Earlier this week, we identified three things the labor professional may want to look for in the mid-term elections. The election is over and most, but not all, of the results are in. Of the three things identified on our earlier post, we can report results on two of them.
First, the state constitutional amendments designed to protect the secret ballot in a union election proposed in four states all passed by substantial margins. In Utah, the vote was 60% to 40% in favor. Arizona‘s Proposition 113 passed by a similar margin. In South Carolina, Amendment 2 passed by a whopping 86% to 14% margin. Finally, in South Dakota, Constitutional Amendment L passed by a 79% to 21% margin. Clearly, voters in those states prefer the secret ballot, even when it comes to union representation elections.
Second, in the two U.S. Senate races identified, the results of the race in Colorado are very close. Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet leads his Republican challenger Ken Buck by about 7,000 votes, with some ballots still to be counted. In West Virginia, Democratic candidate Joe Manchin beat his Republican challenger with 53% of the vote. Both distanced themselves from EFCA during the election.