State Elections Roundup
Nov. 9, 2011
Voters in state elections on November 8 rejected a number of conservative-backed measures. In Ohio, voters passed a referendum, by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin, that overturns a law limiting labor unions’ collective bargaining powers. The law, passed by the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year, banned strikes and curbed collective bargaining rights for 350,000 public employees, including teachers, firefighters, and police. Political experts interpret the referendum vote as a major a blow to Republicans in a state that is generally crucial to winning a presidential election.
In Mississippi, voters turned down an initiative that would have defined life as beginning at conception (the point at which an egg is fertilized). The measure would have effectively banned all abortions, even when a woman’s life is at stake, and some methods of birth control. The results surprised many political experts, who had predicted that the voters of one of the nation’s most conservative states would pass the initiative.
In a recall vote in Arizona, voters turned out of office State Senator Russell Pearce, a Republican power broker who was the chief architect of that state’s controversial anti-immigration law. The law allows police to demand to see proof of citizenship of detainees suspected of being an illegal alien. A hero of tea party activists, Pearce, who was the president of the State Senate, had introduced numerous bills to overturn federal laws.
In Maine, voters restored same-day voter registration at polling places. The Republican-controlled legislature had outlawed the practice earlier this year.
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