14 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of November 6

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Tags: usa, politics, recurring.weekly

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

13 comments

  1. [5]
    st3ph3n
    Link
    Ohio voted tonight to both protect reproductive rights in the state constitution, and to legalize recreational marijuana.

    Ohio voted tonight to both protect reproductive rights in the state constitution, and to legalize recreational marijuana.

    28 votes
    1. wowbagger
      Link Parent
      With the passage of Issue 2 in Ohio, the majority of the US population (~54%) now lives in a state or jurisdiction with legal recreational cannabis. That feels like an important inflection point;...

      With the passage of Issue 2 in Ohio, the majority of the US population (~54%) now lives in a state or jurisdiction with legal recreational cannabis. That feels like an important inflection point; I wonder how many more dominoes will have to fall before the federal legislation changes.

      11 votes
    3. thek3nger
      Link Parent
      Good news are so rare in those times that I had to double check.

      Good news are so rare in those times that I had to double check.

      6 votes
    4. public
      Link Parent
      As an Ohioan, it was bizarre just how quiet Issue 2 was. There wasn’t even a “Just Vote No” opposition campaign. Just an issue that seemingly showed up on the ballot and passed.

      As an Ohioan, it was bizarre just how quiet Issue 2 was. There wasn’t even a “Just Vote No” opposition campaign. Just an issue that seemingly showed up on the ballot and passed.

      4 votes
  2. [3]
    georgeboff
    Link
    Maine had a slate of referendums and constitutional amendments on the ballot yesterday in addition to a variety of local races. We voted down a referendum to convert our privately owned utility...

    Maine had a slate of referendums and constitutional amendments on the ballot yesterday in addition to a variety of local races.

    We voted down a referendum to convert our privately owned utility companies into a public entity (I personally supported this):

    Voters reject plan to buy out Maine electric companies to create consumer-owned utility

    But heavily supported an amendment to the state constitution supporting the "right to repair" (at least for auto diagnostic systems, and not necessarily reflecting the broader national efforts for the same for farmers and the like):

    Question 4 overwhelmingly passes, protecting Mainers' auto right to repair

    We also had 6 other questions, and the other questions involved a limit on public power entities (if the public utility "Pine Tree Power" question had passed this would be more of a big deal), banning foreign money in Maine state elections (we'll see if this one holds up in court), extending the time to review petitions, restoring language of native tribal treaties to the printed version of the state constitution and some attempts to repeal some existing legal language that says that those circulating petitions must be state residents and a law that restricts voting by legal guardians on behalf of folks with certain kinds of mental health concerns (this one is not yet decided as the current vote total is about 53 - 47 with 100 precincts or so left to report).

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      NoblePath
      Link Parent
      It’s a real shame the one taking over the power itility didn’t pass. Investor owned utilities are a bane. They’re an unfair tax and also not accountable for so many externalities.

      It’s a real shame the one taking over the power itility didn’t pass. Investor owned utilities are a bane. They’re an unfair tax and also not accountable for so many externalities.

      8 votes
      1. georgeboff
        Link Parent
        I agree, I think a public utility would be beneficial to us in a variety of different ways - really just removing a profit incentive from this process goes a long way to fixing some of the...

        I agree, I think a public utility would be beneficial to us in a variety of different ways - really just removing a profit incentive from this process goes a long way to fixing some of the troubles we have with our current investor-owned company. But it was voted down by pretty significant margins, albeit after the power company spent a few million to put vote No signs everywhere.

        5 votes