Another Referendum for Infrastructure Funding in Tuesday's Elections

Voters around the country will go to the ballot box tomorrow to consider transportation- and infrastructure-related measures.

1 minute read

November 6, 2017, 12:00 PM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Polling Place

Joe Hall / Flickr

Robert Puentes surveys ballots from around the country for specific measures to watch closely tomorrow as results come in, and tries to located some larger trends about the state of infrastructure politics in a complicated and contentious era. "While is it not always easy to draw conclusions from these ballot box questions given their diversity, one thing is clear: Discussions about raising money and investing in transportation and infrastructure in Washington, D.C. are very different from what is happening in cities, states and metropolitan areas around the country," writes Puentes.

Puentes also notes that 2017 is an "off year" compared to last year's massive amount of infrastructure-related ballot measures approved by voters alongside an historic presidential election, but there are still plenty of ballot measures of interest. In addition to "routine proposals" in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia; Bath, Maine; and Chikaming, Michigan, Puentes notes a few "unique measures" in Kansas City, Dallas, and Denver.

Check back in later this week for a summary of the results of all these elections.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017 in U.S. News & World Report

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