It’s election day!

It may be a light turnout in some states. But election watchers will be looking at some races for portents for 2012.

Voters in Ohio will be deciding whether to repeal Senate Bill 5, known as Issue 2 on the ballot there. It’s a battle between labor unions and Democrats and the state’s Republican leadership, which wants to reduce spending by cracking down on public employee unions. That’s an issue that has resonance in other states such as Wisconsin and Florida.

The elimination of binding arbitration for public safety forces is among the changes Issue 2 would make to Ohio’s collective bargaining law and is backed by Gov. John Kasich and the Republican-led Legislature. Binding arbitration calls on a neutral third party to settle an impasse in labor negotiations. This process is reserved for police, firefighters and other safety forces that cannot strike under Ohio law.

PolitiFact Ohio checked Kasich’s claim that “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to have somebody from Los Angeles fly into Zanesville and impose a wage settlement on you that you have to pay and then they’re on the plane back to Los Angeles.” We ruled it Pants on Fire.

PolitiFact Ohio also checked a claim by proponents of Senate Bill 5, which also would require public employees to contribute at least 15 percent of the cost of their health benefits and 10 percent of their salaries toward pensions. Proponents of the bill ran an advertisement saying it would save taxpayers money. There were savings, but they were not across the board, so it rated Mostly True.

You can see more statements related to this issue in the Kasich file.