November 3rd is coming up quick, babes! By now you’re probably well-versed by about who’s running for President. Whether you lean Red or Blue, the reason you’re on this blog is because you love Green!

Voters in five states: Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota will decide this Election Day on statewide ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis for either adult-use or medical purposes. This is big!

If legalization isn’t on the ballot where you live, the local and state offices you vote for still have a huge impact on cannabis policy that could impact you. Wondering what’s up where you live and how to support the propositions and people running that are pro-cannabis?

Check out NORML’s Smoke the Vote initiative and handy Voting Guide here.

By simply entering your address, 9 digit zip code or clicking on your state, you can see a deep dive into each candidate and the issues they stand for graded from A to F.

For Federal Incumbents, they are graded as:

• An ‘A’ letter grade indicates that this candidate has publicly declared their support for ending marijuana prohibition of marijuana for adults and/or has cosponsored legislation to do so.
• A ‘B’ letter grade indicates that this candidate supports policies specific to the legalization of medical cannabis and/or support to give states greater autonomy in setting their own policies but have not cosponsored legislation to end marijuana prohibition.
• A ‘C’ letter grade indicates that this candidate has publicly acknowledged that states are moving forward with cannabis law reform policies and minor adjustments should be made at the federal level, such as support for the SAFE Banking Act
• A ‘D’ letter grade indicates that this candidate has expressed no support for any significant marijuana law reform
• An ‘F’ letter grade indicates that this member expresses significant and vocal opposition to marijuana law reform

State level candidates are assessed largely on the same standards as the federal candidates, yet local NORML chapter leaders and activists have the autonomy to set the grades as they see fit.

Smoke the Vote is a project of NORML and is powered by Single Issue. They are doing their best to ensure our listings are updated with the latest information. Have a suggested revision or addition? Email them at politics@norml.org.

How to Get Involved and Smoke the Vote this November

Here’s how to take action on these important causes:

• Donate. For NORML, operating and updating this info is a very resource intensive project. Kick in to help them keep it running through 2020 and beyond.
• Share links to this blog and to SMOKE THE VOTE on social media sites. If we want to end marijuana prohibition we need informed voters! Please share with your friends anywhere you can help drive traffic to these important efforts.
• VOTE! Make sure you are registered to vote, print out your Smoke the Vote Scorecard, and get to the polls on Election Day (bring friends with you too!)

Here’s to democracy, decriminalization & dank weed! 🌿💚🇺🇸