My wife had a great uncle who was a history professor at NYU when your dad would have been there: funny if he had taught him!
My father-in-law grew to like JFK as President: it was more Joe Sr that he had a problem with as Joe Kennedy was well-known for his anti-Semitic views.
Kansas votes no, and its not even close. Wonder if there will be claims of voter fraud.
Came here to post this. With ~85% of the votes in, 61% have voted to maintain choice.
Kansas: at least it’s not Missouri.
dad is 97, not sure of actual dates, but would assume he graduated around '49
This is an important bellwether for middle America. Shows how most Americans support abortion in a manner like it was before: some sensible restrictions, but none of this outright ban and screw the life of the mother nonsense that some of the GOP are pushing.
The GOP has made the evangelical base happy, but I think this is backfiring
As with many of these referendum there is some confusing language in the question Kansas voters were asked to vote on. The exact ballot is in this article. My guess at least 30% of the people voting were guessing based on reading over this one. Not sure if that changes the result or not. I have no idea how much marketing was put out by either side of the issue either.
It’s one of those vote yes to say no type questions.
If the only issue is abortion, I think the right would be approved throughout the US.
The question is will voters make that the key issue for picking candidates
Well now Kansas (at the state level) is ideal for the GOP. They can tell the pro-lifers “I tried… but the referendum!!!” And they can tell the pro-choicers “the people have spoken; it’s not on the legislative agenda”.
Takes the wind out of the Dems sails without damaging the GOP.
Tons of marketing. Both sides were equally funded, from what I’ve read. I think the article you posted is a really good summary of how poorly this was written, and how much bias there was in the text. Plus the text messages like I posted above going out. It probably added a bit of bias towards people voting yes.
But. Anecdotally, I’m not sure it has a huge impact. I think both sides managed to get the messaging out on what ‘yes’ and ‘no’ meant. TV and radio ads, lots of signs (both yes and no) in people’s yards. My in-laws attend church regularly in rural Kansas and it was mentioned several times during sermons.
That’s my anecdote. Curious to see this picked apart over the coming weeks and months.
It’s a really crushing result. 59% No / 41% Yes…
If you look at the primaries there were 450k R votes, and 260k D votes.
And I agree the amendment is incredibly confusing. Fuck whoever wrote it. And I agree it might have backfired. It’s obviously meant to trick people into voting yes, but being so incredibly confusing might have turned off more anti-abortion voters. In part because the Yes’s are less educated. In part because it’s easier to say “No” to something that is obviously bullshit.
Our high school has a program for juniors and seniors where they attend classes in the morning and work in the afternoon. Kind of like an apprenticeship program. There is also an optional component where they earn their GED instead of credits towards a high school diploma. When I was in college we had several high schoolers working in the restaurant under a similar program. Some kids don’t do well in a school environment and really are better off in the working world.
Thanks for this color. I was just reading it and I know from following marijuana legalization efforts over the years people often vote incorrectly due to wording on referendums. Was curious what it looked like on the ground in Kansas.
These sound like good programs. I think more kids should get pushed towards trade schools/ apprenticeship rather than dropping out. Even for poor students, graduating from public school or getting a GED is not a high bar. Not having a GED at a minimum is going to limit opportunities for success unless you’ve developed a trade.
Kansas Republican legislators wrote the text.
I don’t know if it’s still a thing, when I was in HS (in rural Kansas) this was offered. I think it was just senior year, but it’s been a while and I could be wrong for sure. IIRC it was the same deal, you went to HS in the morning and after lunch you went to work on plumbing, electrical, carpentry, or something like that.
Seems like a good program. I had friends who went on to become electricians and carpenters and seem content with that decision. A good friend and both of his brothers went on and did a two-year program at the local college to become licensed electricians. They all have solid jobs and earn a nice living.
In the town I’m in, about 10,000 people, I saw dozens perhaps hundreds of Yes signs but not a single No sign. I don’t even know what a No sign looks like.
We had/have a few Yes signs here in LFK but 90% No signs. I think my county voted 85% or so ‘no.’
Even with all that signage the Yes vote still only got about 55% in this county. It appears that it’s not quite as conservative as some people would like to think.
Would be interesting to see the gender splits on the vote there
Yep. Stories I find say “record turnout”. I don’t like the wording on the ballot, but I’ll bet 99% of the voters made up their minds before they read the ballot. Lots of people who had never voted in an August primary showed up just to vote on this amendment.