Of the three marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballot this year, Oregon’s Measure 80 is currently performing the worst.

While the legalization ballot measure in Washington State and Colorado continue to lead in all the public polling of those two states, Measure 80 has been trailing by a few points. The latest poll for The Oregonian conducted by Elway Research has it currently trailing by seven.

Oregon – Measure 80
Oregonian/Elway (10/25-28)
Yes……….. 42%
No ……….. 49%
Undecided… 9%

The poll not surprisingly found the initiative winning with voters under 35 and Democrats but losing with older voters and Republicans. This is the same basic demographic breakdown on the issue of marijuana legalization we have seen in almost every national and local poll for years. Even if Measure 80 is not approved this November, given the generation break down it will likely be only a few years before a solid majority of the electorate does supports marijuana legalization.

One thing to take into consideration is that Elway Research polls have consistently found significantly lower levels of support for marijuana legalization than other pollsters this year. For example the most recent Elway poll of Washington State found Initiative 502, which would legalize marijuana in the state, only leading 48 percent to 44 percent. By comparison the Strategies 360 poll found it leading 54% to 38%, the SurveyUSA poll found it winning 55% to 36%, and the University of Washington poll had it up 47% to 40%. We will need to wait until the election to find out which pollster was most accurate.