, that nearly 69% favored the legalization of medical marijuana, not 74%. Nevertheless it could possibly be argued that quantity just isn’t right both. In any case, there theoretically may have been voters who opposed each the citizen-sponsored initiative and the legislative various, however supported the idea of medical marijuana. If that was the case, and in the event that they took the query actually, they’d have voted no on the primary query.
And by the way, to additional complicate a sophisticated course of, individuals who vote in opposition to each on the primary query can nonetheless vote for both the legislative various or the citizen-sponsored initiative on the second query.
In fact, this all got here up after the Supreme Court docket in late Could in a landmark and controversial 6-3 choice struck down the medical marijuana initiative authorized by voters in November and whereas doing so struck down the complete initiative course of. The courtroom dominated the initiative course of invalid as a result of language within the Structure requires signatures to position a difficulty on the poll be gathered equally from 5 congressional districts. The issue, the Court docket dominated, is that the state has had solely 4 districts because the 2000 Census.
Supporters of medical marijuana, upset with the courtroom ruling, rallied across the “We’re the 74” mantra. There may be nothing improper with that. It makes the purpose that a big share of Mississippians assist the legalization of medical marijuana and at the moment are asking the Legislature to enact what was taken away from them by the Supreme Court docket.
It is likely to be 74% who assist medical marijuana. It is likely to be rather less. It is likely to be slightly extra.
It’s simply arduous to determine from the November election. Maybe it might be a public service if legislators would simplify a convoluted poll course of as they work within the coming months to revive the initiative course of struck down by the Supreme Court docket.
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