UFO, Marijuana, 'Personhood' Measures Fail

By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

UFOs will continue to go unstudied in Denver.

Initiative 300 is just one of many ballot measures that voters were tasked with deciding on Tuesday, and was also one of many that failed to pass.

The measure, which would have created a seven-member UFO Committee to study the mysterious objects and their extraterrestrial occupants, only managed to pull 16% of the vote.

Rhode Island, meanwhile, will keep its name.

In a battle that's lasted nearly two decades, efforts to get "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" shortened to just Rhode Island failed to gain enough support from the electorate, earning just around 71,000 votes.

[Read more about the 2010 elections.]

More than 250,000 opposed the measure.

Colorado's second effort to define "personhood" in an amendment which would have banned all kids of abortion, as well as forbidden stem cell research and some kinds of birth control, was also voted down.

The controversial measure lost overwhelmingly, 70% against to just 30% in favor.

California's Proposition 19, which would have legalized the sale of marijuana, lost by nearly 500,000 votes. Efforts to okay cannabis use for medical purposes may join it, with measures in Arizona, South Dakota and Oregon all failing.

Income tax-free Washington State's effort to get those who earn more than $200,000 or households earning more than $400,000 annually to pay up also failed to gain enough support from voters.

[Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the 2010 campaigns.]

But not all was lost. Illinois voters granted themselves the ability to recall their governor with a sweeping 66% to 34% victory. A ban on puppy mills in Missouri also passed, just barely, with 51% of the vote.

The measure will require anyone who has more than 10 breeding dogs to meet certain standards for housing, food and veterinary care, according to KSPR News in Springfield, Missouri.

Oklahoma also passed a measure that would keep judges from using Islamic law when deciding cases. The initiative was meant as a "pre-emptive strike" to keep activist judges from "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law," according to its sponsor, Republican Rex Duncan.

• More political coverage from the Daily News.
• Follow the money in Congress.
• Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the 2010 campaigns.