So what are you mericans voting *about*?

I understand that there are elections today for house, senate and governor seats in various states and whatnot, what all else is going on? Any other issues being dealt with?

i can speak only to other issues in texas. for the state, there is a constitutional amendment to put oil and gas tax receipts into the highway fund but specifies that none of the money can be put into toll roads.

in my county there is a proposition establishing a “stock law” making livestock owners liable for any damages caused by livestock that are not properly enclosed by fences. to this point my county has been a holdover of the open range system which went out of style in most areas by the 1920s. we’re also having a bond election to do upgrades and buildings for the school district.

multiply these local concerns by all the counties and miscellaneous jurisdictions in the 50 states and that’s what went on today.

where in the world are you :smile:

Jolly old England

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cheers!

NO! That’s OUR word!

There’s some gun control stuff in Washington state.

Chicago, Illinois:

United States Senator
Governor/ Lieutenant Governor
State Attorney General
State Comptroller
Secretary Of State
State Treasurer

Statewide Referenda:

  • state constitutional amendment strengthening victims’ rights;
  • state constitutional amendment prohibiting voter discrimination based on “race, color, ethnicity, status as a member of a language minority, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or income”;
  • whether to raise the state minimum wage to $10/hour;
  • whether to add an additional 3% state tax to those with incomes over $1M, to go directly to the public school system;
  • whether insurance plans with prescription drug coverage should be required to cover prescription birth control (which is odd, since that’s been a requirement in the state since 2004);
  • whether to pass an Illinois Senate bill requiring background checks for firearm sales and prohibiting assault weapon sales;
  • whether mental health care funding should be increased across the state;
  • whether cities and towns should be more proactive in helping medical marijuana stores set up shop;
  • whether noise standards for O’Hare airport should be revisited;
  • whether the state’s school-funding formula should be adjusted, providing more money for schools that enroll students in poverty or who speak English as a second language;
  • various other extremely local referenda – at the ward or even precinct level.

And the biggest section of all (about 75% of the ballot): judges. There are a lot of them. No party affiliations or other identifying info, so unless you show up with a cheat sheet there’s no indication why you would or wouldn’t agree to keep each specific individual on the bench.

Mid-term elections aren’t as useless as people think.

So, I’m seeing this going around twitter today, bizarrely from UK Conservatives who have sod all in common with most US Republicans except they’re both ‘Right’. Looks pretty one-sided.

But obviously most of those big red areas are lower population, so this is very misleading, although definitely v. different to 2008.

Are there any popular vote numbers available for the House results? I can’t find any.

Then you also have this:

And as far as the Senate goes, don’t the 25 lowest population states only have 16% of the population, or something like that? It seems utterly nuts to me that there are states with only one representative that still get two Senators.

I hadn’t realized the consequences of California’s Prop 14, which established a “top two” voting system; it effectively eliminates third-party candidates from consideration. I was tempted to throw the ballot away and leave in a rage. There were, however, a lot of local ballot measures to vote on.

However, the previous election was the first time I seriously considering refusing to vote, and this was the first time I’ve actually felt ashamed of myself for voting. This system is a grotesque fraud.

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