Legislative referendums, proposed constitutional amendments and initiative petitions might have voters dealing with everything from state prison policy to the future of farming.

First, let’s look of what certainly will be on the Nov. 8 ballot: State Questions 776 and 777.

• SQ 776 is a constitutional amendment clarifying several details of capital punishment in Oklahoma. The measure would allow lawmakers to designate any method of execution not prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, and specifies that if a method of execution is declared invalid, a convict’s death sentence is still valid.

•SQ 777 would create a new section of the Oklahoma Constitution’s Bill of Rights, guaranteeing the right to engage in farming and ranching.

You should keep reading, even if you aren’t a farmer or a rancher because this might be important.

The Legislature and local governments would be prohibited from passing laws that interfere with those newly specified rights unless justified by a “compelling state interest,” a technical legal term that would raise the potential for litigation on a lot of future rules and regulations.

Some things are clearly exempted from the measure, including trespassing laws, eminent domain, property rights, mineral exploration rights and laws or ordinances on the books as of Dec. 31, 2014.

Still, it’s a hot-button issue with some groups, including farmers, animal rights activists and water quality proponents. It’s a good chance for some of them to raise money and emotions, although both sides will have a hard time explaining what the measure would prevent that might actually happen and what it would allow that otherwise would not. In other states, similar measures have led to a flood of advertising with extreme allegations on both sides of the debate.

Now, let’s turn to some tax proposals for education funding that seem to have pretty good chances of going before voters.

•An initiative petition effort led by University of Oklahoma President David Boren seeks to raise the state sales tax by 1 percent. Boren says that would fund a $5,000-a-year teacher pay raise, $125 million for higher education to hold down the need for future tuition increases, $50 million for early childhood education programs, $50 million for grants to encourage local public school reform and $12.5 million for career technology schools.

The proposal has drawn opposition from municipal government leaders, who don’t want the state taking up any more of the limited growth room in the sales tax. Retailers also are bristling because the proposal would give some online merchants an even greater price advantage.

Others have pointed out that the measure in combination with legislative cuts to the state’s top income tax rate will shift the tax burden from the richest to the poor and middle class, which is certainly true.

•Another proposal, introduced by Commissioner of Health Terry Cline and backed by Gov. Mary Fallin would raise the state cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack. The new state cigarette tax would be $2.53 a pack.

Cline says that would generate enough money to fund a $2,000-a-year teacher pay raise, $3.6 million a year in pediatric cancer treatment and research at medical centers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and money to provide health-care for for 35,000 to 70,000 working poor Oklahomans through Insure Oklahoma. Fallin wouldn’t earmark the money, but has proposed a $3,000 teacher pay raise.

As important to Cline and Fallin is that the cigarette tax increase could be expected to drive down cigarette consumption in the state by 10 percent with an even stronger impact on younger smokers. That would save on future state Medicaid costs and increase the state’s undistinguished health achievement figures

Nontribal cigarette retailers grumble about the tax proposal because it will incentivize people to shop in other states or Indian smokeshops for their cigarettes. While a higher state cigarette tax would automatically increase tax rates at the smoke shops by the same amount, much of the tax money is rebated to the tribes, which could use it to increase their price advantage on cigarettes.

It seems likely that a measure to change the state’s alcohol laws also will be on the ballot. The exact proposal is still in the works, but it’s likely to include single-strength cold beer sales at all licensed levels of retail and possibly wine sales too. Liquor likely would still be the monopoly of package stores.

Another petition proposal, announced in January would reshape state criminal justice policy in an attempt to reduce the number of people in state prisons. It aims at reducing state prison costs, and similar measures in other states have been linked to a reduction in crime rates. Meanwhile, prisoners who are currently tax consumes would be turned into taxpayers.

The Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform initiative petitions — led by former Speaker of the House Kris Steele — would ask voters to reclassify certain low-level offenses as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The initiative would invest cost savings in rehabilitation programs to treat drug addiction and mental health conditions and education and job-training programs to help low-level offenders find employment.

The initiative has endorsements from groups on the right and the left, but has to run against public antipathy for soft-on-crime measures.

Other efforts that have a pretty good chance of making the state ballot include:

•A constitutional amendment to allow a Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol, either by striking the portion of the state Constitution the prohibits using state resources for religious purposes or simply by stipulating that the monument is constitutional and shall be allowed.

•A change in the way the state selects and retains judges, essentially politicizing the process. That would draw opposition from attorneys, and again a lot of fund-raising and advertising would result.

•An initiative petition proposal by state Auditor Gary Jones to give the state a unicameral legislature with fewer legislators. A similar proposal in pending before the Legislature.

Then there are dozens of long-shot proposals pending in the Legislature, including a mandate that the state House and Senate only meet every other year (and that lawmakers’ salaries be cut accordingly) or that a state Constitutional Convention be called.

It seems likely that the two state questions currently on the Nov. 8 ballot won’t be the only ones, and that smart voters will bring their reading glasses and set aside plenty of time for the voting process.