Post election thoughts, if you have them, right here. I’ll check as spirit moves.
ARKANSAS — road bonds. UPDATE: Early results from the secretary of state show bonds being approved overwhelmingly in a light vote, more than 8-1 at the very beginning, but counties settling down to steady 3-1 and 4-1 margins. The early vote in Pulaski County was 78-21 percent and it grew to 82 to 18 with most of the vote counted.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — sales tax. The early vote totaled about 1,100 and they split 54-46 in favor of the permament half-cent tax and 52-48 in favor of the capital improvement half-cent. I wouldn’t call this yet. Early voters tend, I think, to be pro-government votes.
UPDATE: The Pulaski County Election Commission was woefully behind in reporting results, as usual. But I’m hearing from North Little Rock that Mayor Pat Hays has conceded defeat of BOTH tax measures. Does that mean he won’t seek re-election next year? And, if he doesn’t, who will take on Rep. Tracy Steele? Some day, maybe, the Election Commission will post the votes. They’re blaming rain. I guess the Pony Express couldn’t get through the flooded ravine.
UPDATE II: The Election Commission votes don’t reflect how many precincts this covers, but at 9:54 p.m., with almost 97 percent of precincts counted countywide, it did finally show the trend toward tax defeats — 2,758 to 2,522 (52-48) AGAINST the permanent half-cent; 2,767 to 2,489 (53-47) AGAINST the temporary half-cent for a $20 million mayoral slush fund and other capital expenses.
MISSISSIPPI — personhood for the zygote. UPDATE: Shocker at 8:36 p.m.., with 16 percent of the vote in. The measure is LOSING, 43 For; 57 percent against, with 59,000 votes counted. Don’t know how votes in Mississippi split, but I should note that this same group of voters is heavily favoring a Republican for governor, and overwhelmingly approving a voter ID measure and an anti-eminent domain proposal. In other words, some differention is underway on “personhood.” Even with almost no people in Mississippi courageous enough to say publicly how bad this issue was, the word got out and people heard it. It’s going down, no doubt about it. Perhaps this is why I couldn’t get such abortion extremists as Sen. Jason Rapert, who’s spoiling to make his race against Rep. Linda Tyler all about abortion, to answer a simple question on whether or not he favored this amendment.
OHIO — repeal of union bashing. UPDATE: John Kasch’s anti-union bill for public employees is going down, way down.
NORTH CAROLINA — school desegregation. The Democrats have retaken control of the Wake County schools, a model of desegregation and successful busing, from the Popeheads, Kochheads and Tea Partyers who wanted to return to separate schools.
MAINE: Voters there approved a return to same-day voter registration. Republicans, as part of their national vote suppression effort, had repealed the law. Mississippi, naturally, approved required voter IDs to suppress black and elderly and student vote.
Some people are getting a little of their country back.