The 2024 elections saw several ballot measures get voted down by the electorate, but many of them are being resurrected in hopes to reappear on the ballot in 2026.
As the process for ballot measures begins for the 2026 elections, several initiatives are underway for failed measures to return to the ballot for a second chance. Here is a look at some of the failed measures that are looking to make a comeback.
Florida recreational marijuana
In the Sunshine State, two major ballot measures failed last November, despite similar amendments succeeding in various states in recent years. Florida‘s Amendments 3 and 4, seeking to legalize recreational marijuana and enshrine abortion through viability, respectively, failed to reach the 60% necessary to pass the 2024 election.
While the group behind the 2024 abortion ballot measure, Floridians Protecting Freedom, disbanded shortly after their measure failed, the group behind the marijuana measure is regrouping for 2026.
The group is circulating a petition for a new ballot measure aiming to legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults, but with some key changes in the language from the 2024 proposal.
The 2024 ballot measure was strongly opposed by several state leaders, including Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who led the charge against its passage. Concerns opponents had centered on a lack of guardrails for marijuana use, something the new proposal appears to be aiming to address.
The new ballot measure adds language to prohibit “smoking and vaping in public,” along with prohibiting “marketing and packaging attractive to children.” It also keeps language authorizing medical marijuana vendors to “acquire, cultivate, process, transport, and sell marijuana to adults,” but adds that the state may create “licenses for non-medical marijuana businesses.”
Voters in the Sunshine State have approved marijuana on a second try in the past. In 2014, Florida voters rejected a measure that would have legalized medical marijuana, but two years later, a different amendment seeking to legalize medical marijuana passed the 60% threshold.
Alaska ranked choice voting repeal
In Alaska, voters came less than 800 votes away from repealing ranked choice voting in November 2024 — four years after adopting the system – and could still repeal the system in 2026.
The “Last Frontier” became the second state to adopt a form of ranked choice voting for its statewide races, with the Alaska system having an open primary where the top four finishers — regardless of party — advance to the general election, with voters ranking their preferences of the finalists in the general election.
The 2022 elections were the first to use the system, leading to Democrats flipping the lone seat to the House of Representatives after Republican candidates split between two of the candidates in the general election.
Opponents of the system argue it is confusing and hurts transparency and accountability with elections. The system narrowly survived in the 2024 election, but activists are already collecting signatures with the goal of getting the question before voters again in 2026.
Phil Izon, a sponsor of the new petition being circulated to get a repeal on the ballot, told KTUU that he believes the language of the 2024 measure was confusing to voters, and if it were clearer, it would have passed.
“I believe language played a role in 2020, and I believe it played a role in 2024, so I do not want a repeat of that in 2026,” Izon told the outlet.
State officials in Alaska write the ballot measures, rather than sponsors of the petitions. The measures are written based on a summary provided by the sponsors of the petitions to appear on the ballot.
California involuntary servitude ban
In the Golden State, voters rejected a proposed ban on involuntary servitude in surprising results last year. For 2026, activists are hoping to remove the use of involuntary servitude as a punishment against prisoners in various states, including California.
A report from Politico said that activists have focused on refining language with ballot measures they hope to have in various states for next year’s elections.
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Proposition 6 failed in California, 53.3%-46.6%, while in neighboring Nevada, a similar measure, Question 4, passed, 60.6%-39.4%, in November 2024.
The California proposition, which did not pass, used the term “involuntary servitude,” while in neighboring Nevada, a similar measure that used the term “slavery” did pass.
