Nevada Voters Reject Pot Legalization, Approve Eminent Domain and Minimum Wage Initiatives

RENO – Nevada decided Tuesday they didn't want legalized marijuana sold at state-sanctioned pot shops and approved constitutional amendments raising Nevada's minimum wage and curbing government seizures of private property.

Question 7, to legalize adult possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and require the state to set up procedures to tax and regulate its sale failed, 58 percent to 42 percent with more than half the expected votes counted.

Question 6, setting Nevada's minimum wage at $1 above the federal standard, was given final approval after it was overwhelming embraced by voters in 2004. Question 2, setting new restrictions on eminent domain, must be approved again in 2008.

Nevadans also appeared to favor the more restrictive of competing measures to limit exposure to secondhand smoke.

Questions 4 and 5 both sought to restrict smoking in public places, but to varying degrees. With about half the votes tallied, Question 4 was narrowly failing, while Question 5, which imposes tougher limits on secondhand smoke, was passing.

Question 1, requiring lawmakers to fund education before other state budgets, also was favored in partial returns.

Three other proposed constitutional amendments were passed by the 2003 and 2005 legislatures and put to voters Tuesday for final approval.

Question 11, allowing lawmakers to be paid for each day they are in session instead of the current 60-day limit, was rejected. Question 10 authorizing lawmakers to call themselves into special session was failing, while Question 9, to reduce the size of the Board of Regents from 13 members to nine, was too close to call.

Question 8 to amend the state's sales tax to exempt farm machinery while expanding exemptions for the trade-in value of used vehicles also was approved by an overwhelming margin.