What's in your ballot?

[BigV]

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.

Initiative Measure No. 522

Initiative Measure No. 522 concerns labeling of genetically-engineered foods. This measure would require most raw agricultural commodities, processed foods, and seeds and seed stocks, if produced using genetic engineering, as defined, to be labeled as genetically engineered when offered for retail sale. Should this measure be enacted into law?

Y/N

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

The No on 522 campaign reached record ground fueled by last week’s contributions of $3.8 million from the food-industry PAC the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and $460,000 from biochemical giant Dupont Pioneer.

With $11 million in cash contributions so far, the GMA remains the No campaign’s top donor. The food-industry group — financed by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, NestleUSA and Conagra Foods among others — only revealed its own funders this month after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued it for campaign disclosure violations.

Other top donors to the No campaign include Monsanto ($4.8 million), DuPont Pioneer ($3.9 million), Bayer Cropscience and Dow Agrosciences ($592,000 each).

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.

[Griff]

Elections? We still have those? Quaint.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by BigV

My vote is YES on 522.

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.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

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...

Initiative 517

No

This initiative is another steaming turd from right-wing profiteer Tim Eyman, who makes a nice living for himself running initiatives that pander to voters by promising to reduce taxes (then pissing off voters because those initiatives wind up gutting stuff people love, like money for schools). And I-517 is Eyman's most self-serving initiative yet: It makes it cheaper and easier for him to run even more initiatives! I-517 would double the length of time allowed to gather signatures from six months to 12. It would also force sensible people who want to ask gullible people not to sign one of Tim's stupid initiatives to stay 25 feet away from his signature gatherers. Even business owners could be thrown in the slammer for attempting to bar aggressive signature gatherers from private property! It's stupid, it's unnecessary, and it will just lead to more stupid, unnecessary Eyman initiatives making it onto your ballot. Vote no on I-517.

and

Advisory Votes No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7

Maintained

What a stupid fucking waste of time. These measures are the zombified corpses of another Eyman initiative, which required a two-thirds majority of the legislature for any tax increases. That initiative was struck down in court as unconstitutional, but the part of the law requiring a nonbinding "advisory vote" every time the legislature passes a tax increase, or even closes a tax loophole, stumbles on. That's what these are: nonbinding advisory votes. They're totally meaningless. But they're compelling reading! Take, for example, No. 5: "The legislature extended, without a vote of the people, the insurance premium tax to some insurance for pediatric oral services, costing an amount that cannot currently be estimated, for government spending." Then you're asked if this law should be repealed or maintained. But even if "repealed" takes 100 percent of the vote... the law will be maintained. Don't give Eyman the satisfaction of sending an antitax message. On all of them, vote "Maintained." And fuck Tim Eyman.

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...

[Lamplighter]

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.

[monster]

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

[gvidas]

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.

[monster]

meanwhile in nearby Toronto...

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

[BigV]

Originally Posted by monster

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

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.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

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.

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.

[Lamplighter]

[glatt]

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.

[BigV]

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!



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.

[chrisinhouston]

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.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by chrisinhouston

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.