Where Will You Get Your Marijuana Election Night News? From Me!

The most important marijuana election in American history takes place in just 11 days. On Marijuana Election Night, I will be anchoring the biggest marijuana reform newscast ever, live from the Downtown Doubletree Hotel in Los Angeles. I’m bringing you six hours of live coverage from the Drug Policy Alliance’s Proposition 64 watch party on CannabisRadio.com.

I couldn’t be more nervous.

Not about the electoral outcome – the polls are looking good to great in all five of the states (California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, & Maine) voting on legalization. The four medical states (Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota, & Montana) don’t look as promising, though, with only Florida showing a consistent strong level of support.

I’m nervous about the broadcast.

I’ve been working like crazy to get all the interviews and information lined up for the show. We’ll be on air when the first returns come in from the East Coast votes in Florida, Massachusetts, and Maine. We’ll be on through the Central and Mountain Time Zones for the votes in Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana, and Arizona, plus Denver’s Social Use Initiative and five cities in Ohio voting for depenalization. We wind up with the Western votes in Nevada and the crown jewel of legalization, California. We’re starting up at 6pm Eastern and running on to midnight.

I hope you’ll join us on CannabisRadio.com and spread the word using hashtag #MJElectionNight.

Biggest Marijuana Election Night Yet

I’ve been covering these votes since California’s Prop 19 failed on Marijuana Election Night 2010. That was just me on a laptop with Cannabis Karri and RoLLaJaY at the Oaksterdam HQ.

Then it was Marijuana Election Night 2012 in three states. Things got a bit more complex as I was live in Seattle and Karri was live in Denver while a crew back in Portland managed the production and reported on the vote there.

Then it was Marijuana Election Night 2014 with another three (counting DC) big votes. This time I was anchoring from Portland with live video, keeping score of the three legalization votes, plus medical votes in Florida and Guam, and local votes in California and Colorado. The production was becoming almost too much for me to handle.

Marijuana Election Night 2015 got back to basics, as I flew to Columbus for the ill-fated Issue 3 vote in Ohio. Just me and a laptop and a mic, reporting on the demise of a legalization plan too corrupt for voters to accept.

But this Marijuana Election Night is truly bigly. Huge, I’m telling you, believe me. (I’ll bet you can’t wait for that impersonation to become passé, huh?)

We’ve got a crew of two dozen handling multiple cameras, a digital set design, on-screen graphics, multiple audio and video feeds, and live connections in twelve states. I’ll be joined by Laura Bianchi as my co-host and we’ll have interviews proponents, opponents, experts, elected officials, and celebrities throughout the night.

I’m nervous because it’s hard for me to believe where we are in this movement and how far I’ve advanced within it. But for that story, dear reader, you’ll have to wait for the next column…