cannabisnews.com: Arizona Pot Measure Pulls Ahead in Vote Count
function share_this(num) {
tit=encodeURIComponent('Arizona Pot Measure Pulls Ahead in Vote Count');
url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26133.shtml');
site = new Array(5);
site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
return false;
}
Arizona Pot Measure Pulls Ahead in Vote Count
Posted by CN Staff on November 12, 2010 at 19:24:03 PT
By Bob Christie, The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Phoenix -- A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass.Proposition 203 was ahead by 4,421 votes out of more than 1.63 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days. Only about 10,000 early and provisional ballots remain to be counted in the state, and all are in Maricopa County.
If the measure passes, Arizona would be the 15th state with a medical marijuana law."We were optimistic that this is what the result was going to be today, and we're thrilled that it came to reality," said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. "Moving forward it's our responsibility to help implement a program that Arizona can be proud of."Opponents of the initiative, including all Arizona's sheriff's and county prosecutors, the governor, attorney general, and many other politicians, came out against the proposed law."All of the political leaders came out and warned Arizonans that this was going to have very dire effects on a number of levels," said Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the group that organized opposition to the initiative. "I don't think that all Arizonans have heard those dire predictions."Election night and this entire week has been a very exciting time for us - we just didn't know we had actually lost," Short said. "I am incredibly proud of our small but dedicated army of volunteers who worked very, very hard for months to educate voters about Prop 203."Backers of Proposition 203 argued that thousands of patients faced "a terrible choice" of suffering with a serious or even terminal illness or going to the criminal market for pot. They collected more than 252,000 signatures to put the measure on the ballot - nearly 100,000 more than required.The measure will allow patients with diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and any other "chronic or debilitating" disease that meets guidelines to buy more 2½ ounces of marijuana every two weeks or grow plants.The patients must get a recommendation from their doctor and register with the Arizona Department of Health Services. The law also allows for no more than 124 marijuana dispensaries in the state."Our law is written to be incredibly restrictive. We're talking only about seriously or terminally ill patients," Myers said. "There are 14 medical marijuana states, and for political reasons they decided to narrow in on (problems in) California because they don't believe that marijuana is medicine at all."The measure began Friday losing by about 1,500 votes.The vast majority of outstanding votes were in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, on Friday morning. About 30,000 provisional ballots during the day, and those went heavily for medical marijuana backers. The county also processed 5,024 early ballots.Maricopa County has 8,000 early and 2,000 provisional ballots still to count, and all other counties have finished their counts. Outstanding ballots will be counted through the weekend despite a state law that generally says all vote tallying must be completed by Friday.Teams made up of members of the Republican and Democratic parties are overseeing elections workers tasked with reviewing the early ballot. Those ballots have some problem that prevents a vote-count machine from tallying them, typically because a voter used a marker to fill in the oval and it bled through to the other side or otherwise is unreadable.The teams are examining the ballots, determining voter intent and filling out new ballots that the machine can read, Purcell saidSource: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Bob Christie, The Associated PressPublished: November 12, 2010 Copyright: 2010 The Associated PressCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help
Comment #12 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2010 at 20:04:37 PT
Arizona…
Cool…***Don't Bogart That Joint!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGJvzwKqg0New Riders of the Purple Sage - Panama Red http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M9CY-ZGMic&feature=fvw(watch pictures until the end, it gets better and better. I didn’t care much for the pictures in the first part…but they get much better about a third of the way through)
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by Hope on November 13, 2010 at 19:46:02 PT
Oh my!
"Proposition 203 won by a tiny margin of just 4,341 votes out of more than 1.67 million votes counted."
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 13, 2010 at 18:56:59 PT
Voters Approve Arizona Medical Marijuana Measure
November 13, 2010PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona voters have approved a measure that will legalize medical marijuana in the state.
Proposition 203 won by a tiny margin of just 4,341 votes out of more than 1.67 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.
The measure began Friday losing by about 1,500 votes, then surged ahead by 4,421 votes.
Arizona will be the 15th state with a medical marijuana law.
Maricopa was the only Arizona county with ballots still outstanding on Saturday. The county says it finished counting all the remaining provisional and early ballots Saturday.
The final, unofficial count was 841,346 in favor of the measure and 837,005 opposed.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press URL: http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13498429
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by FoM on November 13, 2010 at 13:14:33 PT
The GCW
You're welcome. When I find an article I will get it posted. It's nice to win at least one this election season.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by The GCW on November 13, 2010 at 13:10:14 PT
FoM,
Thanks for the update.This last EL had less to celebrate but Arizona is a winner and We made progress.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 13, 2010 at 13:03:40 PT
Arizona's Proposition 203 Passes
November 13, 2010Arizona's Proposition 203 Passes, Medical Marijuana Allowed [PROP 203] Arizona has become the 15th state to allow the use of medical marijuana. Earlier we reported that Prop 203 didn't pass - or at least appeared to have not passed. After counting absentee ballots Prop 203 passed by a slim margin of just over 4,400 votes. URL: http://politics-and-world-5678.blogspot.com/2010/11/arizonas-proposition-203-passes-medical.html
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2010 at 07:44:42 PT
Double Post???
Not sure why that happened…I am using some new safety features , InPrivate browsing and InPrivate Filtering…when I hit the post button a window popped up and said it was being re-directed.Do your magic FoM…make one of them disappear…Thank you…
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #5 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2010 at 07:36:58 PT
I hope it’s not to soon to celebrate…
Arizona’s Prop 203 appears headed for victory in latest countsSat, 13 Nov 2010 07:15:09 By: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach CoordinatorThe Associated Press is reporting that Arizona’s Proposition 203 is now leading in the vote by 4,421 votes with only 10,000 votes remaining to be counted from Maricopa County (a major metro county comprised of Phoenix and Tempe). The measure had trailed by about 7,200 votes at the end of election night but counting of absentee and provisional ballots have shifted the count by over 11,000 votes.The Marijuana Policy Project is declaring victory and that Arizona will become the 15th medical marijuana state. The newest medical marijuana state will now protect registered patients from arrest and provide a dispensary system for them to acquire their medicine. Patients will not be permitted to grow their own medicine at home if they live within 25 miles of a dispensary. Patients will be allowed to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana acquired no more often than every 14 days when purchased from the dispensaries. Patients will not be able to sell marijuana to the dispensaries that are required to grow their own cannabis within highly-secured facilities. There can only be a maximum of one dispensary for every ten pharmacies, except when to allow at least one per county. The complete text is available from the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project.http://www.norml.org/***Arizona passes medical marijuana!
Arizona is now the 15th medical marijuana state! Read about it herehttp://control.mpp.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=52642.0&dlv_id=43002http://www.mpp.org/
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by runruff on November 13, 2010 at 05:47:36 PT
WE GOT THEM BY THE SHORT HEIRS, THIS TIME!
Arizona needs an heir cut. To many have been the heirs to the reins of tyranny for too long!Once again LEO's oppose medical cannabis because only they understand the deep and complicated ramifications of this budget destroying legislation.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #2 posted by The GCW on November 12, 2010 at 19:54:14 PT
Close and a cigar?
I've been reading for 1 1/2 weeks that this issue is ongoing. On EL night I watched it start low and climb and climb and didn't know if it had time to climb to the top.It's lookin' good. But let's see...
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on November 12, 2010 at 19:31:02 PT
Take me back
to my old Tucson home....finger and toes all crossed......
[ Post Comment ]
Post Comment