1.   Although the state hiring plan is not a strict quota, Alec MacMillan, Civil Service Commission chairman, said he thought the proposed ballot question could undercut it.

2.   An Associated Press poll on the ballot question found that most residents planned to vote for it.

3.   And the local governments worry that the ballot question has eroded their power.

4.   Another citizen group has formed to strategize how to get a ballot question asking for labels on genetically engineered foods before voters in the next few years.

5.   Another way of attacking successful ballot questions is through the courts.

6.   Ballot questions could herald many changes, among them how politicians finance their campaigns and whether public agencies must continue to hire on the basis of race and gender.

7.   Birmingham adamantly opposes the ballot question.

8.   Brain argued that LAFCO can simply incorporate all the taxes into the overall ballot question submitted to voters.

9.   Bradley was the first presidential candidate to announce his opposition to the ballot question, and Gore quickly followed suit.

10.   A new study also presented at the Tufts conference indicated that Massachusetts is a demographically ideal state for an animal-welfare ballot question.