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Despite so much national focus on the next year’s presidential election, voters across the country decided a number of races and ballot measures in their own cities and states on Tuesday. Conservatives celebrated a win in the Kentucky governor’s race, where anti-Obamacare and gay marriage candidate Matt Bevin defeated Attorney General Jack Conway. They also declared victory in Virginia after Republicans won a number of seats and fought off a Democratic attempt to gain control of the State Senate. In Ohio, a measure that would have made it the first Midwestern state to legalize marijuana was defeated. Voters in San Francisco rejected limits to how often people can rent out their homes using popular websites like Airbnb. Residents of Houston, Texas rejected an ordinance protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination by 61 percent to 39 percent. Conservative groups praised the outcome, but the city’s outgoing Major Annise Parker said she feared the result would hurt Houston both economically and in reputation. The discrimination ordinance passed in other parts of Texas and Houston’s city council previously approved it before a legal battle resulted in it being placed on the ballot. Opponents connected the issue to protecting religious liberty. Many supporters of the ordinance said they would not give up despite the defeat. While some political analysts were quick to read into the results of this election to forecast 2016, Stu Rothenberg of The Rothenberg-Gonzales Political Report said the issues that play out next year may not look anything like Tuesday’s results. “Next year, we’re going to have a different kind of election with a different kind of electorate,” Rothenburg said.Vocab
ballot initiative
– a petition signed by a specific minimum number of registered voters that can force a public vote on a proposed law or constitutional amendment
ordinance
– a law or regulation made by a city or town government
monopoly
– complete control of the entire supply of goods or of a service in a certain area or market
off-year election
– a general election that is held in odd-numbered years and rarely features any election to a federal office and few state legislative elections
Warm up questions
- If given the chance, would you vote in an election that didn’t include the president or any major races?
- Do you think people should vote directly on the issues that matter to them more often?
- Would you consider voting for a candidate if he or she were registered with a different political party than yours?
Critical thinking questions
- Why do you think the Ohio ballot initiative to legalize medicinal and recreational marijuana failed?
- Why do you think Houston’s discrimination ordinance was defeated?
- Do the outcomes of this election reflect what we can expect in 2016? Why or why not?
