My Ballot

I've had my absentee ballot sitting on the table here for some time. I guess it's about time to fill it out and send it in. It looks like there will be more blank spaces than votes on it this time around.

Starting off with the state wide offices, that's a rather boring one, being a registered Libertarian Party voter. No contested primaries for any of the offices. I'll go ahead and check the box for the candidates that are running, though, and the LP has candidates for all the statewide offices.

Superintendent Of Public Schools is one race that I've paid no attention at all to. I'll Stand Aside, as the Greens put it, on that one and not vote for anyone.

County Tax Assessor- Mari Wilson: No bad candidates in this one. I felt sorry for Johanna Rodoni as she was walking around my neighborhood campaigning all by herself. She even came back alone to put a couple signs in my yard. But, I think I'll be voting for Wilson, the current Assistant Assessor.

No real strong reasoning for that choice except that I do like to see someone who has put in a lot of years in a department be able to make it to the top, assuming there's no reason she shouldn't and I've heard nothing negative about her.

Auditor- Controller- Joseph Mellet: An important position but, again, another one of those races I've paid absolutely no attention to. Since Mellet is currently working with that department, I'll let him take a shot at the top position.

Coroner- Uncontested, so Stand Aside.

County Clerk- Uncontested, Stand Aside.

District Attorney- Allison Jackson: I feel she's the most qualified with the most experience and has a prosecutor's mindset. I say that with some trepidation as overzealous prosecutors can be as big, or worse, a problem as incompetent ones.

Still, when you're looking to fill a District Attorney slot you want a prosecutor. It seems a bit strange to me that some local defense attorneys are backing the incumbent. Maybe he makes their jobs easier for them?

That said, I think Gallegos' heart is in the right place, albeit misguided at times. I simply can't get myself to vote for someone that I feel is of average to below- average ability. Not for District Attorney, anyway.

Sheriff- Mike Downey: No question in this one at all. Downey is a humble, live and let live, unassuming type guy who fits in well with the county. He's worked for the county for decades and wants to continue doing so. He's definitely the best fit for the office.

Mike Hislop is all about Mike Hislop. He just wants the job to fill his rather large ego. He's never worked for the Sheriff's Office and knows next to nothing about it.

Treasurer- Uncontested so Stand Aside.

Board of Supes, District 4- Unsure: This is clearly a Stand Aside or None Of The Above contest, from a libertarian standpoint.

I'm thinking of going ahead with a Bass vote if only to punish Bonnie Neely for actively campaigning for George Clark in the last Eureka City Council race. That was a race she needn't have gotten involved in but chose to in order to pander to the fringe left. Very poor judgment on her part which deserves at least some response from me.

See? My reasons for voting can be as frivolous as the next guy's.

State Measures:

Prop 13, Limits of Property Tax Assessment: Yes.

Prop 14, Blanket Primary: NO. This is downright silly. I'm not sure that voters should be able to vote in another party's primary in the first place. That said, I can see how some would want a better consensus or middle ground than the current system, but this makes no sense.

Putting all the candidates on one ballot and then only being able to vote for one of them? That makes no sense to me although it would probably save me the hassle of voting in the General Election since the two candidates likely to end up winning the primary would also probably be crapola to a libertarian.

It would make more sense to me, assuming we're gonna cross party lines in a primary, to have the voter choose their favorite candidate in each party. So, I'd pick my favorite Dem, Rep, Green and so on. That assumes those parties were having contested primaries. If you did it that way it might make sense and we might arrive a little closer to some middle ground in who ends up being elected. The way they're doing it on this one is just plain stupid.

Prop 15, Publicly Funded Elections: NO. This would require candidates for Secretary of State to demonstrate voter support by raising a certain amount of money. Then the state would finance their campaign.

I don't like the idea of the state restricting campaign finances to only state monies. It leaves elections too open to manipulation by politicians.

Prop 16, The PG&E Thing: Stand Aside. I'm awfully tempted to vote Yes on this one but I'll let it go. It doesn't ban local governments from getting into the power business, but it makes it more difficult for them to. That might be a good thing, though. Still, a 2/3 majority requirement seems a bit much. If it only required a simple majority of voter approval, I'd definitely vote Yes.

Prop 17, The Car Insurance Thing: Stand Aside. This is one of those glass half empty, half full ones. You folks can vote on it and I'll just watch.