Elections: GMO labeling, minimum wage among issues

Voters across the country faced ballot measures Tuesday ranging from whether to approve seven casinos in New York to the fate of Houston's iconic Astrodome. Here's a look at some of the issues.

In Colorado, voters approved a 25 percent tax on newly legal recreational marijuana to fund school construction. Opponents argued that the tax rate would benefit black market sales.

Voters in Maine’s largest city, Portland, declared victory on a measure to legalize possession of recreational amounts of marijuana.

Voters in three Michigan cities — Ferndale, Jackson and Lansing — approved proposals offering some legal protection to users of small amounts of marijuana.

Eleven rural Colorado counties delivered a divided vote on an effort to form a 51st state called North Colorado. Six counties voted against the idea — including Weld County, whose commissioners spearheaded the effort, citing frustration with the Democratic-led state government that they claim neglects rural interests. Five counties voted for it.

New York voters bet big on casino gambling as an economic boost, agreeing to let seven Las Vegas-style gaming palaces be built around the state, including eventually in New York City.

In Massachusetts, voters in the city of Palmer rejected Mohegan Sun's plan for a $1 billion resort casino and entertainment complex. And the Suffolk Downs thoroughbred racetrack says it will reassess plans to build a resort casino after voters in a Boston neighborhood rejected its proposal and residents of a neighboring community approved it.

Texas voters rejected a plan to authorize bonds to turn the Houston Astrodome, the world's first multipurpose domed stadium, into a giant convention center and event space. The outcome means the stadium is likely to be torn down.

In the state of Washington, voters in the small Seattle suburb of SeaTac passed a measure that would raise the minimum wage for workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and nearby large hotels to $15 an hour. The state already has the highest minimum wage in the nation, at $9.19 an hour.

In New Jersey, voters approved a constitutional amendment raising the state's minimum wage by $1, to $8.25 an hour, and to provide for automatic cost-of-living increases, as 10 other states already do.

In Maine, residents of South Portland rejected a proposal aimed at blocking the flow of tar sands oil from western Canada to the city. Environmentalists say the thick, gooey oil is more difficult to clean up than conventional crude oil, contains harmful chemicals and releases more greenhouse gases. Supporters of a pipeline say a ban would hamper the growth of existing petroleum-based businesses.

In Washington state, a measure that would have required mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods was rejected. Washington would have been the first state to have such requirements, and the campaign shaped up to be one of the costliest in state history.

Residents of the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Mich., approved an ordinance making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation and a number of other factors.

A kindergarten-through-12th-grade school finance overhaul was rejected in Colorado. It would have increased income taxes by about $1 billion a year and revived a progressive income tax structure abandoned in the 1980s.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press