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Scott and I stayed up a bit past 11 last night because we were watching the election returns. I think we both knew we weren't likely to sleep much.
None of the local elections were particularly surprising. The Democrat beat the independent candidate in our city council race. I'd have preferred the independent who was running to the left, but I didn't expect him to win. He does seem to have gotten 25% of the vote, though, which is more than I actually thought he would.
It looks like the parking lot next to the library is going to get turned into a park. I don't want it to be, but I wanted the only available alternative even less-- City council had already negotiated to sell the lot to a developer who intended to put a convention center there. I am pretty sure that that development would have required evicting the other businesses on that part of the block in order to have space enough to build. The park option may do that, too. I don't know. Why can't we just have a place to park right next to the library?
The measure for changing how city council deals with vacancies passed by 87%. The previous policy involved appointment (by the mayor, I believe) rather than special election. This shifts things so that an election is required if more than a certain portion of the term is left.
Both the city and county park millages got renewed. Those generally do. People are willing to campaign against school millages or bus millages, but nobody says anything at all about park millages.
The school board results are interesting. There were eight candidates running for four seats. Three of the eight were running as a slate. Two of those three came in 2nd and 3rd. The other was 5th by 0.07% which is really impressive given that he graduated high school last spring. I voted for him after some careful consideration because the other two candidates on the slate looked good and because the teenager was a Planned Parenthood peer educator and had served on the school district's Sexual Health Education Advisory Committee. I thought those factors indicated a level of seriousness about the position being important that counterbalanced the extreme youth part of things.
All three state ballot proposals passed (there are still districts that haven't reported, but about 93% have). Recreational marijuana became legal by about 56%. The proposal for randomly selecting a redistricting commission to take that power out of the hands of the legislature passed at 61%. (It's a kind of terrible proposal, and implementing it will be a nasty process, but it's infinitely better than the current system.) The proposal for automatic voter registration, election day voter registration, and no reason absentee voting passed with 67% of the vote.
On that last, I wonder what percentage of voters were swayed mostly by the prospect of no reason absentee voting. Voting on a work day, in Michigan, in November, is miserable and often means standing in line outside the polling place or walking some distance to get to the polling place.
They haven't called our Attorney General race yet. The difference between the Democrat and the Republican is pretty tiny and might well be altered enough by the 7% of districts that haven't yet reported.
They also haven't called our state Supreme Court race which is unusual. Candidates for those positions are party nominated but run as 'non-partisan.' Most voters just vote for the incumbent because that's all the information they have if they haven't researched in depth. This election, one of the Democrat nominated challengers actively campaigned-- fliers, signs, constant emails-- and is currently neck-and-neck with one of the Republican nominated incumbents. Campaigning that way for any judge position is considered undignified, tacky, etc., but it made an incredible difference.
With 90% of districts reporting, one incumbent Supreme Court judge has 30% of the vote, the Democrat who advertised has 25.31%, the other incumbent has 24.21%. The candidate in 4th place has 11.55% of the vote.
We kept Senator Stabenow. We'll have a Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, as governor (I was really kind of terrified of the Republican candidate and the things he was promising to do). We're going to have a Democrat, Jocelyn Benson, as Secretary of State.
Neither the state House nor the state Senate flipped, but the Democrats gained some seats in both. The governor-elect has strong ties in the legislature, so she may still be able to get some things done. I won't hold my breath on it, but it's possible.
None of the local elections were particularly surprising. The Democrat beat the independent candidate in our city council race. I'd have preferred the independent who was running to the left, but I didn't expect him to win. He does seem to have gotten 25% of the vote, though, which is more than I actually thought he would.
It looks like the parking lot next to the library is going to get turned into a park. I don't want it to be, but I wanted the only available alternative even less-- City council had already negotiated to sell the lot to a developer who intended to put a convention center there. I am pretty sure that that development would have required evicting the other businesses on that part of the block in order to have space enough to build. The park option may do that, too. I don't know. Why can't we just have a place to park right next to the library?
The measure for changing how city council deals with vacancies passed by 87%. The previous policy involved appointment (by the mayor, I believe) rather than special election. This shifts things so that an election is required if more than a certain portion of the term is left.
Both the city and county park millages got renewed. Those generally do. People are willing to campaign against school millages or bus millages, but nobody says anything at all about park millages.
The school board results are interesting. There were eight candidates running for four seats. Three of the eight were running as a slate. Two of those three came in 2nd and 3rd. The other was 5th by 0.07% which is really impressive given that he graduated high school last spring. I voted for him after some careful consideration because the other two candidates on the slate looked good and because the teenager was a Planned Parenthood peer educator and had served on the school district's Sexual Health Education Advisory Committee. I thought those factors indicated a level of seriousness about the position being important that counterbalanced the extreme youth part of things.
All three state ballot proposals passed (there are still districts that haven't reported, but about 93% have). Recreational marijuana became legal by about 56%. The proposal for randomly selecting a redistricting commission to take that power out of the hands of the legislature passed at 61%. (It's a kind of terrible proposal, and implementing it will be a nasty process, but it's infinitely better than the current system.) The proposal for automatic voter registration, election day voter registration, and no reason absentee voting passed with 67% of the vote.
On that last, I wonder what percentage of voters were swayed mostly by the prospect of no reason absentee voting. Voting on a work day, in Michigan, in November, is miserable and often means standing in line outside the polling place or walking some distance to get to the polling place.
They haven't called our Attorney General race yet. The difference between the Democrat and the Republican is pretty tiny and might well be altered enough by the 7% of districts that haven't yet reported.
They also haven't called our state Supreme Court race which is unusual. Candidates for those positions are party nominated but run as 'non-partisan.' Most voters just vote for the incumbent because that's all the information they have if they haven't researched in depth. This election, one of the Democrat nominated challengers actively campaigned-- fliers, signs, constant emails-- and is currently neck-and-neck with one of the Republican nominated incumbents. Campaigning that way for any judge position is considered undignified, tacky, etc., but it made an incredible difference.
With 90% of districts reporting, one incumbent Supreme Court judge has 30% of the vote, the Democrat who advertised has 25.31%, the other incumbent has 24.21%. The candidate in 4th place has 11.55% of the vote.
We kept Senator Stabenow. We'll have a Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, as governor (I was really kind of terrified of the Republican candidate and the things he was promising to do). We're going to have a Democrat, Jocelyn Benson, as Secretary of State.
Neither the state House nor the state Senate flipped, but the Democrats gained some seats in both. The governor-elect has strong ties in the legislature, so she may still be able to get some things done. I won't hold my breath on it, but it's possible.