RIP the polling places

this was the last time that we in king county can go to the polls. i will miss going to the polls. seeing the same workers there, going through the routine of getting a ballot, signing the book after the worker spends 10 minutes finding my name cunningly hidden by the devious organizational method of alphabetical ranking, going and filling it in in ballpoint pen then inserting it in the machine and waiting to see the clicker tick over (i was #42 today, the highest number i can remember). we really have no other civic rituals and i am sad to see this one disappear.

nic rossouw

voted

i voted at the seattle center northwest rooms at 7:00 this morning. usually it is me, my dog java and about a dozen poll workers in an empty room at that time. today the room was packed and a line of people down the hall where the roof was leaking a steady stream though a light-fixture (which was still turned on??). fox news was there, showing the godless communist socialists casting their votes. at least they will be on the scene when the electrical sytem shorts out and the building goes up in flames. i had on my obama t-shirt, sweatshirt and beanie lest my conservative demeanor be interpreted as support for mcpalin. walked back to the office in the pouring rain, stopping for a celebratory coffee and scone at uptown espresso (the lesser queen anne branch). this was the most satisfactory vote since april 1994 when i went to the king county office building to cast my vote for nelson mandela.

nic

vote early vote often

belated because of work, but here they are, my 139th annual political endorsements:
without further ado:

US races
president: the choice has never been so clear OBAMA. i have heard there are a few joke candidates running against him, but i really think that tina fey is not ready to be president yet. obama is going to be one of the greatest presidents ever and coming in at a time when the country and world needs him. people in other countries have told me that they have never cared as much who wins the us presidential election or felt that it is critical to global political and economic stability.

house of representatives – 7th district: gentleman jim mcdermott. Yes, send him back to the other washington, he still breathes


Statewide races:
I-985 – fuck NO: bad idea that will increase congestion and slow mass transit and cost us a fortune, a great demonstration of the down side of the initiative process
I-1000 - YES: death with dignity. We will all need this if McPalin wins the presidency
I-1029 – NO: i think this is not a good piece of regulation at a time when the economy is crashing and the population is aging. We need caregivers by the armload. The legislature should take this up and pass good regulation, this is ill conceived.

supreme court – all are unopposed and decent, vote for them even though it does not matter

governor – gregoire!!!!! i cannot understand why this is a close race, rossi should be down by 20+ points. misogyny is the only rational explanation in my mind.

lt. governor – marcia mccraw. yes, i am supporting the republican. the democratic incumbent brad owen is a twit, one who thinks the war on drugs is not only good public policy, but is his mission in life. mccraw is liberal and thoughtful. if gregoire gets appointed to the obama cabinet, owen will become governor and we will all wish that rossi had won, that is how bad owen is. he is way more conservative than almost all of the republican party and is simply stupid. he should never have won this office and he needs to be voted out.

secretary of state – jason osgood. sam reed the republican incumbent is a decent guy and one who takes his job seriously enough to not favor his provide the r but i think we need a shakeup here to look harder at the flaws of electronic voting and the purging of voter rolls

attorney general – john ladenburg. while rob mckenna has not been the right wing crusader i expected, his lack of attention to environmental crimes makes me think that Ladenburg will be a better fit for what our state needs.

commissioner of public lands – peter goldmark. doug sutherland is not terrible, which means it will not be a disaster if he wins re-election, but goldmark will do more to help protect the environment, which in the end is more important than our simple human messing around on this planet.

superintendent of public instruction – randy dorn . i think we need a more radical activist in charge of public education. it feels as though we bumble along and it is time for some serious rethinking of how to run the schools.

state house of representatives-36th district – john burbank – will be the best thing to happen to the 36th in a long long time. thoughtful and smart. he is the reason i did not switch my registration away from the 36th even though i just moved to the 43rd
state house of representatives – 46th district – gerry pollet – not my district, but it was for 15 years. gerry will do more for the environment than anyone in the state legislature. i have known him for 20 years and he is a wonderful person who will be brilliant in this position.

king county:
charter amendments:
1 – no. we do not need an elected official running elections. A bad idea
2 - yes
3 - yes
4 – no i don’t understand why this one is on here, why do we need to add qualifications to run for office??
5 - yes
6 - yes
7 – yes tim eyman is opposed to this, so it is almost surely a good idea
8 – yes i think political parties have entirely too much power and the more non-partisan offices we have the better.

superior court position 1 – suzanne parisien
superior court position 22 – holly hill
superior court position 37 – barbara mack

City of Seattle:
proposition #1 (pike place market levy) – hell yes. the market is one of the few places in our city that have not become franchised to death and it needs upgrade and renovation.
proposition #2 (parks levy) – no. not the right time for this, our parks are getting fussied to death. they have adequate funding and there are times to say no to new taxes.

Sound Transit:
proposition #1 – yes - not perfect, but unless we build rail based mass transit, we will choke to death on traffic and car fumes. Seattle is about 100 years behind the times in doing this and it is expensive, but not doing it is a bad bad choice.



thanks all
get out and vote early and often.