Thanks; this was helpful. The first section was still confusing, though; there were eight candidates, but only four bubbles. Since I was supposed to pick eight names, I just filled in all four bubbles.
I live in California and have seen the mayhem caused by voter initiatives. Prop 13 comes to mind.
Full disclosure, when I was young, stupid and uninformed I canvassed in favor of Prop 13, which has been screwing up state and local budgets for 46 years. I contracted a severe case of strep throat while canvassing, proof that karma works.
Now, after 64 years as an eligible voter my default vote in initiatives is “No”. if there was a “Hell No” bubble I’d fill that in.
On rare occasions there are initiatives that make sense, like removing text from the state constitution that allows jail inmates to be used as slave labor. (I kid you not, Prop 6on this year’s ballot). Those I vote Yes on.
If there was a proposition to repeal every proposition passed in the last 50 years, and require our state representatives to do their damned jobs instead of farming them out to us, I’d vote for it.
We have 14 ballot questions in Colorado, ranging from banning mountain lion hunting to putting a right to abortion in the state constitution to taking the same-sex marriage ban *out* of the constitution to doing ranked choice voting and jungle primaries. Add to that 2 from my county and 2 from my city and I had 18 dang things to decide on. It's important stuff (mostly...) but it's a lot!
That said, I will be voting for Mary Jane Danknugget, thank you very much.
Portland, OR just joined the ranked choice voting ballot circus like its big sibling San Fran. Plus, we voted in 2022 to change our city government from a mayor-led five person city council to a confederation of 12(or is it 16?) people with the mayor assuming the mantle of local level governor. Confusing? You bet. That ballot envelope is a real bearcat!
Jeff, you'd have to be commissioned by the New Yorker to write a 10,000 word piece in order to interpret the ballot the way you did yours!
I love the fact that despite (1) everybody admits that the average person isn't very smart and isn't paying much attention to politics, (2) popular voting is a component of the best known way(s) to run a polity. Who would have predicted that?
Average people can notice when things get really shitty really fast and vote against that status quo. It ain't perfect, but its better then things getting very shitty very fast and there is nothing we can do about it because Our Dear Leader is flawless and unquestionable.
Apparently Maricopa County Arizona has 57 separate races on the ballot this year and as a result, the ballot is 2 pages long. Imagine having to power through that baby.
I had to suppress hysterical laughter because I'm at work. Well done.
Thanks; this was helpful. The first section was still confusing, though; there were eight candidates, but only four bubbles. Since I was supposed to pick eight names, I just filled in all four bubbles.
My ballot is in the mail!
I live in California and have seen the mayhem caused by voter initiatives. Prop 13 comes to mind.
Full disclosure, when I was young, stupid and uninformed I canvassed in favor of Prop 13, which has been screwing up state and local budgets for 46 years. I contracted a severe case of strep throat while canvassing, proof that karma works.
Now, after 64 years as an eligible voter my default vote in initiatives is “No”. if there was a “Hell No” bubble I’d fill that in.
On rare occasions there are initiatives that make sense, like removing text from the state constitution that allows jail inmates to be used as slave labor. (I kid you not, Prop 6on this year’s ballot). Those I vote Yes on.
If there was a proposition to repeal every proposition passed in the last 50 years, and require our state representatives to do their damned jobs instead of farming them out to us, I’d vote for it.
I don't think a lack of tax revenue is the main problem California faces.
I was going to write in “E. Coli” for Sheriff.
So good! To everyone who skimmed: go back and read it closely. There are layers, man, layers upon layers.
I laughed so hard it hurt. The sheriff's names SLAYED me. Brilliant stuff.
I’m glad I powered through that ballot question.
I voted yes on like, 40 of these things. Who is against raising money for schools? 😄
On the ballot question I added a circle for "Maybe" and chose that. It seemed the responsible thing to do.
I wasn't planning on voting until I saw that Heather Goldensnatch was on the ballot. I love me some Goldensnatch.
We have 14 ballot questions in Colorado, ranging from banning mountain lion hunting to putting a right to abortion in the state constitution to taking the same-sex marriage ban *out* of the constitution to doing ranked choice voting and jungle primaries. Add to that 2 from my county and 2 from my city and I had 18 dang things to decide on. It's important stuff (mostly...) but it's a lot!
That said, I will be voting for Mary Jane Danknugget, thank you very much.
Portland, OR just joined the ranked choice voting ballot circus like its big sibling San Fran. Plus, we voted in 2022 to change our city government from a mayor-led five person city council to a confederation of 12(or is it 16?) people with the mayor assuming the mantle of local level governor. Confusing? You bet. That ballot envelope is a real bearcat!
Jeff, you'd have to be commissioned by the New Yorker to write a 10,000 word piece in order to interpret the ballot the way you did yours!
I love the fact that despite (1) everybody admits that the average person isn't very smart and isn't paying much attention to politics, (2) popular voting is a component of the best known way(s) to run a polity. Who would have predicted that?
Average people can notice when things get really shitty really fast and vote against that status quo. It ain't perfect, but its better then things getting very shitty very fast and there is nothing we can do about it because Our Dear Leader is flawless and unquestionable.
Apparently Maricopa County Arizona has 57 separate races on the ballot this year and as a result, the ballot is 2 pages long. Imagine having to power through that baby.
In San Francisco, our ballot is regularly 5 or 6 pages, due to the city and state ballot propositions and ranked choice voting.