This is the Post-Maine Off-Year Election Year Referendum Blow-Off Edition of Some Days in the Life, yesterday having been election day. We'll cover the referendums point by point, leading you the reader to understand a point that has startled legal scholars for years: Maine actually cares about referendums.

Which is so weird. Most places don't care that much. But in Maine, politics is an art form and a passion. Everyone does it, and voter turnout is always much higher than in the rest of the country. Why? Because we like it like that. We're passionate about it.

This year, there was an abortion rights question on the ballot -- in particular, the banning of a procedure where the fetus is terminated through a forced labor. Though no medical authority calls it "partial-birth" abortion, the forces trying to ban the procedure did. They figured the high-emotional language would drive folks en-masse to vote against it.

Well, they succeeded in one thing. Voter turnout was huge, even by Maine standards. But not the way they hoped....

QUESTION 1
Partial-birth abortion

"Do you want to ban a specific abortion procedure to be defined in law, except in cases where the life of the mother is in danger?"
Yes: 45 percent
No: 55 percent

Here's the thing: Question One was handicapped on winning by a sizable margin. Conservative forces generally get the vote out better than liberal ones, especially in off-year elections. So, the smart money said this would pass. Whereupon it would get struck down in the first test case by the State Supreme Court. This wasn't even an issue -- it was a given that it would be struck down. This is how Maine politics works -- it's not that your referendum laws will be upheld. It's that you will win, getting your point across and receiving the affirmation of your neighbors. Whereupon you build on that momentum to get the things you really want passed the next time.

But the various "Yes on One" groups (largely religious groups) wanted a landslide victory, not simply a slide through, so the campaign was incredible. You couldn't drive on a Maine highway without seeing several dozen bright blue "Yes on One -- ban Partial-Birth Abortion" signs. Television ads. Rallies. The whole nine yards.

Liberals turned out in droves. With the exception of one low-populated region in the North of Maine (where, truth be told, I come from), No won. The campaign was so over the top to get people to vote yes, they overwhelmingly voted no. This is Maine all over -- don't push your beliefs too hard, or you'll get slapped. Hard. It will be difficult for anti-abortion/pro-choice/whatever they call themselves this year forces to get any support at all for further measures for the next few years, this was repudiated so clearly.

Not that they won't try. They'll try. Oh yes, they'll try.

QUESTION 2
Medicinal use of marijuana

"Do you want to allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is approved by a doctor?"
Yes: 61 percent
No: 39 percent

Another liberal hot topic, which got a good dividend from the massive turnout against the abortion issue. Obviously this was a no-brainer. It was expected to win even with the expected "conservative heavy turnout." When the opposite happened, boom.

Medicinal marijuana, much like hemp for paper or clothes or oil, is one of those topics that proves hard-line dogma is idiotic. The "War on Drugs" should be a war on abuse, a war on the drugs that are killing people in the streets, a war on heroin and cocaine and crack and crystal meth. Should recreational use of marijuana be outlawed? I don't know -- it doesn't apply to me any way you look at it. I don't use and am not interested in using.

But to block a Doctor's prescription, or secondary benefits from a plant, because that plant has the potential to be abused as a drug, is stupidity. It's politicians trying to get knee-jerk votes and "hardlines" against drugs. It's justification to spend a massive amount of money to no appreciable good. Drugs are available. When I lived in Seattle, I knew marijuana users, crack users, heroin users (hey, I worked at Kinko's. Some of my coworkers could be poster children for Quentin Tarentino movies) and more. It's available. It's not hard to find. The War isn't working -- not this way.

What we need is a brain. Someone with some understanding of the world working out programs that will accomplish the goal -- reducing the use and abuse of harmful drugs -- without smacking at symptoms.

I trust a doctor's opinion a Hell of a lot more than a Drug Czar's, on medicinal uses of marijuana. Not that it matters much -- the state's allowing of this doesn't change Federal Law. Not yet.

But the more states that pass these, the more likely Congress will listen. They're good at figuring out a losing hand, generally.

QUESTION 3
Transportation improvements

"Do you favor a $56,042,031 bond issue for improvements to highways and bridges, airports and state-owned ferry facilities; development of rail corridors and marine infrastructure; and replacement of public transportation fleets statewide that makes the State eligible for up to $112,000,000 in matching federal funds?"
Yes: 74 percent
No: 26 percent

We almost always vote up infrastructural improvements. I think this is because every year we need to repave a good number of roads, and within three years frost heaves will destroy them again. Maine is beautiful, but you have to respect its power.

QUESTION 4
Environmental projects

"Do you favor a $12,500,000 bond issue for the following purposes:
1. $7,000,000 to construct water pollution control facilities, providing the state match for $12,500,000 in federal funds;
2. $2,500,000 to protect the State's drinking water resources by granting funds to cities and towns for the closure and cleanup of their solid waste landfills;
3. $500,000 to protect the public health, safety and the environment by providing funds for the cleanup of tire stockpiles;
4. $1,000,000 to abate, clean up and mitigate threats to the public health and environment from uncontrolled hazardous substance sites or other hazardous waste discharges; and
5. $1,500,000 to construct drinking water system improvements that address public health threats, providing the state match for $7,500,000 in federal funds?"

Yes: 74 percent
No: 26 percent

We also tend to vote yes on these issues. The Environment is big in Maine, not because of liberal leanings but because it surrounds us. And, more to the point, acid rain falls on our state but is generated by the discharge from Midwestern factories. A situation which has improved, but anything where we feel people from Away are mucking with us will lead to people responding with a "Like Hell."

Plus, Edmund Muskie made his mark in Environmentalism, and we remember Muskie very well. He could have been President, if Richard Nixon's campaign staff weren't a bunch of principle-challenged ethically-moronic bastards. Not that we're bitter.

QUESTION 5
Digital broadcasting

"Do you favor a $9,400,000 bond issue for the conversion to digital broadcasting by the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation?"
Yes: 65 percent
No: 35 percent

Another surprise showing. PBS/NPR is a good thing, I think, but much of the time people resent it. And while the digital upgrade of the network is mandated by law, the assumption was people would feel that hey, it's public TV. Let them pledge drive for it. Don't make everyone pay for something only a few want.

Not so, it seems. This was pretty clear and open, and no problem. So, good enough.

However, NPR ran 'comments' throughout the day on the importance of this Bond, which seems like political advertising to me. And that offended me. And my mother, who is my touchstone for such things. So I would have been fine with this losing. But I'm also fine with it winning.

QUESTION 6
Technical college

"Do you favor a $26,420,000 bond issue for infrastructure improvements at Maine's 7 technical colleges that must be matched by at least $7,000,000 of private or in-kind donations?"
Yes: 70 percent
No: 30 percent

Maine goes back and forth on higher education and vocational education. Some years, they slap colleges and vo-techs down, other years they lift them up. Clearly, we're in the upswing.

QUESTION 7
Public land and easements

"Do you favor a $50,000,000 bond issue to purchase public lands and easements statewide from willing sellers for conservation, water access, outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing, wildlife and fish habitat and farmland preservation, to be matched by $25,000,000 in private and public contributions?"
Yes: 69 percent
No: 31 percent

There are a good number of people in my home state who would be perfectly happy if we could declare the entire of the woodland areas to be protected preserves where people can hike, fish and hunt, and no damnfool outsiders can come in with chainsaws and backhoes and make changes. There are days I'm one of them.

This brings up a point that I find interesting, though. There are hundreds of businesses in Maine that have the word "Maine" somewhere in their name. Being from Maine and showing pride in being from Maine is a major selling point for a company, whether you sell tires, potatoes or pizza. If a Maine native wants to raze a forest to produce something as a Maine company, folks probably will agree, with one or two grumblers. If someone from out of the state comes in and wants to have a parking lot sized development area, he'll be run out of town on a rail.

QUESTION 8
'People's veto'

"Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to require that a petition for a people's veto be voted on at the next statewide or general election, rather than at a special election?"
Yes: 71 percent
No: 29 percent

We need to have at least one of these boneheaded things in every election. It's like it's tradition or something. This is an amendment to the Constitution of the state to require that a specific type of petition (in this case, the silliness that is the People's Veto) not be given a Special Election but instead be done at a general or state election.

Why are we doing this? Because a couple of years back, there was a State Referendum which was then affirmed by the legislature and the governor affirming Gay and Lesbian rights -- not a special privilege rule, but a simple "sexual orientation cannot be used to discriminate against someone in the workplace or in a place to live" affirmation. It passed.

But a group (much like the Partial-Birth Abortion people above) got together and got a special petition together for a People's Veto of this law. A referendum that would annul the rest of it. And they railroaded it through for a February Special Election, not for the general election when lots of people might be involved.

The vote happened during the ice storm. Lots of people didn't go out during the ice storm, but the supporters of vetoing the referendum got their vote out, the referendum passed and the "people's veto" took effect. Whereupon towns and cities started voting in their own versions of the original law because darn it, we don't like lousy cheaters.

This, this Question. As you can see, pretty much everyone wants to close that door. My expectation is "People's Vetoes" will vanish as a result, as you need a special election and a guaranteed low turnout for them to work, regardless of issue.

QUESTION 9
History and scenery

"Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to allow for reduced property taxes on property that will be maintained for historic preservation or for scenic views of significant vistas?"
Yes: 54 percent
No: 46 percent

See Question Seven, above. Once again, if people agree to just leave their property the way it is and not muck around with it and build stuff on it and other damnfoolishness, they'll get lower property taxes.

The war between development and preservation is a long-standing one. I'm just surprised there wasn't a 10th question on this ballot giving reduced taxes to businesses developing areas to increase jobs in Maine. Which also would have passed. Trust me.

So there you have it. A window onto the Maine psyche as seen through our Referendums, and a window into mine through the same way. I promise to return to form tomorrow.