Nice fall colors. Found all
over town. Enough to overcome the results from the
primary?
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Decent penmanship. Good use
of excess cardboard. Sure sign of a grass roots
campaign.
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The election quickly approaches and thanks to the lack of local polling we’re left to offer WAGs on how some races and measures will turn out come 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Feel free to project on:
Huntington/Stokes
City Council races
Port Orchard Mayor
Bremerton’s Proposition 1
Anything else.
Years ago I faulted a pro-school district levy team on Bainbridge for waiting too long to campaign. With mail-in elections, I said, you have to campaign before the ballots are mailed.
That may be true to some extent still, but I’ve had cause to re-think the value of late campaigning, in large part because of how much is still going on in the statewide races. It makes sense that the earlier someone votes, the less likely any campaigning matters anyway. But if you’re undecided, hearing that someone arguing for or against R-67 is lying might make a difference.
For those voting late in the process, do you think it’s caused by:
A. Uncertainty on R-67?
B. Uncertainty on Simple Majority?
C. Uncertainty on a local race or measure?
D. Uncertainty where the ballot ended up in the pile of mail?
The signs are supposed to be down a week from Friday, six days before Thanksgiving.
I’m not voting late in the process, everyone else is voting early. I resent having the option of voting at a polling location taken away from me. I’ve always felt that absentee or mail-in ballots should be restricted to people who are traveling, or who have a valid reason for being unable to make it to a polling location. I would hope that a dog would not be able to vote in person, but one never knows.
My Predictions.
Bremerton City Council : Roy Runyon Wins
Bainbridge City Council : Berry Peterson Wins (A real shocker!)
Simple Majority passes
Tim Eyman’s latest idiotic inactive fails.
My ballot went into the mail yesterday, for reason “D”. Sorry to disagree with Scott, but I like being able to vote in bathrobe and slippers.
Frankly, I think voting ought to be required.
I think that mail in balloting has been a huge success. I spent election day 2004 driving Senior Citizens to and from the Sylvan way library and the time that it took to vote was and hour to an hour and a half. Some of these folks were in their upper 80s and standing in line was tough on them. The all-mail in voting system ensures that everyone that wants to vote can according to their civil rights per the Voting Rights Act of 1969.
It is a republican myth that a mail in ballot election causes fraudulent voting and their claims of bogus fraud didn’t hold up in court when Dino WAAHH-Si had his sour grapes election challenge. The judge ruled that the only felons that could be proven to have voted for Rossi and he had that vote taken away in the final count. The only person to have their dog vote was a rightwing activist who is now facing possible voter fraud charges.
The all-mail in voting system ensures that everyone that wants to vote can according to their civil rights per the Voting Rights Act of 1969.
The vote by mail system helps prevent voter intimidation, voter caging, polling place discrimination and harassment as seen in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004.
Scott,
When we went to all mail-in voting, I felt like we lost something in the process.
It seems to me that the simple act of going to the polling place, knowing that I wouldn’t be shot at, intimidated at the door, or receive a beating when someone read my ballot and found out how I voted, was an exercise in freedom.
It just isn’t quite the same licking the stamp and envelope just before I put it in the mail.
Regards,
Kathryn Simpson
Kathryn if you want you can still take your ballot and go to a major Kitsap library and stand in line there before turning it in or go to the elections division and stand in line to go and turn it in. (If there is a line) It’s still the same ballot counted in the same place.
Why do we require a A “41 cent poll tax” stamp to vote? Shouldn’t the state pick up the tab or ask the Postal Service to give us a group discount. A lot of people (Like me) pay as many bills as we can online and I don’t have a steady supply of stamps on hand for when I have to mail a physical dead tree paper bill.
Thanks, Jake.
Btw, seems to me that I read an article the other day that said that if you don’t put a stamp on your ballot it gets delivered back to the county anyway and the county has to pay the stamp fee and your ballot gets counted.
If I recall correctly, a judge ruled that the stamp amounts to a poll tax.
Regards,
Kathryn Simpson
I have to agree with Scott and Kathryn. I, too, miss voting at the polls. When the kids were little, they were go into the booth with me and draw the lines, or punch the holes, or tap the machine, or whatever, based on where we lived.
I feel nostalgic for those days. Ahh…. So, I wait until election day and take my mail-in envelope down to the auditor’s office and drop it in the slot. Then, I pick up my “I voted” sticker, or two, and piece of chocolate candy, or two, and go on my way. Invariably, people will ask me with glistening eyes where I got the sticker. Ah, people love those stickers!
I suppose that my way isn’t all that environmentally friendly, but it sure feels friendly.
There was a great column on this topic in the TNN a couple of days ago.
I believe that the vote by mail became popular due to the National races. I remember in the 1980’s when Reagan won that the election was being called at 4:30PM in the afternoon, thus affecting the elections out west.
I tend to be a libertarian voter (ie. conserviative without the religion) and I like it.
I find it interesting when I checked the secretary of states website this morning, King County reports that they have zero ballots remaining to submit. I would contend that a county that repeatedly has demonstrated a lack of control of its ballots is ripe for voter fraud. If one contends there is no fraud in King County, then there was no fraud in Florida nor Ohio. Years back I voted in chicago and they have so many people watching your ballot, it would be hard to cheat in that “corrupt” city.
I always find it so puzzling that they can say things like that. How can they have zero ballots remaining to submit, when there are people who mailed theirs on Tuesday. Some of these may take a week to come in. I am also puzzled by people calling the election when there might be so many outstanding. I guess they judge it based on the percentages remaining, but it still doesn’t seem right. I think people call elections too soon and concede too soon.
I would have liked to see the presidential candidates for those infamous Florida and Ohio races wait just a little bit longer. I don’t see how it would hurt to double count really close elections.
They did update to 199,000 late yesterday. I get concerned because many people mail them in early and if they do not have a handle on how many they have received, how does King county manage their process.
I voted late because I’ve been extremely busy, but also because I’m used to eleventh hour scandals or revelations which can impact candidacies.
Plus, dropping it in the ballot box is a hybrid and way to retain some of the ‘old’ way.
I voted early, and then always lament that I should have waited. I always say I will keep track of who calls and vote for the candidate or issue who calls on the phone the least.