Abortion, transgender rights and voter ID: Ballot measure results from the 2026 midterms

The battle for control of Congress got the lion's share of the attention on Tuesday, but there were a lot of other consequential measures on the ballots that could have a direct impact on voters' lives.

Ballot measures often don't receive much national focus, but every two years, voters across the country decide whether to adopt policies that have major implications for their states. This year was no different.

There were more than 140 measures on the ballot across 40 states. Many touched on some of the biggest issues in U.S. politics, including abortion, transgender rights, voting and the democratic process itself.

Ballot measures can give the people a way to directly alter the laws in their states instead of relying solely on their elected representatives to create policy on their behalf. In some cases, they provide an opportunity for voters to endorse or reject something their state legislature wants to do. In others, regular citizens can get their preferred policy on the ballot directly through a signature-gathering campaign.

Here's a rundown of the results of some of the major measures on statewide ballots this year.

The Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the nationwide abortion protections established by Roe v. Wade instantly turned abortion access into a state-by-state issue. It also led to a flurry of ballot measures across the country in which voters were asked to decide whether their states should protect or restrict abortion rights. In the years since, voters have generally come down in favor of protecting abortion rights.

That trend got another test this year due to abortion-related measures in four states.

In Idaho, voters rejected a measure that would have overturned their state's strict abortion restrictions and established a right to reproductive freedom and privacy, including abortion until fetal viability. The initiative's failure means Idaho will not join the ranks of red states where voters used ballot measures to expand abortion rights.

One of those red states is Missouri , where voters approved a measure in 2024 that struck down some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws. On Tuesday, voters rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have repealed that 2024 amendment and allowed strict abortion restrictions to be put back into place. That same failed measure would also have created new limits on gender-affirming care in the state.

Voters in two other states that already have relatively permissive laws around abortion access — Nevada and Virginia — approved measures that will enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, a step that will make it much harder to restrict access in the future.

The debate over transgender rights, particularly when it comes to minors, has become a central issue in American politics. It should be no surprise, then, that a number of states had measures related to the topic on the ballot this year. All of them would impose new limits on transgender rights.

Four states — Washington, Nebraska, Arizona and Colorado — voted on measures that would ban trans athletes from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity.

There are some important differences from state to state, though. The proposals in Washington and Nebraska would only apply to girls' and women's teams. Colorado's and Arizona's would apply to both male and female teams.

Washington's bill also includes a stipulation that would require all K-12 students who want to play girls' or women's sports — whether they identify as trans or not — to have their sex verified by a doctor . Arizona's measure will also ban schools from allowing trans minors or adults to access bathrooms, locker rooms or other private spaces designated for a sex that doesn't match the one they were assigned at birth.

A separate initiative in Colorado would ban gender-affirming surgeries for minors.

The initiatives in Arizona and Nebraska were both approved. Washington's measure and the two initiatives in Colorado appeared to be on the path to passing as well.

The only state where potential new restrictions on transgender rights failed was Missouri, where the new limits were combined with a proposal to repeal abortion rights in the state.

Six states voted on measures related to voter ID.

California and Colorado rejected proposals that would have established or expanded requirements for voters to show ID when they cast their ballots or when voting by mail. A similar measure in Nevada was approved.

Arizona, Ohio and North Carolina, where strict voter ID requirements are already in place under state law, considered measures that add or expand those requirements in their state constitutions. Arizona's failed . The measures in Ohio and North Carolina were approved

Schools have been a major flashpoint for culture war battles in recent years. A handful of measures on the ballot Tuesday asked voters to weigh in on some of those debates.

Voters in Arizona and Wisconsin both considered proposals to ban affirmative action in schools and all other government agencies. Arizona's measure failed . Wisconsin's was approved .

Alabama voters approved a pair of school proposals. One will require public schools to play the national anthem at least once a week. The other will make the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance a daily requirement and mandate that school boards adopt policies to allow student-led prayer.

It's still too early to know the fate of a sweeping parental rights initiative in Washington that would give parents of public school students substantially more oversight over the education their children receive, including the power to review curricula and textbooks, put strict new limits on the kinds of medical care schools can provide without parental notification and roll back changes to the state's parental rights law that protected against discrimination and bullying in schools.

Ballot measures frequently center on contentious political issues, but in recent years, the initiative process itself has increasingly become the subject of political debate.

Five states voted on measures that would have made it harder for citizen-led ballot initiatives to become law, either by raising the share of the vote certain measures need to get approved or restricting the subjects that initiatives can address. Four of those measures failed. The fifth appears to be on track to also being rejected.

Voters in North Dakota and South Dakota shot down measures that would have required any attempt to change their state constitutions to get 60% of the vote. A similar proposal in Utah that would have applied only to tax-related initiatives also failed. A California measure that would also raise the threshold for certain tax-related initiatives was trailing with more than half of the vote counted as of Wednesday afternoon.

Changing the threshold for success by 10 percentage points may not sound like a huge deal, but it is often the difference between a proposal becoming law and being rejected. For example, initiatives in Florida that would have legalized abortion and recreational marijuana use both received majority support from voters in 2024, but neither became law because they fell short of the state's 60% approval standard.

Idaho also rejected a measure that would have banned initiatives aimed at legalizing marijuana, psychedelics and other narcotics.

Two states voted to protect the initiative process, as well. Montana voters approved a proposal to amend the state's constitution to guarantee citizens' rights to pursue ballot initiatives and make it harder for the government to interfere with measures approved by voters.

In Missouri , voters approved a measure that will prohibit the state's Republican-led legislature from weakening the initiative process. It will also bar it from amending or repealing any measures that have passed unless 80% of both chambers agree to put the change before voters.

Voters across the country also weighed in on a long list of other pivotal ballot measures that don't fit neatly into a specific category. Here are a few of them.

Arizona voted to ban new traffic cameras without direct voter approval. Nebraska rejected a proposal to legalize online sports betting . Vermont voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to ban discrimination based on gender identity. Virginia voted to restore the voting rights of people convicted of felonies once they're released from prison. A measure in Wisconsin aimed at prohibiting the government from closing places of worship during public health emergencies was rejected. Massachusetts voters chose not to make recreational marijuana sales illegal.

Lower-stakes — but still noteworthy — measures included a failed Colorado initiative that would have enshrined the right to hunt and fish in the state constitution and a request for Idaho voters to select an official state gun — they chose the Winchester Model 1873 rifle.