Word: ballot
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...famously isolated, self-important organization whose members do not like to be slighted. Competition for hosting rights is fierce: a city needs a majority of the 107 members to vote in its favor to win. One ballot can tip the balance, and this new dustup could alter a member's decision. "This is an absolutely unnecessary self-inflicted wound," says Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports-business consultant who has closely followed the 2016 bid. "It just serves to remind the IOC of their preconceived notion that the Americans are arrogant and self-serving...
...Little more than a decade ago, tens of thousands of Indonesians joined together in a people-power overthrow of dictator Suharto, who had ruled for 32 years. Since then, the country has had four Presidents, with peaceful transitions of power between each leader. Indonesia's success at the ballot box has silenced skeptics who doubted whether Indonesia - with its diversity of islands, religions and ethnicities - could mature into a democratic state. Indeed, compared to countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, where democratic institutions are stagnating if not backsliding, Indonesia has cemented its status as Southeast Asia's political role model...
...other civic leaders, meanwhile, are rallying behind the idea of a constitutional convention. That, of course, could be a can of worms. Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading constitutional scholar and dean of the University of California Irvine Law School, argues that advocates for budget sanity should first try a ballot measure to change the two-thirds vote requirement on budget and tax measures. "If a statewide initiative to eliminate the two-thirds majority requirement can pass, that will solve a lot of the problem," Chemerinsky says. "And then it makes sense to move on to a constitutional convention...
...pupil dropped to 48th in the nation. The state's educators and parents then rallied behind Proposition 98, which by a complex formula apportions roughly 40% of the state budget to K-14 education. In the past three decades, other special interests have authored - and voters have passed - numerous ballot measures dictating that millions in state funds go to various pet causes. Many of these measures, including a preschool initiative sponsored by Schwarzenegger in 2002, mandate a program but fail to provide a source of funding. Each proposal alone might have merit, but collectively these ballot measures have locked most...
...urban centers and hip suburbs and who predominantly support Democrats. As the state's population has become diverse and Anglo voters have seen their own children grow up and leave the public schools, there has been a backlash of the first against the second, as seen in conservative ballot measures such as Proposition 13 (property taxes), Proposition 187 (illegal immigration) and Proposition 8 (gay marriage). Conservative Anglos, a minority of the state's population as a whole, are vocal and continue to exert power beyond their census numbers because they vote in relatively higher percentages, and because GOP votes...