Pages Tagged “election”
Blog Posts
- I Voted, Primarily
Last Friday, I dropped off my ballot for today’s primary election. I’ve got to say, I really appreciate the new approach in LA County of mailing everyone eligible a ballot, maintaining permanent drop boxes at relevant locations (libraries, etc.), and opening some polling places early to accept completed ballots. MUCH more convenient than needing the […]
- Not the Same
Option 1: will do some things you want, and some things you don’t. Option 2: won’t do anything you want, will do all the same things you don’t want that option 1 will do, has promised to do more things you don’t want, undo the things you wanted that have already happened, make it more […]
- Patch the Electoral System
Whatever you think of the electoral system, the fact that we have to wait for people to copy down those electoral votes is no longer helpful, and the fact that they can choose (or be pressured) to vote for someone else is a vulnerability in our democracy that should be patched. You want to keep […]
- Voting Experience: Los Angeles’ New “Vote Centers” and Machines
Los Angeles County has a new voting system this year. Instead of every registered voter being assigned a specific polling place based on their home address, you can vote at any polling place — excuse me, “vote center” — in the county. There are fewer locations than there used to be, but they’re also open […]
- Busier Midterm Voting than Expected
The polling place was full this morning. I had to drive all the way around the block to find parking (notice the line of cars), which I can’t recall ever having to do at this location. (The 2016 election used a different polling place for this area.) I wondered if I should have walked there […]
- Don’t Like the National Candidates? Vote in the Smaller Elections Too
So you don’t like the candidates in national elections? Vote in the primaries. You don’t like the primary choices either? Vote in the state-level and midterm elections. You don’t like the midterm choices? Vote in your local elections. National candidates don’t appear out of thin air. They start locally and climb up. And those local […]
- California: Don’t sit out the midterms. Check your Voter Registration TODAY
Californians! Today is the last day to register to vote in time for the midterm election. Don’t sit this one out! Even if you don’t care which Senator wins, even if the propositions are overwhelming… We’re choosing the next governor. We’re choosing the House reps & state legislature. For Secretary of State we’re literally choosing […]
- California: Vote this November!
Californians: If you can vote this November, don’t sit this one out. We have a governor to choose. We have representatives to select. And we need to shut down the 3-Californias plan hard. It’s a terrible, outlandish, unpopular idea…but in a midterm election (low turnout already) with the specter of voter suppression? Don’t rely on […]
- Are you SURE You’re Registered?
A family member was incorrectly removed from the voting rolls. She hasn’t moved in about 7 years, hasn’t done anything to lose eligibility, and has been active in every election during that time. Even the local ones. She cast a provisional ballot and is trying to sort out what the hell happened to her registration. […]
- Straight-Party Checkbox: Bad Design Pattern
Putting a straight-party checkbox on a ballot violates a key design principle: The polling place and ballot should strive to avoid steering people toward specific choices. This is also why some places randomize candidates’ names or stick with alphabetical order. The human brain would rather work on auto-pilot than think carefully. Give it an excuse […]
- Vote Local!
Remember to vote in local elections. Initiatives, council and school board members, judges, etc. affect you and your community directly. It may not be as exciting as the Presidential race, but it determines who makes decisions in your town, who passes and enforces city laws and regulations, local taxes, which services are offered and how. […]
- Election/Patch Day
My calendar lists last Tuesday as “Election Patch Day.” I guess you could consider elections to be patches keeping the government up to date.
- CA Prop 16: Are You Serious?
There are several things about Proposition 16 (on tomorrow’s California ballot) that just make me say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” 1. The ad campaign is horribly misleading. They’re promoting it as “Your Right To Vote,” but it has nothing to do with your right to vote. I guess “Making it hard for local […]
- (Almost) Forgotten Election
Before: Totally forgot about the special election today. No biggie, the lines will probably be nonexistent even in the evening. After: Basically no line, but there were a few people voting. The polling place volunteers were playing poker to pass the time between voters.
- Making Every Vote Count
A few years back, some sort of registration snafu* left my name off the rolls at my polling place and I had to cast a provisional ballot. I remember being extremely unhappy that night when everyone declared the winner and I knew for a fact that my vote had not been counted. Sure, it would […]
- Sending the Wrong Message?
I figured I’d wait until after the election to post this one. Insert your own joke about renting politicians. (Sorry about the image quality; it was across an intersection, so it was pretty small on the original image. I didn’t even resize it. It’s just cropped. Yeah, my camera isn’t that fantastic once you get […]
- Thoughts on a Post-Election Morning
First, I’m very happy that Barack Obama won the Presidential election. This was the first time since 1996 that I’ve actually liked a candidate for the office. While I did vote for Al Gore and John Kerry, their main qualifications in my mind were that they weren’t George W. Bush, whose policies and leadership style […]
- Election Day 2008
Katie and I got up early so we could hit the polls first thing in the morning and not have to worry about whether we’d be stuck in an insanely long line at the end of the day, like we were in 2004 and 2006. The first thing we noticed was the sound of rain […]
- Shifting
I find it ironic that McCain spent ~2 years moving himself toward Bush’s positions in order to make himself more electable, only to find out when he got there that (a) it still wasn’t enough for the Uber-Republican base, necessitating a choice like Palin to mollify them, and (b) Bush had lost so much popularity […]
- On Proper Cliché Use
If I understand this correctly, it’s apparently okay to compare an entire class of women to pit bulls wearing lipstick, but using a worn-out cliché to compare a candidate’s policies to a pig wearing lipstick is sexist. So is being called a dog better than being called a pig? Or is it just more offensive […]
- Jumping the Gun
Today’s “Super Tuesday,” on which a whole bunch of states hold their primary elections. We still have have Democrats running against other Democrats and Republicans running against other Republicans, hoping to get their parties’ nominations for this fall’s Presidential election. So it was weird last night to see an ad for Republican Mitt Romney contrasting […]
- Getting Propositioned
Oddly, the usual deluge of election propaganda hasn’t materialized yet, and the election is less than a week away. While looking through the scanty haul, most of which is focused on a quartet of propositions on Indian gaming, Katie found an intriguing statement: Wait… pubic services? Whoa! And here I thought gambling on tribal lands […]
- Primary Reactions & Binary Thinking
Had dinner at my parents’ last night, and at one point talk turned to yesterday’s primary election. It’s quite interesting that, within a matter of days, the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary chose different candidates for both major parties. It points out something that should be obvious: State-wide primaries don’t tell you how well […]
- Londo/G’Kar in 2008!
This just showed up in my email from Babylon 5 Scripts: From JMS’s Cafe Press store (the same site through which he’s selling his script books with commentary): With the coming 2008 elections, there aren’t a lot of candidates we can agree upon. So as a public service, we are now providing a slate of […]
- Holding the Center
California is an interesting state. We just re-elected Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger 55% to 39%, but also re-elected Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein 60% to 35%. All but one of the remaining state offices went to Democrats (some by larger margins than others). The Governator is talking about a mandate. Politicians always do that when they […]
- I Voted for Kodos
No comment on the candidate, since I don’t live in the city, just… is anyone else reminded of these guys? Image from The Duff Brewery. [edit: no longer online] Incidentally, while looking for a page on “Citizen Kang,” I discovered that “I Voted for Kodos” is also the name of a band.
- Campaign Camp
Now that the election is done, here are some of the campaign signs we saw that elicited some unintended laughter. I couldn’t decide between two captions: “But I did not hunt the deputy…” and “I didn’t think they were in season.” This isn’t funny on its own, but coming right off the Lost season finale, […]
- Uh, that’s a negative
The Los Angeles Times website had an interesting way of describing the results of yesterday’s state election: It’s hard to believe that all eight propositions failed. Even the four Orange County measures failed. Every item on the ballot in our district was rejected! On a related note, I still don’t like the voting machines we […]
- Two to Go
Woke up early (well, early for me) so we could get out and hit the polls before work. I was amazed that there was only one person in line ahead of us. Not only that, but there was only one line, not three or four broken up by last name. Well, it’s a mid-term election. […]
- Vote!
If you live in California and you’re a registered voter: vote! If you like the initiatives on the ballot, vote them in. If you don’t like them, vote them out. If you’re disgusted with the way the initiative process has been subverted by the very political machines and special interest groups it was supposed to […]
- Purple America
Veeery interesting! By now everyone’s seen maps colored in red/blue by state, which make the vote look very regional (the South and Midwest pull red, and the northeast, the West Coast, and the Great Lakes area pull blue). A map by county makes the country look extremely red, until you realize that many of the […]
- At least someone has sense over there
CNN: Lawmakers oppose election delay [archive.org]. Among the outcry is a resolution sponsored by Ohio Senator Bob Ney (a Republican, for the record) stating that “the actions of terrorists will never cause the date of any presidential election to be postponed” and “no single individual or agency should be given the authority to postpone the […]
- Thunderous Thought
A loud clap of thunder sent half the office to the windows about 20 minutes ago, and prompted cries of “Save now!” That got me thinking. In theory, we’re supposed to have e-voting in today’s election. Are the voting machines on UPSes? If the polling place loses power, is there any kind of backup to […]
- Oh, what a circus!
193 people have filed candidacy papers for the upcoming recall election. Just think about it: if every application is verified, we could have almost two hundred names on the ballot, just for one office. And they’re going to be listed randomly. Imagine how long the ballot will be. Heck, imagine how long the info pamphlet […]
- Conan the Governor
OK, most people are focusing on Terminator jokes when it comes to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s candidacy, but I’m reminded of the “Conan the Librarian” sketch from UHF. “Uh, this budget is a little overdue.” “Ovah-doo? HYAAARGH!” (Cleaves the hapless legislator in half with his sword.)
- Let’s See If I’ve Got This Right
One things that’s bugged me since the start of the effort to recall Governor Davis is that people keep bringing up the budget crisis. Repeat after me: The Legislature chooses the budget, not the Governor. Recalling the governor because the legislature can’t get its act together is like firing your plumber because your electrician screwed […]
- A Better Voting System
For several years now (before the 2000 Presidential election, but even more strongly after that), I’ve been of the opinion that allowing people to mark a 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice on each ballot would effectively resolve the “lesser of two evils” problem that limits us to the Republicans and Democrats as the only viable […]
- Interesting write-in candidates
On the same corner where a few weeks ago someone had placed “Atomic X For Governor” signs, Katie and I saw a new parody. There’s a candidate in a local election named Brett Floyd, and someone had gotten neon pink cardboard and written up a “Vote Pink Floyd” sign. For once we actually had a […]