Key Ballot Measures

A ballot measure imposing strict limits on abortions failed for a second time in South Dakota.

Assisted suicide is now legal in Washington. It is the second state after Oregon to approve such a law.

Arkansas voted to ban adoption by unmarried couples, a law that was mostly intended to ban adoption by gay couples. Previous laws limiting gay adoption were struck down so the new proposition widened the net to include unmarried couples.

For results on a number of ballot measures including ones in California that are too close to call, use this link.

Gubernatorial Races

Democrats pick up one. Jay Nixon won handily in the Missouri governor's race. Democrats also held on to the governor's mansion in North Carolina and Washington state with wins by Perdue and Gregoire. Indiana incumbent Mitch Daniels held on to his seat.

Lower Turnout in Oregon

Nate Silver points out that according to Oregon's "Elections Division, the state has received 522,188 ballots through the first seven days of its early voting window. This compares with 645,473 ballots received during the first seven days of 2004 -- a 19 percent decline."

Silver also observes that decline is steeper in counties that are more Republican. He posits that Obama's large leads in the polls, lack of enthusiasm for McCain, and a bitter Senate race may be causing the decline in early voting.

I wonder if the nasty primary in Oregon's fifth district has also led people to hold on to their ballots until later. Conventional wisdom is that the eventual nominee, Mike Erickson, would never have won the primary in CD 5 if people hadn't already mailed in their ballots.

Two other things to note -- How does the drop in early voting from Republican counties affect the Senate race? Oregon and Washington are fairly close, culturally and politically. Will Washington have a similarly lower turnout and if so, how will it affect the gubernatiorial race?

House Races: WA-08 and NJ-07

Here are some great new ads from Washington and New Jersey.

First, an ad from Democrat Darcy Burner who is challenging incumbent Rep. Dave Reichert in Washington's 8th district.



(H/T: Open Left)

In New Jersey's 7th district, Linda Stender (D) and Leonard Lance (R) are running for the House seat left vacant by retiring Republican Mike Ferguson. Both candidates have run some very creative ads thus far.





(H/T: The Fix)