The election is over, and in addition to helping pick a new president, Massachusetts voters had five ballot questions to answer.
The results make for a mixed bag (and there are no magic mushrooms in that bag).
Question 1: Approved
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio asked the voters to let her audit the state legislature, and the voters replied with a resounding “yes.”
As of Wednesday morning, with 90 percent of the votes counted, the question had 71 percent approval.
“I am a believer in the power of government to do amazing things—to make life better for everyone, everywhere,” DiZoglio said in a statement. “I have seen that power first-hand, but I’ve also seen the work that remains to build a state government that lives up to its values.”
Question 2: Approved
Advocates of Question 2 wanted to remove the MCAS exam from public school graduation across Massachusetts. And voters agreed, with nearly 60 percent in favor.
“Massachusetts residents know that true learning is about much more than can be measured by a single standardized test and have now given teachers the ability to create safer and stronger learning environments where setting and meeting high standards is embedded in every aspect of a school’s curriculum,” American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts President Jessica Tang said in a statement Wednesday morning. “This is an important step toward addressing the systemic opportunity gaps that are exacerbated by decades of overreliance on a one-size-fits-all standardized test.”
Question 3: Approved
With the approval of this ballot question (54 percent in favor, 46 percent against), rideshare drivers for Uber and Lyft will be legally allowed to form unions for collective bargaining.
Employees of different rideshare companies will also be able to form cross-industry unions together as well.
Question 4: Rejected
Question 4 had proposed a law to allow people age 21 and older to grow, possess and use psilocybin mushrooms and use psilocybin and psilocyn as well as plant-based hallucinogens like dimethyltryptamine, mescaline, and ibogaine, in therapy.
But voters said “no thanks” and rejected that idea, with about 57 percent against it.
Opponents had expressed concern over a lack of safeguards in the question relating to home cultivation and use.
Question 5: Rejected
Voters also said no to raising the tipped employee minimum wage from $6.25 an hour to $15 an hour. The question also asked that employers be allowed to take employee tips and pool them among non-tipped staff.
Many restaurant workers spoke out against the idea, and the voters agreed. The vote was 64 percent against to 36 percent in favor.
“This is a testament to the hard-working servers and bartenders that volunteered for the campaign to say we don’t want this,” Massachusetts Restaurant Association President Steve Clark said in a statement Tuesday night. “Thousands of servers came together to educate the voters about the detrimental impacts of this question. This is a great night for the hospitality industry.”