State and City Propositions

[Catherose]

I apologize to non-American fishies for the flood of election related posts, but it will be over soon!

Do you guys have any interesting state or local propositions on your ballot?

In Oakland, CA, there's one about making taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana, fighting to legalize it throughout California, and making "adult private cannabis use the lowest enforcement priority."

In Berkeley, CA there's a proposition to make enforcement of prostitution laws the lowest priority and oppose state laws making prostitution a crime.

In Berkeley, there's another proposition to establish a tree board, resposible for "overseeing the alteration, topping and removal of public trees." It would cost the city a quarter of a million dollars to do this.

We also had a bunch of state propositions about Indian casinos.

[bellydancer]

Like a lot of other states, we have a marriage amendment up.

We also have a referendum that would give tax breaks to corporations that promise to deliver a certain number of jobs.

The city I'm moving to at the end of the week in Missouri, has a referendum on to legalize medical marijuana and to refer misdemeanor marijuana cases to the city's court, rather than state court.

[Shauna]

:hugonCatherine:hugoff

This is an interesting post. I was only aware that it was the election of the president; wasn't aware of these other propositions.

Are they also electing any senators or anything?

[Catherose]

Yes Shauna (Nice to see you!:gimmehug)

Congressmen, state assemblymen, etc. etc. I only voted for a few of these because I don't know very much about local politics. I voted for the people I feel strongly about, but left some questions on my ballot blank if it was a person or issue I didn't feel especially srtrongly about.

[IthinkIcan]

On cnn.com you can see the main proposals of each state. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/numbersseebelow/pages/results/scorecard/

type actual numbers two zero zero four in and double click on states :yay

My state had two proposals, one regarding gambling and one regarding same sex unions. I was in one of the states that addressed both marriage AND civil unions.

Anyhow, yes, Shauna, it isn't unusual for proposals to hit the ballots. We are also electing representatives, supreme court justices, congressional leaders, state board of education members, trustees and regents for one of the state universities, as well as several local elections--county clerk, county commissioner, etc. Yes, I'm a little involved. It's a BIG day. Not just a presidential election. Millages, proposals, local, state, and national elections today.

:love

[Shauna]

:hugonCatherose:hugoff Good to see you, too. Hope all is well!

:hugonITIC:hugoff

I actually wasn't aware that other things were being decided on other than the president because I never heard anything about it. Not on the boards, or the news. Then last night I kept seeing other names other than Bush and Kerry. And then I seen this post. Thanks for the link. I'm curious to see what other things were voted on besides what was mentioned.

[Shauna]

*looking at the link ITIC gave me*

Did all of those questions actually appear on each ballot? Like if you approve of Bush, your race, those kinds of things?

[sflathinker]

In FL we one of the ammendments states that Docs must get approval when a minor wants an abortion. We also voted to tax slot machines (and i'm not sure, but I think this means race tracks and other betting faciliites can install slot machines). We voted on a lot of healthcare related issues as well.

I think it's important to know what your state wants to do with these propositions, it affects you more than you think.

[IthinkIcan]

:hugon Shauna :hugoff

I think it is great you are so interested in this. I've input my information. This should be what my ballot looked like, more or less. It's my "sample ballot" from the secretary of state. It includes ninety-nine percent of the information my ballot did on voting day.

http://www.sospublius.com/ballot/ballot.asp

If this link doesn't work, I will keep trying until I find a way to show you a sample ballot. It may take a private e-mail.

Take care of YOU.

Edit: Guess the information was too personalized. Shauna, if you go to www.michigan.gov/vote it will take you to the page I got "my" ballot. If you double click on enter your address here, you could input information off a search engine (anyone from out of the country). John Smith in, say, Detroit. I do not know such a person. Smith is just a common name, as is John, and Detroit is a big city. If you want to contact me through this site I can give you other ideas or maybe a one up.

[Shauna]

It asks for information such as middle names and birth years. *shrugs*

I've copied the link I was looking at. Perhaps you could take a quick peek to look at it to see if those questions appeared on your ballot.

http://us.cnn.com/ELECTION/twozerozerofour//pages/results/states/MI/P/zerozero/epolls.zero.html

Use numbers instead of letters.

And it's kind of hard not to become involved in the election. That's all I hear about--even on my local news stations.

[IthinkIcan]

Not at all, hun. Exit polls would be similar to polls you would find on the net. If interviewed, which would be stunningly rare (anyone know a percent here? anyone here been interviewed?), these would be the questions they are asked. These exit polls came into question a number of times last night. Anyhow, basically speaking, they are polls taken of people exiting the polls, and they are not taken of a particularly large sample. The questions answered do not reflect the ballot.

I'm going to change my e-mail RIGHT NOW. Update it. Thus, I will be inactive until I can reactivate my account. E-mail me through this site, k, when it becomes available. :muhaha I don't care if the whole e-mail is "why?"

Take care of YOU.