IDAHO — Idaho voters rejected House Joint Resolution 4 on Election Day, preserving the public's ability to place future marijuana-related initiatives on the ballot.
HJR 4 would have amended the Idaho Constitution to give the Legislature exclusive authority over whether marijuana and other psychoactive substances could be legalized or decriminalized in the state. Voters ultimately rejected the measure, keeping the citizen initiative process in place.
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Following the election, Idaho News 6 spoke with voters in downtown Boise about the outcome and what they believe the results mean moving forward.
Dominic Boucher, a Boise neighbor, said he voted against HJR 4.
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"I voted no on it. I think that the Idaho people should be able to choose for themselves," Boucher said. "Whether or not to allow marijuana, even to decriminalize it or whatever it is, I don't think that should just be up to legislature."
Dave Ferguson, who has lived in the Boise area since 1986 and in Boise's North End since 2009, expressed a similar view.
"I just think that people should make the decision versus our legislators being the only ones that can make a decision," he said.
Ferguson said his position was not necessarily about supporting marijuana legalization itself, but about preserving the public's ability to vote on the issue if it appears on a future ballot.
"I'm not saying I'm for, you know, full-on legalization or what have you. I'm saying that it should, if it ever comes to that, it should be a people's choice... and that's how I understood that bill versus just the choice of the elected officials, because that's too much power in one hand," Ferguson said.
Not everyone Idaho News 6 spoke with shared that view.
One Boise neighbor who spoke off camera said he voted in favor of HJR 4. He said he sees value in having elected representatives go through multiple steps before approving or denying major policy changes.
The voter also said he believes Idaho's rural communities should continue to have a strong voice in decisions involving marijuana policy, arguing that elected legislators are positioned to represent those communities.
For Boucher, another issue was understanding the measure itself.
"I'd like it to be worded in a way that makes a lot more sense. I wasn't sure whether to vote no or yes. Luckily there was a little bit of a section that kind of described what yes was voting for and what no was voting for, so that made it a little bit more clear. The wording was a bit strange," he said.
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As votes were counted Tuesday night, HJR 4 failed in every Idaho county.
Boucher said those results did not surprise him.
"Not to put politics down, but it is a bunch of old, normally white people, sitting in a room making decisions for the rest of us. When a lot of the time their opinions and their decisions are not actually what reflects what the people have chosen," he said.
With HJR 4 defeated, Idaho's citizen initiative process remains unchanged, allowing future marijuana-related measures to potentially reach voters if organizers gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
