--- title: 2016 Election: Marijuana Could Become Legal in These States description: Voters in nine states will decide whether to pass marijuana-related measures on Election Day. Check out this interactive map to learn more canonical: https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-04T17:40:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:22:22.246Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marijuana Is on the Ballot in These States og:description: If all the measures pass, nearly a quarter of Americans will be able to use pot recreationally og:url: https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marijuana Is on the Ballot in These States twitter:description: If all the measures pass, nearly a quarter of Americans will be able to use pot recreationally twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Election 2016: States Where Marijuana Is on the Ballot by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) Nov 4, 2016 5:40 PM UTC by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) Nov 4, 2016 5:40 PM UTC [Marijuana](http://time.com/4529994/arkansas-medical-marijuana-proposal/) is big this election cycle. Voters in nine states will decide whether to [pass marijuana-related measures ](http://time.com/4517533/california-marijuana-growers-legalization-pot-weed/)on Election Day. Four of them—Florida, Montana, North Dakota and Arkansas—will be voting on [medical marijuana](http://time.com/money/4421840/medical-marijuana-medicare/) measures that either expand or establish the availability of cannabis for patients. Five others—California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine—will be voting on whether to allow adults 21 and older to consume cannabis recreationally. If all the measures pass, that would bring the total number of states with comprehensive medical marijuana laws to 28\. (Several other states allow for [limited medicinal uses](http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx).) On the adult use side, the number of states would more than double—from four to nine—and population gains would be even bigger. While about 5% of the population currently lives in a place where weed is fully legal, nearly a quarter of the U.S. population could wake up on Nov. 9 in a place where pot can be consumed for fun. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/"},"headline":"Election 2016: States Where Marijuana Is on the Ballot","datePublished":"2016-11-04T17:40:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:22:22.246Z","description":"If all the measures pass, nearly a quarter of Americans will be able to use pot recreationally","url":"https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4557417/election-2016-marijuana-pot-legal-ballot/","name":"Election 2016: States Where Marijuana Is on the Ballot"}}]}] ```