Key State Ballot Issues for Older Adults to Watch This Election

Here are a few states with tax ballot questions:

• Colorado: A proposal to expand the property tax exemption for veterans with a disability is on the table. Voters will decide whether to include people whose service-connected disability leaves them unable to work.
• Florida: In this popular destination for retirees, voters will be asked if they support an annual inflation adjustment to the homestead exemption. If passed, it would increase how much of a home is exempt from property taxation every year.
• North Dakota: Voters are contemplating a big change — a proposal to eliminate property taxes altogether, except to pay for bonded indebtedness. If approved, funding for budgets to run municipalities and local school districts would come directly from the state instead.
• South Dakota: Groceries are a big budget item for many older adults, and voters will decide whether to ban state sales tax on most foods and other products sold for human consumption, with the exception of alcoholic beverages and prepared food. 

Jon Krause

Minimum wage and sick leave

Many older adults are staying in the workforce longer. About 19 percent of Americans age 65 and up have jobs, double the number in the workforce 35 years ago, according to the Pew Research Center. Several states’ ballots include questions that impact those in the workforce, particularly when it comes to increasing the minimum wage and providing paid sick leave.

• California: The current minimum wage is $16 per hour. A state ballot initiative would increase it to $18 per hour starting in 2026, with the rate to be adjusted annually to reflect cost-of-living changes.
• Alaska: Voters will decide whether the minimum wage, now at $11.73 an hour, should increase to $13 starting July 1, 2025, then rise to $14 a year later, and $15 starting July 1, 2027. Alaska’s measure would also provide employees up to 56 hours of paid annual sick leave if they work for an employer with 15 or more employees, and up to 40 hours if they work for smaller employers. 
• Nebraska: Should state businesses be required to offer paid sick leave? A proposal to require businesses to provide up to five days of paid sick leave if they have fewer than 20 employees, and up to seven days if they have 20 or more is on the ballot

Jon Krause

Marijuana and cannabis

Marijuana- and cannabis-related questions are common on ballots across the country this year, and usage among older adults has been on the rise. One in 5 people 50-plus said they used some form of cannabis at least once in the last year, a report from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging found. That’s up from 1 in 8 in 2021.

• Florida and South Dakota: Voters will decide whether recreational marijuana should be legalized in their states for adults age 21 and older.
• Nebraska: The state has two marijuana-related questions on the ballot, but both are being challenged in court, with decisions not expected until after the election. The first would legalize medical marijuana in the state and the second would establish a commission to regulate the medical marijuana market there.  
• North Dakota: Voters are considering a ballot question on the legalization of cannabis products such as edibles, topicals, patches and capsules for adults 21 and older.

Elections and voting

Older adults wield power at the ballot box, coming out to vote in greater numbers than any other demographic. AARP-commissioned polls show about 9 out of 10 voters 50-plus are extremely motivated to vote in 2024. 

There are a whole host of election-related ballot questions being put to voters this year, which is not unusual, Brewer says. These are more common in presidential election years. 

• Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin: Voters in these eight states are deciding on ballot proposals that would require individuals to be United States citizens to vote, Byrne says. U.S. citizenship is already required to vote in all federal elections. A handful of municipalities in other parts of the country allow noncitizens to vote in local elections only.
• Connecticut: Currently state voters may vote using an absentee ballot only if they have an excuse—illness, disability, being out of town on Election Day. But voters are weighing in this year on a ballot question to determine whether anyone should get to vote absentee if they choose—no excuse necessary.

Several states feature ballot questions related to ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank candidates by order of preference instead of choosing just one. A candidate typically needs more than half the vote to win outright. If no candidate gets the majority vote, the least favorite candidate is dropped, and the process repeats until a candidate garners more than 50 percent of votes.

• Alaska: The state already has ranked-choice voting in place, but voters will decide whether to repeal this system.
• Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C.: Voters will decide on proposals to adopt ranked-choice voting.

For more information on voting and how to find sample ballots, check out AARP’s state-by-state voter guides.

Jon Krause