Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Election Day - 2011

Today is the off-year election. Nothing too big going on (at least from a national point of view) but there are a number of things on the ballot today. On the local level, aside from city council and school board, there are three levies (the biggest of which is the school levy).

But more play will be given to State Issue 2. This is a referendum on the Ohio law to restrict collective bargaining for unions. It's similar to the one Wisconsin passed and had all their trouble over, but the Ohio version is more restrictive, going so far as to essentially eliminate all collective bargaining. Because the law is even more Draconian, independents as well as some Republicans are torn over the law while Democrats are strongly unified against it. As such, Issue 2 will almost certainly be defeated.

I've not read anywhere what the contingency plans are. The general thought was to break the law up and pass various pieces individually that people did like. That would likely remove some of the worst parts of the legislation and start restricting costs without destroying the unions completely (which would garner more independent and some Democratic support).

If anything interesting happens, I'll update later today or tomorrow.

*UPDATE*
Issue 2 did go down 60-40, but Issue 3 (healthcare opt-out) passed nearly 67-33.

All levies passed and all three incumbents were reelected to the school board.

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