I was an election judge when it went on the ballot in MO in 2022. Steady stream all day of young people showing up to vote. The judges at the check-in table will often ask a young person when they check in if they are voting for the first time, and if they say yes, call out 'first time voter' and everyone claps. They were calling out ALL…
I was an election judge when it went on the ballot in MO in 2022. Steady stream all day of young people showing up to vote. The judges at the check-in table will often ask a young person when they check in if they are voting for the first time, and if they say yes, call out 'first time voter' and everyone claps. They were calling out ALL DAY LONG! Way more frequently than previous and more recent elections, hands down. My suspicion was that the pot amendment was the motivation, and that they voted D for the most part. R's lost some close races in purple areas and I blame the pot voters. It was a horrible amendment, 26 pages added to our constitution thanks to our overly lax initiative petition process, where big out of state money pays signature gatherers to put more crap in our constitution and low information voters vote for it as they never read the full text.
SD has 8 initiated ballot measures this Nov, all except one designed to destroy the existing culture, and those 7 are funded and managed by out-of-state money.
Ironic that the very thing that is supposed to empower and engage individuals politically - ballot initiation -i s being used to completely disenfranchise us.
In our case, the legislature is a bunch of cowards, Initiative petition reform comes up every year but never passes, in part as the D's & local media scream bloody murder about the R's trying to 'end democracy'. Not sure what is democratic about out of state $ paying signature gatherers who mislead the people who sign the petitions without reading them! We have an awful abortion amendment that is not just about abortion. It includes usurping parents rights on abortions and transgender surgeries, and would allow abortions up to birth. And 2 gambling amendments that claim 'money for education'. It's exhausting as the abortion fight is taking away volunteers and money for local candidates many with close races in purple and blue areas. Trying to do both but only so much blood from this turnip and hours in the day to volunteer.
I was an election judge when it went on the ballot in MO in 2022. Steady stream all day of young people showing up to vote. The judges at the check-in table will often ask a young person when they check in if they are voting for the first time, and if they say yes, call out 'first time voter' and everyone claps. They were calling out ALL DAY LONG! Way more frequently than previous and more recent elections, hands down. My suspicion was that the pot amendment was the motivation, and that they voted D for the most part. R's lost some close races in purple areas and I blame the pot voters. It was a horrible amendment, 26 pages added to our constitution thanks to our overly lax initiative petition process, where big out of state money pays signature gatherers to put more crap in our constitution and low information voters vote for it as they never read the full text.
SD has 8 initiated ballot measures this Nov, all except one designed to destroy the existing culture, and those 7 are funded and managed by out-of-state money.
Ironic that the very thing that is supposed to empower and engage individuals politically - ballot initiation -i s being used to completely disenfranchise us.
In our case, the legislature is a bunch of cowards, Initiative petition reform comes up every year but never passes, in part as the D's & local media scream bloody murder about the R's trying to 'end democracy'. Not sure what is democratic about out of state $ paying signature gatherers who mislead the people who sign the petitions without reading them! We have an awful abortion amendment that is not just about abortion. It includes usurping parents rights on abortions and transgender surgeries, and would allow abortions up to birth. And 2 gambling amendments that claim 'money for education'. It's exhausting as the abortion fight is taking away volunteers and money for local candidates many with close races in purple and blue areas. Trying to do both but only so much blood from this turnip and hours in the day to volunteer.
Missouri extended the welcome mat to drug cartels and other nasties.