Voters favor property rights, approve bans on gay marriage

Amendments to ban gay marriage won approval Tuesday in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin as voters considered a total of 205 measures in 37 states — the second-largest number of initiatives in 100 years.

Arizona passed four measures targeting illegal immigrants, including one making English the state's official language.

Voters weren't keen about another, more quirky Arizona measure: They defeated a proposal that would have awarded $1 million to a randomly selected voter in each general election.

Other standout national issues were protecting property rights and raising the minimum wage. While not part of national trends, measures in Missouri on legalizing stem-cell research and in South Dakota to overturn a legislative ban on nearly all abortions had drawn attention.

In South Dakota, voters overturned an abortion ban approved earlier in the year by the legislature and governor. It was the strictest such ban in the country, and its supporters had hoped it would be appealed to the Supreme Court, where it might open a legal door for similar anti-abortion laws.

The stem-cell vote erupted last month as a national issue when actor Michael J. Fox, visibly shaking from Parkinson's disease, appeared in an ad for Democrat Claire McCaskill, who was in a tight race against Sen. James Talent, R-Mo. McCaskill supported the measure; Talent opposed it. Early results showed the measure losing by a narrow margin.

Eight states had measures to ban gay marriage; results were pending in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and South Dakota. Though similar amendments passed previously in all 20 states that have considered them, gay-rights activists had nursed hopes that the streak might be broken this year in Wisconsin.

Colorado voters had an extra option: a measure that would grant domestic-partnership rights to same-sex couples.

Conservatives hoped the same-sex marriage bans might increase turnout for Republicans.

With measures to increase the minimum wage on ballots in six states, Democrats were hoping to use the wage issue to motivate their electoral base just as Republicans had used gay-marriage measures in key states in 2004.

The wage increase passed in Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Nevada; results were pending in Arizona and Colorado. In Ohio, it raised the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85, with future raises indexed to inflation.

Land-use regulation, though, appeared to be the pre-eminent issue. Eleven states considered eminent-domain measures barring the government from taking private property for a private use.

Florida, Georgia, New Hampshire and South Carolina approved them overwhelmingly. Concerns about property rights have been driven by the populist backlash against a Supreme Court decision last year that upheld the right of local governments to condemn private property and then hand it over to someone else for commercial development. The court said then that states could tighten eminent-domain laws.

Eight of the state measures are designed to do exactly that, but the other four reach much further. Measures in Arizona, California, Idaho and Washington would compel state and local governments to pay property owners when land-use rules, such as zoning regulations, reduce the value of their property.

On other issues:

• Michigan voters were approving a measure to bar the state government from using race and gender to determine who gets into college, who gets hired and who receives contracts.

• In Ohio, anti-smoking activists won a showdown with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Voters approved a tough ban on smoking in public places and rejected a rival, Reynolds-backed measure that would have exempted bars, bowling alleys and racetracks.

• The costliest ballot campaign — a state record of $133 million — was in the fight over California's Proposition 87, which would tax companies drilling for oil in the state. The proposal sought to raise $4 billion to promote alternative fuels and energy-efficient vehicles.

• Nevada and Colorado both offered measures — trailing badly in the polls — that would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by anyone 21 and older.

• A measure in Rhode Island would restore voting rights to felons on probation and parole.

• In Maine, Nebraska and Oregon, voters considered measures that would cap increases in state spending — similar to a controversial measure approved in Colorado in 1992.