Voters Reject Slew of Ballot Measures

Jerre Petersen pulls up the the ballot box near the Multnomah County Elections office Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007, in Portland, Ore. Election officials were preparing to tally mail ballots Tuesday in a special election that has drawn big spending by interest groups but a lackluster voter turnout on a cigarette tax hike and a rollback of a 2004 property rights law. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Rick Bowmer - AP)

-- Cost-conscious voters rejected school vouchers for Utah students, state-sponsored stem cell research in New Jersey and higher cigarette taxes in Oregon to fund health care for uninsured children.

Texans, meanwhile, authorized up to $3 billion in bonds over 10 years to create a cancer research center, one of the few closely watched ballot measures across the nation that voters approved Tuesday.

New Jersey voters had not killed a statewide ballot measure since 1990. The rejection was a defeat for Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who campaigned heavily for the plan to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research.

"The public understands the state has serious financial issues that must be addressed first," Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski also blamed money after voters opted not to raise the cigarette tax by 84.5 cents a pack _ to $2.02 _ to fund health insurance for about 100,000 children lacking coverage. Tobacco companies opposing the Oregon measure outspent supporters by a 4-1 margin, contributing nearly $12 million.

"What happened was, the tobacco industry bought the election," the Democratic governor told The Associated Press.

The vote was being watched carefully in Washington, where Congress and the Bush administration have been locked in a showdown over federal spending on the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Utah voters killed the nation's first statewide school voucher program open to all children, not just those from low or middle-income families.

It was the first voucher election in the U.S. since 2000, when voters in Michigan and California rejected efforts to subsidize private schools. There have been 11 state referendums on various voucher programs since 1972, all of them unsuccessful, according to the National School Boards Association.

Utah, with a conservative electorate, a Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature, was seen nationally as a key test of voter sentiment for vouchers. But opponents, with millions of dollars from a national teachers union, persuaded residents to say no. Experts had said a green light in Utah could have led to similar programs in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and elsewhere.

The program would have granted $500 to $3,000, depending on family income, for each child sent to private school. The hotly disputed voucher law won approval by one vote in the Republican-controlled Legislature in February but was suspended before taking effect when opponents gathered more than 120,000 signatures to force a referendum.

The New Jersey measure had been one of the nation's most ambitious public efforts to fund stem cell research.