Some Local Mirrors of What Matters

VOTERS did not just go to the polls to choose among candidates; they also tackled a thorny and controversial spate of referendums and state constitutional amendments. These issues--the fine print on the ballot--have an un-happy tradition of being so complicatedly framed as to leave even the most dutiful voter often confused. In Washington State, for example, voters were faced with an all time record of 24 of these measures. Yet the sentiment on these local issues often provides a mirror of what matters to Americans. That seemed especially true this year in the approval of a wide variety of environmental referendums.

New Yorkers voted heavily in favor of a multipurpose $1.2 billion environmental bond issue. The funds will be used mainly to clean up the state's air and water supply, with special attention to the problem of sewage treatment. The success of the measure was largely attributed to a low-key promotion campaign, a sharp contrast to a heavyhanded one waged two years ago on behalf of a transportation bond issue. That was defeated, and the moral might be that voters do not like to be bludgeoned into action. In New Jersey a proposed $650 million transportation issue was defeated. The conservationist Sierra Club was successful in its determined campaign to convince New Jerseyites that the bill called for too much money for road building and not enough for mass transportation.

Voters in Jefferson County, Colo., the nation's fifth fastest-growing county, approved a 1 1/2% sales tax to be used solely for the purchase and maintenance of open space. The unique measure is expected to raise about $2,000,000 annually for wildlife habitats, parks and recreational facilities. But the issue that kindled high passion across the rest of the state was that of the 1976 Winter Olympics. Governor John Love had waged a crusade to bring the Games to Denver and won the bid from the International Olympic Committee. To his extreme embarrassment, Coloradans voted 3 to 2 to cut off funds for the event. The cost was the primary concern, but underlying that was an increasing awareness that the Games might encourage runaway growth in already burgeoning areas.

The wildest--and mildest--serendipity of issues took place in California, where voters had 22 separate propositions on which to render a verdict. The most important of them:

DEATH PENALTY. Proposition 17 was part of a national effort to reverse the Supreme Court's ruling and revive the death penalty (see THE LAW). The arguments were familiar: those in favor talked of deterrent value, those opposed belittled that notion and spoke impassionedly of the sanctity of human life. Still, voters chose reinstatement by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The vote was a statement of principal rather than binding legislation, but it may indicate that the death penalty is not yet dead in the U.S.

MARIJUANA. Proposition 19 asked that state law be changed to remove criminal penalties for cultivation, processing and transport of marijuana for personal use by people over 18 (leaving only the sale of the weed a crime). It was soundly defeated. COASTAL ZONE CONSERVATION. This was easily the most hotly contested issue on the California ballot. Conservationists and a surprising number of state politicians squared off against developers, utilities and oil companies over the proposal, which called for the creation of one state and six regional commissions whose fundamental task would be to oversee the preservation of the state's coastline. Despite a well-financed advertising campaign mounted by opponents, the environmentalists managed to win a solid victory. OBSCENITY LEGISLATION. Proposition

18 would have eliminated the "redeeming social value" test for books and films and would have left the definition of obscenity to local communities. Backers viewed the initiative as a method of controlling the spread of hard-core pornography. Opponents, among them a large number of Hollywood stars, claimed that the measure was an open invitation to unlimited censorship, that under its aegis even such films as Patton and True Grit could be banned (TIME, Oct. 23). They made their point; the proposition went down to a 2-to-1 defeat.

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