Not just candidates: Workers' rights and education hang on ballot measures

In addition to candidates from president to local office, many voters will be faced with ballot measures they may know little about. Here are some of the many labor and education-related ballot measures; this is far from an exhaustive list, so please chime in in the comments with others. Most, if not all, of these measures have faced big spending from Super PACs and other Republican dark money groups to tilt the playing field even more in favor of billionaires and corporations.

Michigan

Michigan has three key labor-related proposals. A No vote on Prop. 1 strikes down Public Act 4, the state's anti-democratic Emergency Manager law. A Yes vote on Prop. 2 enshrines the right to collective bargaining in the state's constitution. A Yes vote on Prop. 4 will create a registry for home care providers who have been properly screened, and gives home care providers access to better training.

California

A Yes vote on Prop. 30 would raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent and institute a 1/4 cent sales tax to fund schools and public safety. A No vote on Prop. 32 blocks this attempt to make it much harder for unions to raise money for political purposes cloaked in the guise of getting big money out of politics (something it doesn't do). Related, 10 ways Prop. 32 would hurt California.

Frying Pan News rounds up how some key partisan organizations have endorsed on all of California's ballot measures.

Voters in San Jose and Long Beach will also have the opportunity to raise the minimum wage.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

As I wrote Saturday, Albuquerque has a ballot question raising the city's minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, tying it to inflation, and increasing the minimum wage for tipped workers to 60 percent of the regular minimum over two years.