Dartblog

At this point many people, I daresay most people are aware of the fact that Barack Obama has been elected the next president of the United States, as well as the general returns from Senate and House elections although a few races may still be in flux.

I would like to just briefly run down a number of interesting measures that were on state ballots as referenda in this election:

Arizona and Florida voted ‘Yes’ to ban gay marriage in their states by margins of 56 and 62%. Arkansas has given 57% of the vote to banning gay couples from adopting children.

Antiabortion measures in Colorado and South Dakota failed, the latter being the most highly publicized and strictly limiting measure, voted down by a 55-45% margin.

The State of Washington has voted to allow doctor-assisted suicide, Maryland to allow video lottery, Michigan to allow stem-cell research and, by an overwhelming 63% of the vote to permit medical marijuana. Nebraska has voted to end racial preferencing/ affirmative action and Massachusetts, unfortunately, decisively rejected the repeal of the personal state income tax.

Still pending are Colorado’s proposed ban on affirmative action preferencing and California’s proposition on abortion limits (which looks like it will be defeated) and ‘Prop 8’ the ballot measure that would constitutionally amend the California constitution to ban gay marriage. Will report back when these results come in.

UPDATE from Joe: Proposition 8 in California, to define marriage in the Constitution, passed. There’s something poetic about people reversing judges, rather than the other way around.