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Voters across the nation took to the polls yesterday. In Ohio, more than 60% of voters repealed a GOP backed bill that restricted collective bargaining rights of union workers. Republican governor John Kasich started his term this January by pushing a bill that hampered the ability of hundreds of thousands of public workers including firefighters and police officers, to negotiate benefits and other work-related issues. The Governor was quoted as saying the results of the vote caused him “to take a deep breath” and “spend some time reflecting on what happened here.” Ohio voters also decided to approve a measure that would allow people to opt-out of the mandatory purchasing of health insurance – part of President Obama’s sweeping healthcare reform law. Meanwhile voters in Mississippi narrowly defeated a ballot measure that would have conferred many rights of personhood onto a fertilized egg. The measure and several others like it in various states, was pushed by an organization called Personhood USA which hopes such laws, if passed, would be legally challenged in court and could go all the way to the Supreme Court to reverse the Roe. Vs. Wade decision. If passed, Mississippi would have been the first state where an egg would be considered a full human being at the moment of conception, jeopardizing women’s access to abortion, some forms of birth control, in vitro fertilization, or even life-saving surgery in the event of an ectopic or tubal pregnancy. There are currently attempts to bring Personhood ballot measures in six other states including California. Mississippi and Kentucky’s governors were up for re-election yesterday, and both incumbents kept their seats. These elections are being closely watched for indicators about next year, an important Presidential election year – ten states will elect governors next year and governors are seen as crucial party allies for candidates seeking the nation’s highest office. Also, voters in Maine yesterday restored a same-day voter registration law that was rolled back by GOP lawmakers. And, in a powerful blow to anti-immigrant forces, Arizona’s leading state senator, Russell Pearce, lost a recall election vote yesterday to fellow Republican newcomer, Jerry Lewis. Pearce was the chief architect of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, aimed at criminalizing undocumented residents of Arizona. It was the first time a recall election was mounted against a state legislator in Arizona.

GUESTS: Amanda Terkel, Senior Politics Reporter at the Huffington Post, and Antonio Gonzales, President of the William C Velasquez Institute, one of the founders of the National Latino Congreso

Read Amanda Terkel’s writings at: www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-terkel.

Visit the William C. Velasquez Institute at www.wcvi.org, and the National Latino Congreso at latinocongreso.org.