Election Issues

Today is Election Day. Aside from the local issues, we here in Ohio are voting on five major ballot issues.

Issue 1 is a bond issue for highways and bridges as well as grants to try and bring high tech jobs to Ohio. The government is trying to sell it as a way to generate money without raising taxes. Most people aren’t buying it and since it’s seen as Taft’s pet project, it’s likely to fail.

Issue 2 is about easing the rules for absentee balloting and I think there might be some easing of voter registration in there as well. I’m not totally sure about the last part.

Issue 3 is a finance reform issue. This is the one most likely to pass.

Issue 4 is a competitive redistricting issue similar to the one they have out in California. It involves some funky mathematical formula and would twist the districts even more than they are now. I don’t think this one will pass.

Issue 5 is probably the dumbest one. It proposes striping the role of overseeing the elections from the Secretary of State and giving it to an appointed commission. It’s basically an angry rant against what happened with Blackwell last year.

Outside of Ohio there are four races that are pinging on the national radar:

In New Jersey, there is a governor’s race. Despite extreme incompetence on Senator Corzine’s (D) part, he will still probably win the election and then appoint a replacement to his senate seat.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg may set a record for the largest margin of victory. The current record is around 19 points. Bloomberg is polling between 20 and 32.

In California there are 8 ballot initiatives, 4 that are being pushed by the Governator. All 8 are polling as though they may be defeated.

The closest race is the governor’s race in Virginia. The Democratic candidate (Kaine) is leading the Republican (Kilgore) by between 1 and 4 points depending on which poll you look at. I would be even closer but there is a far right candidate (Potts) who is running as an independent and is sapping a couple of points from Kilgore. Kaine will probably win, but this one will go late for the results.

Not as exciting as last year at this time, but I’ll be paying attention to the news to see how things turn out. Political junkie I am, yes.