Voters expand Medicaid in S.D., reject abortion restriction in Ky., approve recreational marijuana in Mo. and Md.

Among the many referenda on Tuesday's ballots, Kentucky voters rejected a proposal that would have kept state courts from finding a right to abortion in the state's constitution. That clears the way for the state Supreme Court to hear arguments next week in a lawsuit by the state's two abortion clinics against some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws, one of which kicked in when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Both clinics are in Louisville, so rural access to abortion is difficult.

Voters in Michigan added abortion rights to their constitution. Voters in California and Vermont approved similar measures that would have little effect on existing law in those states, Lou Jacobson reports for U.S. News and World Report.

Voters in South Dakota expanded Medicaid to an estimated 42,000 people under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. "The Republican-controlled state, where lawmakers have long resisted Medicaid expansion, is the seventh in the last five years to do so at the ballot box — and likely the last to do so for some time," reports Megan Messerly of Politico.

"A different health care proposal, in Oregon, was losing narrowly in early returns," Jacobson reports. "This measure was more vague.” It would add language to the constitution that says the state will "ensure" that every resident "has access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right."

Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana, while those in Arkansas and the Dakotas defeated similar measures. Voters in Maryland also approved the idea, which carried every county except Allegany, at the state's western end.

"By a 2-1 margin, Iowa approved adding language to the state constitution affirming the right to own and bear firearms and require strict judicial scrutiny of any alleged violation, Jacobson reports. "Oregon voters were on their way to approving a measure to keep state lawmakers from running for reelection if they had 10 or more unexcused absences. The minority party – most recently Republicans – had used the state’s two-thirds quorum rule to shutter chamber business by not showing up for sessions. The measure was winning by a 2-1 margin. In Michigan, voters approved by a 2-1 margin a measure that would set 12-year term limits for state legislative service, as well as stiffen financial disclosure rules for legislators and statewide elected officials. And in North Dakota, voters approved an eight-year term limit for the governor and eight years in each legislative chamber. The measure passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote."

Nebraska and Nevada voters raised their states' minimum wages. "One blue state and one red state went their expected directions on ballot measures affecting labor unions," Jacobson reports. "By a 3-2 margin, Illinois appears to have passed a measure that would create a state constitutional right to collective bargaining. But in Tennessee, a right-to-work measure that makes it illegal for workplaces to mandate labor-union membership passed with 70%."

Voters in Jonesboro and the rest of Craighead County, Arkansas, cut the local library's property-tax rate in half. The vote "stemmed from protests over a gay pride book display in the library last year and a transgender author’s visit there earlier," Kenneth Heard writes for the Arkansas Advocate.

This story may be updated.