Key ballot measures
Listed here. Some important ones this year.
Michigan is looking likely to legalize medicinal marijuana. Nebraska and Colorado are both leaning narrowly towards formally prohibiting affirmative action as practiced by the state.
Florida, sadly, appears to have banned gay marriage, and Arkansas is going to get rid of gay adoption.
And MA will still have its income tax. :(
Comment by Brad — 11/4/2008 @ 11:47 pm
Arizona may well be banning gay marriage too. It’s winning 56-44 with 49% reporting.
Comment by Cameron — 11/4/2008 @ 11:54 pm
And the Colorado affirmative action ban is edging towards fail.
Call me crazy but this may have been the wrong year for that particular initiative to be forwarded.
Comment by Rojas — 11/4/2008 @ 11:58 pm
The Arkansas adoption ban will be struck down by the federal courts.
Comment by KipEsquire — 11/5/2008 @ 12:02 am
Florida requires 60%. Still within margins, depending on counties that are outstanding.
Comment by Jack — 11/5/2008 @ 1:33 am
Thanks for the info. I wasn’t aware of the need for 60.
Comment by Cameron — 11/5/2008 @ 1:35 am
Further analysis: The ONLY counties with a significant unreported count are Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Tampa. All metropolitan by FL standards. All with a significant GLBT community, and the resulting population acceptance by familiarity that goes with that. There is still real hope here.
Comment by Jack — 11/5/2008 @ 1:39 am
What? There are gay people in Miami? Who knew?
Comment by Rojas — 11/5/2008 @ 1:47 am
I dunno Jack, it’s at 62% with 95% of precincts reporting. Not looking good.
Comment by Cameron — 11/5/2008 @ 1:55 am
Yeah, not looking good. Palm Beach mostly in. Tampa-Hillsbourough running 60-40 in favor. Pretty hard for Miami-Dade to pull this out alone with a tepid 58-42 split. Not looking good at all.
Given FL’s Anita B history, ban on gay adoption, etc etc, this is not shocking, just really really disapointing. I had hoped that having a semi-closeted gay Govenor indicated we might be beyond this, but I guess not.
California is more surprising. And for Pete’s sake what are the jackasses in Arkansas thinking?
Comment by Jack — 11/5/2008 @ 2:00 am
If they were thinking, they wouldn’t be in Arkansas.
Comment by Rojas — 11/5/2008 @ 2:02 am
Of course, this is FL, so the ballots could be all dicked up. Recount!
Comment by Jack — 11/5/2008 @ 2:02 am
I’d kind of be interested in the results of mass migrations of gay people to states in which their lifestyle is respected.
It would actually help the Republicans electorally, but I suspect it would mean fairly horrible things for some of the state economies of the states being abandoned.
Comment by Rojas — 11/5/2008 @ 2:03 am
Oh and Jack 10: California is a screwy state. The numbers here don’t mean a thing until you’re talking about having over 70% of returns counted. There are bastions of deep conservative and deep liberal within the state so early returns are essentially worthless. Also, San Francisco is always fairly late reporting and they swing propositions wildly since they’re so liberal.
If you want a nice place to look at the props on a single page, try this
Comment by Cameron — 11/5/2008 @ 2:18 am
What? You’re implying that there are gay people in San Francisco AS WELL???
Comment by Rojas — 11/5/2008 @ 2:23 am
Oh, and thanks for the link, Cameron. I tried googling “gay proposition”, but the results were not pleasant to view.
Comment by Rojas — 11/5/2008 @ 2:24 am
Oh, and apparently there will not be a sewage plant named after Bush in San Francisco. The proposal is bombing 68-31.
Comment by Cameron — 11/5/2008 @ 2:27 am
Ironically, it looks like increased black turnout is what passed Prop 8.
Oh ironies.
Comment by Brad — 11/5/2008 @ 4:25 pm
Kip is not happy about that.
Comment by Brad — 11/5/2008 @ 4:35 pm