Days after the historic midterm elections in which the Democratic Party seized power in both houses of Congress, Massachusetts has the results of all nine statewide ballot questions that should keep state officials busy for a while.
While a tiny fraction of the state’s ballots are still being counted, as of Friday, all nine questions have been called.
Islanders in all of the towns were in lockstep in choosing to vote for or against ballot questions besides the most divisive number 7, a proposed housing measure that Chilmark, Edgartown, and West Tisbury voted down.
Question 7 proposed a law that would allow single-family homes to be built in residential zones if the lot is at least 5,000 square feet, has at least 50 feet of land bordering the street, and has public sewer and water services. It also allows cities and towns to regulate some aspects of the homes, like the dimensions of the building, open space, parking, and, perhaps most important to the Island, whether it can be used as a short-term rental.
While the proposal was pitched as a way to tackle the housing crisis by allowing homes to be built on smaller lots, critics have called it a one-size-fits-all measure that ignores community needs and cedes local control to the state. On the Vineyard, it raised questions about feasibility, considering finite resources like available land, and the preservation of the Island’s character and environment. The measure also came before Islanders at a time when there are overdevelopment concerns due to large housing proposals.
The proposal narrowly passed among Islanders, but it ultimately failed statewide in a tight vote in which 1.29 million Massachusetts voters (50.6 percent) rejected it. Another question that narrowly failed to pass was Question 5, which proposed placing a limit on how much the state can collect in taxes; it was rejected by 1.33 million voters (52.3 percent).
Some ballot questions, meanwhile, were approved by voters in dominant fashion, such as a proposal to have state legislators and the governor’s office be subject to Massachusetts Public Records Law. Massachusetts voters also largely rejected a proposed ban on recreational marijuana sales.
Except for Question 7, the Island’s votes fell in line with the rest of the state. Here’s how the other ballot questions panned out in the statewide elections:
- Question 1: Have state legislators and the governor’s office be subject to the public records law. (85.9 percent approval)
- Question 2: Allow employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services to engage in collective bargaining with their employer. (64 percent approval)
- Question 3: replace political party primaries in state elections with a ballot that features candidates from all parties and advances the top two candidates in each race to the general election. (61 percent disapproval)
- Question 4: Allow voters to change their addresses on the day of elections. (56.3 percent approval)
- Question 5: Limit the amount of revenue the state can collect. (52.3 percent disapproval)
- Question 6: Creation of a natural resources protection fund through the sales tax from sporting goods, recreational vehicles, and golf courses. (60.8 percent approval)
- Question 8: Repeal the current marijuana laws and ban recreational cannabis sales. (75.6 percent disapproval)
- Question 9: Amend the state firearms regulations to include school administrators and licensed healthcare providers as people who can ask a court to require individuals to surrender firearms and licenses/permits if they present a danger to themselves or others, and place a ban on so-called ghost guns and parts, which are often untraceable because they’re privately made through means like 3D-printing. (67.3 percent disapproval)
