On Election Day, watching key ballot issues in Ohio, Mississippi

The Associated Press: Ballot Issues, Governors' Races Dominate Election
Voters across the nation will decide a host of statewide initiatives Tuesday and elect governors in Mississippi and Kentucky ... In battleground Ohio, voters will decide ... whether to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance as part of the national health care overhaul. A vote against the health care law would be mostly symbolic, but Republican opponents of the measure hope to use the vote as part of a legal challenge (Welsh-Huggins, 11/8).

USA Today: Voters Go To Polls In Off-Year Elections
Ohio's voters were asked to decide whether to repeal or let stand a law pushed and signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich that limits the collective-bargaining abilities of more than 350,000 public employees, including teachers, police and firefighters. The new law says workers can negotiate over wages but not over pensions or health benefits, bans public worker strikes, scraps binding arbitration and eliminates automatic teacher pay increases (Welch, 11/8).

CBS News: Ohio's Union Rights Referendum: A Swing State Sets The Stage For The 2012 Election
At issue is the law referred to as SB 5 -- the sweeping anti-union law the Republican-led legislature and Republican Gov. John Kasich passed in March. The law greatly scales back the collective bargaining power of Ohio's approximately 360,000 public workers. Certain issues, like health care benefits, are completely off the bargaining table (Condon, 11/8).

Politico: Election Day: A POLITICO Cheat Sheet
Voters will answer only one federal election question Tuesday, but there are a number of state and local issues at play that could make national waves. ... Mississippi voters will vote on a state constitutional amendment that would determine that, per state law, human life begins at conception. Polling on the measure shows a toss-up, according to Public Policy Polling, with the difference between support and opposition within the margin of error (Epstein, 11/8).

The Hill: Mississippi To Vote On Proposed Measure Declaring 'Personhood' Of Fetus
If the measure passes, state law would say that life begins at "the moment of fertilization." Supporters see the change as a way around Roe v. Wade, while opponents charge that the measure has implications far beyond abortion (Baker, 11/8).

McClatchy: Mississippi Attempts To Define The Start Of Personhood
Opponents of the measure are warning of other potential consequences, including a ban on many birth control pills and a severe hampering of popular infertility treatments. Proponents call these charges untrue "scare tactics" (Fausset, 11/7).

Politico Pro: Black Turnout May Be Key In Personhood Vote
[A]mong African-Americans, 59 percent said they plan to vote against it, and only 26 for it. This gap could prove decisive if black voter turnout is high (Feder, 11/8).

CNN (video): Mississippi Amendment On 'Personhood' Divides Christians
In the Carpenter home, every meal begins with a prayer. Robin and his wife, Emily, are devout Christians. But they part ways with many other Christians over a measure that would expand the legal definition of human life. Their son, Luke, now 4 years old, was born through in vitro fertilization. The anti-abortion amendment being voted on this week in the state could restrict in vitro procedures, and the Carpenters are worried that if they wait too long to add to their family, they may end up breaking the law (Phillips, 11/8).

The Miami Herald: Florida Group Aims To Mimic Mississippi's 'Personhood' Amendment Push
Personhood USA, the Colorado group behind the Mississippi ballot question, has been collecting petition signatures to bring a similar proposal to Florida. But Florida election laws already have dashed the hopes of the group to have the measure appear on a statewide ballot next year (Sanders, 11/8).