On the Ballots: Marijuana, Minimum Wage, Abortion

Proponents of marijuana legalization suffered a setback in Florida while achieving victory in Washington, D.C., where a measure there makes it legal to grow and possess pot but not to sell it.

In Florida, legalization supporters hoped to make the state the 24th to allow medical marijuana. However, it fell short of the 60 percent approval needed to pass it.

Close to complete returns show it received just 57 percent of the vote.

Voters in Oregon and Alaska also voted on marijuana measures Tuesday. Both initiatives legalize retail sales of marijuana to anyone old enough to drink. Returns are pending.

In the 2012 General Election, Colorado and Washington state became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults. Both states are now creating systems for regulating and taxing sales of the drug.

Abortion was also on the ballot in several states.

Tennessee voters approved a measure giving the state more power to regulate abortion clinics.
    
But a Colorado proposal granting "personhood" to the unborn did not* pass.

And in North Dakota, an amendment requiring protection for life at every stage of development was defeated.

Meanwhile, voters in two states have approved an increase in the minimum wage. In Arkansas, the hourly rate will rise from $6.25 an hour to $8.50 by 2017. In Nebraska it will rise from $7.25 to $9. Voters in Alaska and South Dakota also voted on minimum wage increases. Election returns are still coming in.

In Denton, Texas, voters have defied the oil and gas industry and approved a ban on hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. Other cities in other states have passed similar bans but the Denton vote is stunning as it represents a city standing up to drilling interests in one of the nation's biggest oil and gas producing states.

Industry groups warn that litigation will follow the ban.

"The vote tonight is just the beginning because the outcome will be determined in the courthouse or the statehouse," Ed Ireland, executive director of the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, told CBN News.

Hydraulic fracturing uses chemicals and sand to blast rock and allow access to oil and gas tens of thousands of feet below the surface of the earth.

The technique has caused oil and gas production in the United States to skyrocket in recent years. Environmentalists say more research is needed to understand just how the process affects air quality.