Campaign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

BALLOT MEASURES
THREE STATES TO VOTE ON MARIJUANA PROPOSALS
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Bush administration’s war on drugs stretches deep into Asia and Latin America, yet one of its most crucial campaigns – in the eyes of drug czar John Walters – is being waged this fall among voters in Oregon, Alaska, and Montana.
In each state, activists seeking to ease drug laws have placed a marijuana-related proposal on the November 2 ballot as part of a long-running quest for alternatives to federal drug policies they consider harsh and ineffective.
If all three measures are approved, Montana would become the 10th state to legalize pot for medical purposes, Oregon would dramatically expand its existing medical-marijuana program, and Alaska would become the first state to decriminalize marijuana altogether.
Mr. Walters has been campaigning in person against the measures, taking a particularly aggressive role in opposing Oregon’s Measure 33. It would create state regulated dispensaries to supply marijuana, let authorized growers sell pot to patients for a profit, and allow patients to possess a pound of it at a time instead of the current 3-ounce limit.
“They use medical marijuana as a Trojan horse,” Mr. Walters said of the measure’s supporters. “People’s suffering is being used for legalizing drug use beginning with marijuana and moving forward.”
Oregon and Alaska are among nine states which, since 1996, have adopted laws allowing qualified patients to use medical marijuana. The others are California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Vermont, and Washington.
– Associated Press
VOTING ISSUES
NEW BACKUP VOTING SYSTEM MAY POSE PROBLEMS
Call it the law of unintended consequences. A new national backup system meant to ensure that millions of eligible voters are not mistakenly turned away from the polls this year, as happened in 2000, could wind up causing Election Day problems as infamous as Florida’s hanging chads.
Congress required conditional, or provisional, voting as part of election fixes passed in 2002. For the first time, all states must offer a backup ballot to any voter whose name does not appear on the rolls when the voter comes to the polling place on November 2. If the voter is later found eligible, the vote counts. But Congress did not specify exactly how the provisional votes will be evaluated.
Add the ordinary problems that come with doing something new, and the result is a recipe for mix-ups at the polls and lawsuits over alleged unequal treatment of some voters, said Doug Chapin, executive director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan clearinghouse for information on election reform.
State election officials have adopted their own and differing standards for when a provisional ballot will count; some of those rules are still in flux three weeks from Election Day. Rules for who casts provisional ballots and how they are counted probably will vary even within states, especially if there are long lines, confusion, and hot tempers at the polls, election experts said.
– Associated Press
STATE ELECTIONS
GUBERNATORIAL SEATS UP FOR GRABS IN 11 STATES
Election Day this year will set the course for job policy, health care reforms, and school spending – not to mention taxes. And that’s not just in the run for president. Eleven states will pick governors next month, and the contests allow domestic issues to get some attention as money pours into the campaigns and the races heat up.
Experts see particularly hot contests in Indiana, Missouri, Montana, and Washington state. Democrats are defending six seats and Republicans five.Two incumbents have already lost – bounced by their own parties during primaries. Three chose not to run – after bruising terms in Montana and Washington, and revelations of an extramarital affair in West Virginia.
“I don’t know where to start to say how important these races are,” said Governor Vilsack of Iowa, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, which expects to spend up to $8 million on the contests. “What happens in states becomes ultimately the model for what happens on the federal level.”
Campaign strategists and party officials see the top races as those in Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Washington, and New Hampshire
– Associated Press