Let's begin with the one that feels the best: Ohio. Voters there overwhelmingly repealed the law taking collective bargaining rights away from teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees.
The typical voter doesn't pay a lot of attention to politics, except close to election day. But they're not stupid. They're smart enough to get downright cranky when the folks who had just won an election with a promise of "Jobs, jobs, jobs" deliver, instead, an anti-union law which had never been mentioned during the election campaign.
Several states allow voters to overturn laws enacted by their state governments. It seems to be a good check on the power of the state, without going as far as the "voters make laws" ballot initiatives in states like California.
Maine also has the ability of voters to repeal state legislation, and it was used last night to overturn the new ban on same-day registration and voting. Maine had had same-day registration for almost 40 years, and they seemed to have liked it.
Maine voters apparently agree with Andrew Rosenthal's column in Monday's NY Times titled "Voter fraud: Does it happen?" Rosenthal went in search of the voter fraud that Republicans claim is serious enough to justify new "photo ID" requirements for voting. He looked at some of the deepest "red" websites, such as "Red State," to see what the fuss was about. His conclusion: "...from what I can tell every one of the Red State incidents revolved around corrupt poll workers or local officials or some other functionary messing with absentee ballots. That’s an age old problem but one that voter ID laws will not fix. I’m still not seeing evidence of large numbers of individuals impersonating someone else to cast a ballot or voting despite the fact that they don’t meet eligibility requirements. "
In Mississippi, 55% of that state's very conservative electorate refused to change the state constitution to define a fertilized egg as a person. This would have, of course, outlawed abortion in the state, but would also have outlawed forms of birth control--such as the pill--that prevent implantation of that fertilized egg in the uterus, and also prevent pregnancies that might lead to abortion.
It was interesting to see an interview with outgoing Mississippi governor Haley Barbour yesterday in which he gave thoughtful consideration to some of the downsides of the proposed change. He brought up one that I had not considered: ectopic pregnancy. A fertilized egg implanted somewhere other than the uterus--usually the fallopian tube--is a life-threatening situation for the mother. Under the proposal, the doctor could be charged with murder for removing the "person" from the mother. After explaining this, Barbour went on to say that he had voted "yes." It must be the water.
Closer to WNY, the Buffalo News reports that Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz soundly defeated incumbent Chris Collins for the post of Erie County Executive. If you're not familiar with Erie County politics, Collins is a well-to-do businessman whose platform four years ago was to "run government like a business." Well, he did and that's part of the problem.
Donn Esmonde, in his column this morning in the Buffalo News, quotes UB political science professor Jim Campbell: "I think that's the downside of [Collins'] business experience. CEOs can do what they want, and people have to suck it up. But this is politics. People can answer back in the voting booth."
Governments are like business in that the guy in the corner office needs to be able to handle budgets, manage people, etc. Unlike business, however, the man at the top is not the ruler of all he surveys. There are those other pesky branches of government with equal powers in a checks-and-balances arrangement designed to prevent the head man from acting like a king.
Esmonde points out that this was the problem with Collins: "At times, Collins acted more like a king than a county executive. He denied the Justice Department full access to investigate mistreatment at county jails. He refused to release funds OK'd by the County Legislature, only loosening his grip after getting sued. Collins seemed not to comprehend, or at least not to respect, the Legislature's role as a check on an executive's absolute rule. All of it painted an image of the stereotypical hardhearted CEO, whom voters Tuesday decided they no longer wanted as county executive."
On balance, last night's elections results went a long way toward restoring my faith in the American electorate.
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