I Voted: Once again I was all over the map.

[Torakus]

So I voted today and thought I would share a little.

First, my polling place was about .1 miles from my studio and is in a fairly affluent neighborhood, though it was curiously staffed by volunteers who clearly were not from my neighborhood. Nevertheless they were generally friendly and efficient. The lady who took my cards did scowl at me a little and mumble something about "another damn republican" or something like that before she handed them back to me to insert into the scanner. Mildly amusing since I clearly voted for more Democrat candidates then Republicans. She must have seen that I voted against Diane F(ranken)ienstein. I have been voting against Boxer for about 20 years, it was refreshing to vote against our other Senator =P

I am curious how other Californians voted on the ballot issues we had.

I voted for a 1% education tax on families making over 250k. I wish they would have dropped that down to 100k even, I would have still supported that.

I voted against the tax increase on everyone for education. My increase for that one would be around 1.8% taking me up from 9.3% to 11.1% state tax. I would have supported it as well but the two education props were competing and I just like the way the money in the first one was being spent.

I voted for abolishing the death penalty in California. I have always said that I accept that there will be errors in application of the death penalty, but this just makes economic sense.

I voted for changing the 3 strikes law to require that the 3rd strike only gets life if it is for a violent felony.

I voted for requiring genetically engineered food labeling, although I do think the law as written is a little flawed, I think it can be fixed before it causes any damage and serves a good purpose in the interim.

I voted against car insurance companies being forced to offer longevity discounts to people switching companies. Good idea but the exceptions were flawed.

I voted against changing the definition of human trafficking. Again another great idea, but with massive loop holes with huge potential to be abused.

I voted against changing the tax rules on businesses from outside California that do business here. Frankly I had to guess on this one because I did not really understand it, but it seemed like a money grab that might push more businesses away from doing business here and it had some boogered up requirements for establishing more green energy boondoggle funds.

The only thing that bothered me about the whole process was the ease with which it could have been abused. In fact there was an instance that occurred while I was there, nothing illegal but lots of confusion. Essentially all you needed to know was your address and name and you were given a ballot. The problem I had with that is that the entire list of everyone living in the precinct by name, address and affidavit # was posted at the entrance, out of sight of the poll workers. I wondered what prevented someone from just standing there, quickly memorizing someone else information and voting as them, especially if they new that this person was unlikely to vote. Anyway while I was filling out my ballot a man entered, gave his details and the poll worker informed him that he had already voted. He told them he had not. At this point I was intrigued and mostly done voting. I still had to decide whether to give more local tax to the Oakland Zoo, but thought this situation might be entertaining. Anyway they then told him he had submitted an absentee ballot. He said he had not. He then asked to see the list that they were looking at. They initially resisted but then showed it to him. He noted to them that the list actually said he had voted by mail, not absentee. They agreed that this is what it indicated. He again told them that he did not, but had received a mail in ballot. They actually told him that he had to go home and get it, fill it out, come back to the polling place and drop it in the box. This guy was definitely not taking any crap, he pulled out his registration card, called the number listed under the Registrars name. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes, but as I was scanning my ballots and leaving another poll volunteer (I am assuming volunteer) showed up to inform them that they could just issue the guy a new ballot (scary). Funny thing is, when they said that, the guy said something about being right, but that he was going up to his condo (he lived in the same building as the polling place) to get his mail in and fill it out. All in all nothing nefarious, just stupid and I wonder how many times something similar played out around the country and in polling places not so convenient.

[Harlowe]

I voted no for both the "no same sex marriage" and "voter ID" amendments and it looks like they aren't going to pass. Amy Klobuchar won re-election so I'm happy with that as well. The only thing that could really be the cherry on top of my sundae is if Bachmann the nut was defeated, but that one is a tight race and I think she's up by 1,000 votes or so.

[Torakus]

I just can't figure out how someone as brain damaged as Bachmann keeps getting elected.

[Harlowe]

She has actually marketed herself here to the brain dead in that district as an INDEPENDENT voice. She really distances herself from her party in her ads as much as possible and talks about religion, cutting wasteful spending yada yada.

[Bastards Last Stand]

As a fellow Californian, I voted similarly:

30 - yes
31 - yes
32 - no
33 - no
34 - yes
35 - no
36 - yes
37 - yes
38 - no
39 - yes

[Lurker]

I voted as follows...
30 - yes
31 - no
32 - no
33 - no
34 - yes
35 - yes
36 - yes
37 - no
38 - no
39 - yes
40 - yes

[MeGusta]

I voted for Obama. He won.

I voted for Bob Kerry. He lost

I voted No to making Hunting and Fishing a Constitutional right in Nebraska because that is imbecilic.

I voted No to increasing term limits for State Legislators from two terms to three.

[Kulaf]

In WA:

I voted for President Obama, and continued to support our current Senators. For initiatives, I voted no on redefining marriage, yes on legalizing pot, no on 50 new public charter schools that I saw no demonstrated need for, yes on repealing the 2/3rd majority needed to pass tax hikes.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I voted as follows...
30 - yes
31 - no
32 - no
33 - no
34 - yes
35 - yes
36 - yes
37 - no
38 - no
39 - yes
40 - yes

30 - no It passed)
31 - no (it failed)
32 - yes (it failed)
33 - no (it failed)
34 - yes (it failed)
35 - yes (it passed)
36 - yes (it passed)
37 - yes (if failed)
38 - no (it failed)
39 - yes (it passed)
40 - yes (it passed)

Lurker and I usually come at things from opposite ends of the political spectrum. However, on this election, we aligned on social issues, and disagreed on taxation issues.

I am curious about one thing Lurker, why did you vote against 38?

[Lurker]

I am curious about one thing Lurker, why did you vote against 38?

There were two tax initiatives aimed at restoring lost funding to education, Prop 30 and Prop 38. Even if they both passed only one would be implemented. I chose to support Prop 30 because it restored funding to K-12 and higher education, while Prop 38 only applied to K-12.

[Ddrak]

I voted No to making Hunting and Fishing a Constitutional right in Nebraska because that is imbecilic.

MeGusta is my hero after that statement.

Dd

[Rsak]

I got moved out to California for work late last year and did vote in the election this year. Had to respond because it was California specific.

Amazed me how much of a boom industry there are for the political advertisements due to all of the propositions. Now these actors must be going into the dry season until next election cycle. Having come from Texas it is only candidate focused advertising since the efforts are restricted to state constitutional amendments which has a higher requirement to get on the ballot.

30: No because it made no guarantees it would go to schools
31: Yes
32: Yes, I simply don't believe it is the company's responsibility to collect the union dues. It doesn't silence any free speech.
33: Abstained because it was unclear
34: No
35: Yes, but in hindsight I regret this one and wise I abstained due to possible loopholes.I blame business travel for not giving me enough time to research better.
36: Yes
37: No
38: No
39: No
40: Yes

For fellow Californian's don't worry about your state since I ended up being just a visitor and will soon move to Illinois for work. I continue to gravitate to bastions of high taxes and having my vote effectively washed out by the surrounding concentration of liberals.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Voted for Obama. Didn't see it as much of a choice.

WA State legalized pot and our liberal governor retired but we elected a new liberal governor. Weed was pretty much legal here anyway. A couple months ago I smoked a joint in front of a large hotel in downtown Seattle and not one person looked twice at me. Not much changes if you're white or middle aged, but I'm expecting they'll be less long haired and minority kids in jail. The cops here are really upbeat about having more resources to fight real crime.

Gay marriage passed in WA state as well. I'm proud to call WA my home state for the last 9 years.

[Partha]

The only things on the ballot here were a referendum to change the Constitution to allow changing of public pensions to require a supermajority instead of 51% to pass, and a local school referendum retiring old debt and taking on new debt for a massive infrastructure improvement. Voted No to the first and it failed, voted Yes to the second and it passed.

[Arathena]

Nothing on the ballot here, initiative wise. I did vote a split ticket, though, because the regressive bitch who represents me in the State Senate managed to get herself registered on the ticket as both a Democrat and a Republican, there's this local crackpot that runs as an independent on any ticket that's unopposed, so I voted for him instead.