Greetings, Clam Nation, and welcome to the Clamsplainer 2026 November Election Guide: Hey Kehd Go Vote.
Let’s get this out of the way: don’t vote for a Republican. Not even Minogue. Why not Minogue? There’s a bevy of reasons why not, but the quick and dirty reason is his fundraiser for JD Vance 2 years ago. We all saw what was coming if Herr Drumpf was elected again, and here we are. He isn’t giving anyone $5,000. He doesn’t even care about the most important members of his cabinet. No one in the President’s orbit is immune to his toxicity, and once Minogue stops being useful to him, we will all suffer. Why would you do that to yourself? Vote Dem down the line. That said, up here we’re ok if you make a single exception to this and just vote for people with the last name “Tarr” for our two State House seats. Because Bruce doesn’t MAGA.
Now for the real meat and potatoes: If you’re a Massachusetts voter, you should have received an 87-page mailer explaining the 9 (NINE) ballot questions for the state election on November 3. And, if you’re anything like us, you go cross-eyed at the thought of reading an 87-page mailer. We don’t even want to do a nostalgic look at an old Sears catalogue.
Not gonna lie, though, a $1300 DIY house sounds pretty lit
Question 1: Expanding the Public Records Law: Vote YES
Voting Yes on Question 1 would make most records held by the Legislature and the Office of the Governor public records under the Massachusetts Public Records Law. Everyone knows how much of a hot-button issue the audit has been, right? This would help to make that point moot and hopefully shut up some of the Facebook bots. Are there some potential downsides? The one concern we can get behind is that constituents should be able to contact their representatives in confidence. And that should be a carve-out. Otherwise, transparency = good.
Question 2: Collective Bargaining for CPCS Employees: Vote YES
Voting Yes on Question 2 would specify that the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services employees may form a union to collectively bargain with their employer. Unionize? Yes. Always. Duh. Plus they get screwed pretty badly now.
Question 3: State Primary Elections: Vote NO
This seems like a Yes, but this question would eliminate separate party primaries for state elections and require a single primary in which all candidates appear on one ballot. Voting Yes on this question favors PACs and candidates with more money. As much as the two-party system sucks, we’d be better with RCV than with this nonsense. We want an equitable election from start to finish, so let’s leave it as is, thanks. That doesn’t make us fans of the current state of affairs, it just recognizes that the “all-party primary” is disturbingly easy to game.
This isn’t just a “vote blue” issue, either. If you have a reliably Democratic seat that’s open, a lot of candidates tend to line up for that open seat. Let us remind you of the just-concluded primary for MA-06 that was won by Dan Koh. Koh wound up winning with 42% of the vote as a lot of last-minute consolidation happened, and he made the ballot against Micah Jones who was unopposed on the Republican side. Koh is likely to win the seat, but the GOP can compete for it.
Were there an all-party primary this outcome still could have happened. But given the results, there was also a pretty good chance we would have wound up with Jones off the ballot, and a Koh/Nguyen final between two Democrats could have happened. As Democrats we should like that outcome, but as fans of democracy we don’t.
In any scenario where one party has a number of candidates and the other only one or two, it’s much more likely that the party with most of the candidates split the vote enough to let the other party take both slots.
Give us real election finance reform, get rid of PACs, and allow ranked choice voting and we’d be all for the all-party primary. Without those fixes, it’s not such a good idea.
Question 4: Election Day Registration: Vote YES
A Yes vote would permit eligible citizens to register to vote or to update their voter registration address at their polling place on Election Day. If you’ve ever missed the voter registration deadline (it’s October 24, bbs, so get going), you’ve left your vote in everyone else’s hands. For those of us who do everything at the last minute, a Yes on this question eliminates another barrier to register to vote. We stan a no-barrier election for the populace. A lot of states already do this and it works just fine.
Question 5: State Revenue Limit and Rebate: Vote NO
This proposed law would change the limit on how much tax revenue the state can collect in a given year. The proposed law would include all revenue from the surtax on incomes over $1 million when calculating the revenue limit and when determining whether state revenue exceeds the limit. Voting Yes would roll back the progress Massachusetts has made since passing the Fair Share Amendment in 2022. Because the White House doesn’t like blue states, we need all the revenue we can get to fund important things like public schools and MassHealth.
We know Massachusetts has a reputation as a high-tax state, but do a little searching and you’ll see the truth: we’re right in the middle of the pack depending on how and what you measure – generally ranked between 21st and 29th. The “Millionaire’s Tax” surcharge puts us higher for some people (and affects our overall ranking when conservative site calculate the burden). But those aren’t the people reading this blog post. Your Clam and virtually all of you don’t pay the surcharge but we all benefit from it. See below.
This is another one of those questions that sounds great – but the people who get this tax money back are the people who need it least, to be blunt. And it’s basically a back-door way to try and repeal the very successful “Millionaire’s Tax” that the voters approved a couple of elections ago. It affects about half a percent of our taxpayers, about 22k households. Don’t fall for it.
Question 6: Natural Resource Conservation Fund: Vote ?
If Question 6 passes, money from the state’s General Fund would be allocated to a Natural Resource Conservation Fund. This fund can only be used for conservation purposes. According to Ballotpedia, “Question 6 would require that 50% of the tax revenue from the sale and use of sporting goods, recreational vehicles, and golf courses be placed in the fund. After July 1, 2028, 100% of tax revenue from the sale and use of those items would be placed in the fund. Question 6 would also create a 15-person commission that would oversee the use of the revenue fund.”
We like the idea in principle, but there’s a lot more questions than answers so far. The Clam Editorial Board is pretty split on this question and neither side is too passionate about it. Research and vote the way you want to.
Question 7: Single Family Homes: Vote YES
Question 7 is another tool in the tool box for aspiring homeowners, developers, and landlords to add to affordable housing stock. Seems like a no-brainer to us. But hey, we know housing is needed in this state, we don’t have enough of it, and that makes it even more expensive. Most of Team Clam has kids, and we’d like them to be able to afford to live here someday, preferably in their own home instead of with us FOREVER.
Question 8: Prohibit Retail Sale of Adult Recreational Use Marijuana: Vote NO
Folks, asked and answered. Massachusetts came out strongly in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana 10 years ago. Recreational marijuana is now a huge part of the Massachusetts economy. It isn’t going away. It shouldn’t go away. The feds will hopefully catch up with the rest of us soon. The state makes money, people have jobs, and your neighborhood pot dealer is likely out of business nowadays, and though marijuana isn’t 100% harmless it pales in comparison to alcohol, tobacco, and other legal vices.
Question 9: Firearms Regulation: Vote YES
Another no-brainer. We are allowed to own firearms in Massachusetts with reasonable regulations. Keep them in place. This ain’t Texas. Thank goodness. Though if we had all the open space they did we’d have a lot more wind farms.