From legislative policy to ballot initiatives, Stones’ Phones has worked with several drug policy and criminal justice reform partners over the years to pass progressive marijuana measures across the country.
Through these experiences, we’ve learned that when marijuana reform is on the ballot, voters love talking about it. Across the country, we’ve found some interesting statistics on how voters participate on marijuana-related Telephone Town Halls. Marijuana-related Telephone Town Halls show:
A 35% increase in the duration of participation
A 2.2% bump in those joining the event for any period of time
An average of 443 more participants for a universe of 20,000
Not only do voters love talking about cannabis, these conversations make a difference. One of our most notable cannabis-related victories was with DC’s Initiative 71. Pre-election survey results at the beginning of September indicated the biggest gap in support for marijuana legalization was amongst Black voters.
Coordinating our Telephone Town Halls with racial justice messaging mailers, we saw a 23% increase in support on Election Day, ultimately winning almost every demographic of Black voters and passing Initiative 71 in DC.
We again saw the power of voter conversations when we partnered with New Approach Montana for a Telephone Town Hall to discuss Initiative 118 and Initiative 190 with voters. Both measures needed to pass in order for marijuana to be legalized in the state, so it was crucial that voters supported both initiatives.
Participants were polled at three different times throughout the event to gauge their support for the initiatives. By the end of the Telephone Town Hall, support had grown from 59% to 75% for both initiatives. With the help of conversations like the ones we had on our Telephone Town Halls, both of the measures passed with 62% and 57% of the vote, respectively.
These results aren’t limited to Telephone Town Halls. In the lead-up to the 2023 election, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol did Live ID calls with Stones’ Phones to around 150,000 voters in Ohio to persuade them to pass Issue 2 to legalize marijuana. Overall, 58% of respondents said they would vote Yes on issue 2, which was in line with the Election Day results of around 57% of voters casting their vote to pass the measure.
As more states move to put marijuana on their ballots, it’s clear that this issue can be a driving force to get voters to the polls. Like LGBTQ+ marriage equality, marijuana reform is an issue voters need to have a conversation about to change their hearts and minds.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can work with you to pass common sense marijuana reform policies.