It’s as if several thousand Utahns only cared about voting for the medical marijuana initiative.
While all the votes haven’t been counted yet, an analysis by UtahPolicy.com finds Prop. 2, which legalizes medical cannabis in Utah, received 41,060 more votes statewide than Prop. 4. In Salt Lake County alone, Prop. 2 has 16,329 more total votes than Prop. 2.
That gap certainly could prove decisive as to whether Prop. 4 ends up passing or failing. Currently, the redistricting reform measure is holding on by 2,250 votes.
It appears Prop. 2 drove more votes than several other statewide ballot issues.
- The U.S. Senate race between Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Jenny Wilson received 1,834 fewer votes than Prop. 2. Most of those non-votes came from Salt Lake County, which saw 1,472 ballots with no vote in this race.
- Question 1, which asked voters if they would support a gas tax hike to better fund schools received 10,624 fewer votes than Prop. 2. Question 1 is currently losing by more than 303,000 votes. In Salt Lake County, 5,835 voters did not bother to vote on the question.
- Prop. 3, which fully expands Medicaid in Utah under the Affordable Care Act, was approved by voters by a 60,000 vote margin. However, 20,259 voters did not cast a ballot on this issue. In Salt Lake County, 6,708 ballots did not have a vote on the proposition.
It could be that voters were fired up to cast a ballot on the medical marijuana issue, but either didn’t care enough to finish their ballots after Prop. 2, or they were confused or ill-informed about the issue.
Studies show that more than 30% of voters fail to complete their ballot. The number who did not vote on the Prop. 4 question isn’t quite that high, but the total number of votes for Prop. 4 is nearly 6% less than Prop. 2.
If Prop. 4 ends up passing or failing by more than a handful of votes, those blank ballots could end up looming large.