What's in your ballot?
 

This election, there are the usual city council races, levy proposals, local rules changes, etc. Those are important, but kind of boring. There are some other issues on the ballot this election that are gaining *much* wider attention.

This initiative has set a new record by a wide margin for the most expensive ballot measure in state history, over 21 million dollars having been collected by the No on 522 campaign. That dwarfs the 6.3 million dollars raised by the Yes on 522 campaign. "Follow the money" as Deep Throat suggested, and when I do, I find
I find these donors more likely to be interested in their corporate profits than in my well being. I've listened to the No claims and I'm unconvinced that it's more important to remain ignorant than it is to know what's going on with my food. My vote is YES on 522.

The other issue that might be gaining widespread attention is Proposition 1 (I don't have an exact quote, sorry) that suggests that the minimum wage be raised to $15.00 per hour. This is for a small city south of Seattle, called SeaTac, it's the city where our airport is located. The population of the city is about 25,000 people, and I've heard that as few as 4,000 people will be voting on the measure. There've been many arguments about this one and since I don't live in the city where it's on the ballot, I won't have a chance to vote on it, though I support it and I would vote YES if given the chance.

There is another one called Initiative Measure No. 517.

Here's the executive summary for this one: It's sponsored/written/contaminated by Tim Eyman, conservative political provacateur and criminal asshole. Therefore NO on anything with his stink on it. NO on 517.

Of local interest:

Prop 19, a change to the Seattle City Council method of representation to a hybrid system of districts and at-large members. I think I'm gonna vote yes.

Prop 1, a proposition to create a system of publicly funded election campaigns. I think I'm gonna vote yes.

I'm undecided about which candidate for mayor, Mike McGinn (incumbent) or Ed Murray, I'll support.

There are four "Advisory Votes" on the ballot, which are kinda weird. An advisory vote is a chance for the electorate to express their non binding opinion about something the legislature's already done. In this case, our state government changed the tax laws as part of the effort to balance our state budget. They closed four loopholes (one man's loophole is another man's incentive--an entirely different conversation). More Tim Eyman nonsense.

Washington is an entirely vote-by-mail state now, so I've had my ballot for a week or two, it's due to be postmarked by Tuesday. I'll let you know the score.

Elections? We still have those? Quaint.

This is the only political campaign I have ever donated actual money to, because it will likely set a precedent for the rest of the nation. I am glad to know you will be voting yes.

I'll put your dollars to good use. Thank you.

...

on a different note, here are a couple endorsements from a local paper. I got a chuckle...:D
and
SonofV and I have voted, now I'm headed over to Mom's place to help her vote, and I've contacted BelovedDaughter to remind her that her ballot's due today.

That's four votes for 522 (I hope/expect) and four against 517. Plus mayor, etc... :)

V, FYI, for the past couple of weeks the advocates for HR 522,
the "genetically engineered food labeling measure, has been running
just one specific tv ad in the Vancouver/PDX area.
I believe it will be extremely effective.

It is a spokesman for Consumer Union (Consumer Reports)
putting CU's own reputation on the line by contradicting
each of the mega industries' bullet points.

* Consumer Union has long advocated this kind of labeling
* milk, meat and human food will be labeled, dog food will not
* the labeling will be accurate and informative
* the labeling should not increase food prices
* Washington will lead the nation in this effort
*** Vote YES on 522 ***

The industry opposition (fear - fear - fear) ads came out early and frequently.
This CU ad is running only in the last couple of weeks until voting today.

I think it will be very interesting to see the outcome - I'm guessing it will pass.

the Twenty-pound-carp didn't win...

Detroit elected its first white mayor (Mike Duggan) since '74, when Coleman Young took over for Roman Gribbs; its first Latina city council member (Raquel Castaneda-Lopez); and, by 50 votes, its first white city council member (Gabe Leland) since '74 or thereabouts.

Duggan won the primary on a write-in campaign after filing as a candidate too early (he hadn't been a resident for one year); being disqualified, despite the fact that had he waited two weeks to file, he would have been eligible; appealing twice; conceding the point; and then changing his mind. As a write-in candidate during the primary, he was then challenged by a guy named Mike Dugeon, who also mounted a write-in candidacy. And then, yesterday, Dugeon voted for Duggan.

Not quite a 20-lb carp.

meanwhile in nearby Toronto...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24826976

:lol:

Thanks monster. I had this race rattling around in my head but I wasn't sure if it was a real news story or the memory of a fever dream.

LOL bottom feeder.

That ad from the CR guy played here too. Looks like 522 is headed to defeat. There are maybe 250k votes outstanding and a deficit of about 100k votes. We'll see.

:sniff:

Glad we dodged a bullet in Virginia. It was much closer than it should have been.

I just saw that the race for Attorney General is real close. Only 55 votes difference. That will cause a recount.

Cuccinelli, right? That is the bullet you dodged? Here in WA I think the threshold for a manual recount is when the difference is less than half a percent of the vote cast.

Back to Cuccinelli. I just looked at the election page at Politico for Virginia. Wow, there are about 6 million voters in the state and almost that many counties! Look at this map!

Attachment 45956

That's what the victory for McAullife map looks like. I think it's also representative of where the population centers are. The difference between the top two candidates is about 50k votes, which seems quite close. I think this is good for VA, and good for the country because Cuccinelli and his Tea Party fellows are chock full of bad ideas; I'm happy to see them lose.

But I also think the race was close enough to give them hope, indeed, I've been listening to Rush Limbaugh this morning and the whining (today) has been about how the Republican party leadership doomed Cuccinelli's campaign by starving it for money. So, they're not disheartened, just mad. I think this will simply prolong the internal fighting on the conservative side of the country's party structure. This will not bode well for Rs in coming national elections. I think Christie (R) from NJ would be a much more competitve candidate for the Republican side, but the TP faction won't back him any more than the mainstream Rs will back Cuccinelli. Stalemate. D victory.

My wife and I voted against the bonds and future taxes to pay for the bonds to turn the Astrodome into some kind of convention space. The plans seemed to vague and I really think the dome is not condusive to the kind of venue they invisioned. We thought it is better to just let it go the way of the wrecking ball like mostly every other historic structure in Houston! Why stop now?

Also, we had to show photo ID under the new stupid law designed to stop non existent voter ID fraud! We chose to use our US Passports which say nothing about us living in Texas or anywhere for that matter. The volunteer ladies that run our little precinct were very nice and impressed and asked us if we travel a lot because none of them have ever had or seen a passport, and they explained that my county voter registration only has my middle initial and both my passport and data supplied to them from the Department of motor vehicles have my middle name as Brian. So technically my ID did not match but they checked the box that said they accepted me as the registered voter and I had to initial that it was incorrect. My wife also had an issue because when she registered to vote here 20 some years ago women were required to list their maiden name if they had one so her registration shows it as her middle name and she has no ID with that on it. Same story for her. So what the fuck did that solve? We used ID with no Texas address and slightly mismatching names and still voted. If we had voted absentee we would have not had to show anyone any ID! I am hopeful in a few years we will get a Democrat for a governor and a Democrat controlled legislature and they can scrap the stupid ID thing.

In a competitive district where the election worker had an agenda and thought you looked like you may oppose it, they could have stopped you.

That's what it solved.

Yes I think I heard Wendy Davis (Democrat running for Governor) had a problem.

at the risk of asking you to incriminate yourself, would you say that you committed voter fraud by not having the proper ID and voting anyhow?

and in other news, the minimum wage in SeaTac, the small city south of Seattle, the location of the airport, has passed Proposition 1, raising the minimum wage in the city of SeaTac to $15.00/hour.

whoa.

Our Aquarium (actually, Winter's aquarium) will get a new home.

Good news is that St. Pete has a new mayor.

No not at all, the US Passport is one of the allowable ID's such as a Texas DL or concealed gun permit :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: (college IDs even if from a state college are no longer valid) so our ID was fine. And the poll worker accepted our ID as valid, she just had to indicate that it did not match perfectly and I initialed that I agreed but we were allowed to vote and have our ballot counted. It just saddens me that the GOP in power here and in other states keep trying to game the system to keep their party in power. The voter ID as an election security issue is as false making abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges is for the safety of women.

Oh and one other funny thing. My area's TX legislator kept saying the ID issue was no different than having ID to get past the TSA for a flight. Well at the airport I can use my Global Entry card and my wife can use her TWIC card which are both valid federally issued ID but Texas does not recognize them for voting! :3_eyes:

Thanks Chris. I'm a little less ignorant and a little more discouraged by your story.

NYT exit poll says 53% of white women voted for Cuccinelli. :rolleyes:

Article in this morning's Washington Post said that a district in heavily Democratic Fairfax County VA seems to have misplaced about 4,000 absentee ballots. This is a big deal, because the race for Attorney General is so close. Only 770 votes difference.

They did a statistical analysis of ballot requests. In virtually all Virginia districts, the absentee ballot return rate is something like 95%, and in the two other Fairfax districts it is about 95%, but in this particular district, it's only 50%. Not cool, election officials.

They are investigating.

"They" are the problem.

Maybe.

"They" in this instance are Democrats who noticed the bizarre anomaly. The election board is made of both Democrats and Republicans and even the Republican on the election board says "I am convinced now too that there is an issue."

The board is investigating. It would be very unusual for 50% of the people who went through the trouble of requesting absentee ballots to not bother casting them.

I did not vote this year and two Borough Council candidates are tied at 357. It looks like it's going to be decided on a coin flip. My vote would have made the difference...



... and since I knew nothing about them, my vote would have been as thoughtful as a coin flip. I could have given Borough level power to someone for no particular reason at all. I could have elected someone absolutely wrong for the job, who might then have made terrible decisions for my area.

since you're already playin shoulda coulda woulda why don't you add I could have read up on each of the candidates and chosen the one that you liked best?

I read the basic information, printed in the same local news website that reported the results. I don't think I could remember any of them, but they did give information, such as how many children they have, and which local church they go to, and which local organizations they do things for.

And that they want to be on Council because they Care Very Hard About Collegeville. OMG the Caring. It's universal in local candidates. I'm sure you've seen that kind of bullshit summary before.

"Liked best" in this context is pretty much exactly the wrong reason to vote for someone, which is why they do it in that style. It's fine that they were Boy Scout troop leaders, or whatever, improves the probability that they are decent people. But it doesn't speak to what they would do on Council, or whether they have interests in line with Stalin. But that's why people vote for Council people, because they go to similar churches and are joiners who like to run Scouting troops.

Yeah but you could have made two bucks. :haha:

UT, I read your post and understood you to mean that the reason you didn't vote is because you didn't know enough ("nothing") to make an informed choice about which candidate to choose. I'm not suggesting "like" is the basis for choosing a candidate (you can if you want, your choice); I was suggesting that not knowing is a curable condition.

It's clear I'm a big fan of voting. I proselytize *every chance I get*. If your standards for earning your vote is to have a good idea about what they'd do on Council, then I encourage you to do what it takes to learn that. Then vote. That's my only message.

An aside--tha's also one of the reasons I find the ANTI-VOTING measures like reducing early voting windows, reducing polling places, onerous voter id requirements, shit like that that has the effect of driving down turnout---I fucking hate that crap. I don't support voter fraud, duh. But let the people fucking vote. Goooooddddaaammmmit I hate that shit. Not you, I like you. Even if you didn't vote. I just like it when people vote. Mkay?

You can't really learn about candidates. They lie at every level. Good luck with your voting.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/White...231222981.html

that's a pretty shitty story. I don't dispute your point that liars are in politics at every level, but that doesn't mean they're all liars. your story is an exceptional exception. and I think we can, no, must proceed with the imperfect information we're able to glean. even the reporter got the story right out there in Houston .

on top of which, SOMEONE IS going to be elected, and "govern" me, I have a vested interest in doing my best to make sure that the best candidate wins the election .

They found the missing ballots. Apparently they had inadvertently used the machine total from earlier in the night instead of the final tally. They fixed it. Last I heard, the democrat was now ahead by around 1000 votes instead of the republican by 700 votes. Now they have to finish looking at the provisional ballots.

17 votes in the Republican favor ???

Yeah sure.

Now it's 117 in the democrat's.

where's that see-saw smilie when you need it?

They're supposed to finish counting today and certify the results, but there will absolutely be a recount, so we'll know in December.

Virginia and Fairfax County counting results are crazy !

3000 ballots not counted !

This story should be in the Ooooops thread

It's that crazy everywhere.

You only notice it here because it's a close race and because they are transparent.

They will get it right by the time they finish the recount in December. And you'll get to watch them make the sausage every step of the way.

Because it's close... well, maybe
Because it's transparent... I don't think so.

* The Republican State DA runs for a different office, but does not recuse himself from election decisions.

* Virginia Electorial Board ordered thousands of names to be purged from voter lists just a few days before the election.

* When the Republicans are behind in the count,
the State Electorial Board changed the rule on counting ballots.
... voters with probationary ballots are now required to return in person to validate their ballot.

* When the Republicans are ahead in the count,
the Electorial Board indicates plan to certify the election results
... but social media leak news that 3000 ballots from (heavily Democratic) Fairfax County have not been counted

This election has been "transparent" only in the sense that investigative reporting has made it public.

So it's been transparent only in the sense that it's been transparent.

Not really. "...transparent only in the sense of "... i.e., "exposed"

Dr Phil says the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. :rolleyes:
But, I agree we have to wait to see how it goes from here... :corn:

The word transparent means that you can see it. It doesn't mean that the thing you can see is good or bad. It only means you can see it.

...

Attachment 46012

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