Elections Main Topic PirateCon

Election is Over, Party Conference Next

Yesterday’s election is done, though we wait for the final counting to finish. Millions of people voted early and they deserve to have their vote counted, whomever wins.

We supported Questions 1 & 2 and voters overwhelmingly agreed with us on the need to expand the automotive right to repair law and passed Question 1 overwhelmingly. Question 1 is shaping up to be the most expensive ballot initiative in Massachusetts history, but it moves us forward on Right to Repair.

Ranked Choice Voting, Question 2, is on track to lose 45% to 55%. While we are disappointed, it was always an uphill battle when voters can easily vote no or abstain if they don’t understand or know little about the ballot measure. Ending greyhound racing took three ballot initiatives before it passed, so there is always hope for success in a future election. Yes on 2 leaders and activists worked extremely hard and built a diverse coalition. We look forward to working with them to move RCV forward in cities and towns where it received strong support and continue to advocate for election reform.

We’re still tallying what pirate-friendly ballot initiatives passed in other states, and will update you when we have a good list along with our thoughts about where we go from here once all the votes are counted.

A reminder that our annual party conference will be Saturday, November 14th and Sunday, November 15th. It will be virtual and run from noon to 4:30pm each day. The conference will focus on planning, expanding our platform and organizing how-tos. We have time for lightning talks and a number of discussions and panels. After it ends on Saturday, we’ll join the Pirate Party International‘s Pirate Beer gathering.

Registration is free and we encourage anyone who is interested in the Pirate Party to attend. We will email registrants the streaming details, especially participant details for the video conferences. Sign up if you want to chart our future direction.

Finally, if you didn’t catch the US Pirate Party’s election night eight hour live stream, you can find it below:

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