Maine Voters Keep Election Day Registration

MAINE ELECTION RESULTS

• Mainers vote to continue Election Day registration (By Eric Russell, Bangor Daily News) Question 1 asked: “Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?” With more than three-quarters of the state’s precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, the yes side was leading 60 percent to 40 percent and had declared victory. The yes side was prevailing in every county, with especially lopsided results in Portland and Bangor.
• VOTING RIGHTS LANDSLIDE, MAINE REBUKES GOP, But bad news for Mississippi voters... (By Brad Friedman, Brad Blog) The People's Veto of the GOP bill was on the ballot tonight and, if the results are accurate as reported, the people of Maine couldn't have been clearer. Question 1 has is said to have passed by a remarkable 61 to 39% margin (with 90% of the results in), quite literally winning in every single county in the state...
• "We spoke with one voice:" Mainers vote to keep Election Day registration (By Steve Mistler, Sun Journal - Lewiston) According to unofficial results, the coalition that worked to restore EDR held a large lead over the groups that sought to repeal the law. With more than half of the state's 594 precincts reporting, voters favored retaining EDR, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Threat to Collective Bargaining Right Rejected by Ohio Voters

OHIO ELECTION RESULTS

• Ohio repeals law restricting unions; Miss. blocks ‘personhood’ amendment (By Aaron Blake and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post) Ohioans voted Tuesday to repeal a Republican-backed law that restricted collective bargaining for public workers, while Mississippi voters blocked an amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person.
• Ohio Voters Reject Law Limiting Public Unions (By Caitlin Huey-Burns, Real Clear Politics) Ohio voters on Tuesday gave Democrats and President Obama a welcome shot of the arm in the key battleground state by rejecting Republican Gov. John Kasich's signature achievement: a law that curbs collective bargaining rights for public employees. Voters resoundingly defeated the measure, 63 percent to 37 percent.
• Ohio voters reject Republican-backed union limits (AP - CBS News) The state's new collective bargaining law was defeated Tuesday after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against the Republican establishment. In a political blow to GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers. With nearly 95 percent of the votes counted late Tuesday, about 61 percent were to reject the law.
• Elections may signal a pause in conservative trend (By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times) AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in Columbus, Ohio, to cheer a badly needed victory for organized labor and its Democratic allies, called the results a defeat for "those who spend their time scapegoating workers and pushing a partisan agenda."