A Brief History of the Death Penalty on the Ballot

The death penalty is a controversial political topic, even if it’s hardly discussed by candidates running for office. When the issue is put to a vote of the people, how does the death penalty fare?

The death penalty, also commonly referred to as capital punishment, does not rank high on the list of issues that voters prioritize and often isn’t even included when they’re polled. Multiple times a year, however, the topic flares up in the news due to some sort of controversy surrounding a quickly-approaching execution; this typically involves either an argument that the death row inmate is actually innocent or that they’ve changed as a person and therefore should not be put to death. The execution almost always proceeds, followed by the topic of the death penalty fading out of the news cycle and broader political discourse.

Based on polling from Gallup and Pew Research, the death penalty enjoys somewhere between 53–60% support though that has steadily declined since the 90s.; this is despite a majority of those polled agreeing that there are problems with its application. Support for the death penalty is strongest among Republicans, those without college degrees, people over the age of 49, and both White and Asian voters.

You know what’s better than a poll? Putting an issue on the ballot for people to actually vote on. When it comes to the death penalty, there have been 35 ballot measures on the issue going back as far as 1912. Each of these ballot questions can be described as either “ pro-death penalty” (where a ‘Yes’ vote was in support of the death penalty in some way) or “ anti-death penalty” (where a Yes vote supported restricting the death penalty in some way). Of the 35 total, 23 were pro-death penalty while 12 were anti-death penalty. Many of these ballot initiatives were about something other than simply abolishing or enacting the death penalty, such as speeding up the appeals process or changing the method of execution.

Of the 35 total ballot measures, the pro-death penalty side has won in 31 (or 91%). The last time the anti-death penalty side won in a ballot measure was in 1964. The death penalty has won on the ballot in a diverse variety of states: usually-liberal coastal states like California and Massachusetts, conservative midwestern/Great Plains states like Nebraska and Oklahoma, and more moderate midwestern/Rust Belt states like Ohio and Wisconsin.

I included below a chronological list (starting with the most recent from 2016) of each states’ death penalty ballot measure election, with its outcome displayed on a county-by-county map (when such results were available to find).

2016

California Prop 62

California Prop 66

Nebraska Referendum 426

Oklahoma State Question 776

2012

California Prop 34

2006

Wisconsin Advisory Question 2

2002

Florida Amendment 1

1998

Florida Amendment 2

1996

California Prop 196

1994

Ohio Jurisdiction of Death Penalty Appeals Amendment

1992

Arizona Prop 103

New Jersey Public Question No. 3

1990

California Prop 114

1984

Oregon Measure 6

Oregon Measure 7

1982

Massachusetts Question 2

1978

California Prop 7

Oregon Measure 8

1975

Washington Initiative 316

1974

Colorado Amendment 2

1972

California Prop 17

1970

Illinois Death Penalty Amendment

1968

Massachusetts Question 6

1966

Colorado Referred Law No. 2

1964

Oregon Measure 1

1958

Oregon Measure 4

1933

Arizona Measure Nos. 102–103

1931

Michigan Death Penalty Referendum

1920

Oregon Measure Nos. 304–305

1918

Arizona Measure Nos. 306–307

1916

Arizona Measure Nos. 300–301

1914

Arizona Measure Nos. 308–309

Oregon Measure Nos. 334–335

1912

Ohio Death Penalty Amendment

Oregon Measure Nos. 366–367

Originally published at https://gavinsample.substack.com. All sources for almost every election’s result can be found in that article’s footnotes.