Voting in California!

Posted: November 4th, 2008 | Author: Lindsay | Filed under: life, san francisco | 2 Comments »

Today is the BIG DAY! And as always, I like to talk about the very unique experience of voting in California.  In no other state can any citizen put a proposition on the ballot, so today I, not only voted for the President of the United States, but I also voted on 12 State Propositions and 22 City Propositions.   The # of Propositions was very overwhelming, so my roommate and I hosted friends over on Sunday night to sift through all of them to figure out how to vote.  We accomplished the impossible; we educated ourselves on all of them. Some of the highlights:

  • Proposition 8 on the State ballot is a vote to ban gay-marriage; Vote No
  • Proposition 12 on the State ballot is a vote in favor of funding for veterans; it’s a tough economic time for this, but Vote Yes, if not for my roommate’s brother, for anyone you know that has been on the front line for our country (who says SF voters aren’t patriotic???).
  • Proposition A on the City ballot is a vote to fund a seismic refit of the only trauma hospital in the city; Vote Yes
  • Proposition H on the City ballot is a vote to allow the board of supervisors to purchase clean energy in direct competition with PGE; sure PGE isn’t going to meet any of the clean energy goals set by the state, but that doesn’t mean the city can do any better:  Vote No
  • Proposition K on the City ballot legalizes prostitution; it’s a toss up.  There’s no social services paired with this proposition, which makes me feel like the Prop doesn’t do enough.  But, our police force is stretched so thin already, do we really want them spending time going after the world’s oldest profession?
  • Proposition L on the City ballot creates more funding for the Community Justice Court, a court created by the Mayor and funded for 1year by the Supervisors. The CJC is a court, in simplest terms, for homeless people, to prosecute them for homeless offenses like petty crime and public urination.  The court offers these people social services instead of jail time; the person chooses.  I Voted Yes, and I think its a good idea.
  • Proposition R on the City ballot votes to rename the water waste treatment plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.  Kind of hilarious, but come on SF, wasn’t it just a fun summer joke?  I was approached this summer to sign the petition by a drag queen waiving an American flag.  Again, I think it’s a toss up:  It’s a funny joke, not a serious prop, but on the other hand, the city wastes enough money on other crap, why not at least make us all laugh while doing it?

I’m sure I’m missing some other important ones, but this was just meant to be a review! My notes were written down on one of many pieces of garbage (political mailings):

Onto the voting experience itself:  I walked out this morning to find that the Tango Vida was open to offer free Dunkin Donuts (my fave) coffee to all passerbys.

I noticed that the line for the first voting station on my way to my own voting station was pretty busy at 8 in the morning.  Lets note that most voting stations in San Francisco are in people’s garages!

Now onto my own voting station. I didn’t want to take a picture of the girl I’m about to talk about because of privacy, but let me just say this: San Francisco Public Schools are Failing our Children! I recognized these two girls from the primary election; they’re job is to locate each voter’s name on the list of voters and give us our ballots. Of course, the name are listed alphabetically by last name, and of course she has a problem finding T-A both times that I have voted. I literally have to lean over the table and point out my name to her. And of course, my neighbor walks in and gives her last name, and the girl has a problem again: M-C-G…come on, really?

Once you get your ballot, you have to wait in line until there is a “secret-voting-desk” to actually cast your vote.

But, so many people were excited to vote that, to speed up the process, people began using the washer and dryer in the garage as tables on which to vote. I voted on top of a washing machine! Literally!:

Voting in California is not like voting in Pennsylvania. Voting in Pennsylvania requires pulling a bunch of levers on a 1970′s-esque robotic-arm machine behind a curtain. Voting in California entails coloring in a bunch of arrows next to the politicians’ names you want to vote for, or in the case of Propositions, next to Yes or No for each one.

After you fill out your multiple sheets of propositions and politicians, you have to feed each sheet into a machine. It’s like feeding $1 or $5 bills into a change machine. When I first arrived, I already saw a man having a problem feeding his ballot in, and a co-worker just told me that his polling place had serious enough problems to require emergency assistance.

The best part of voting, of course, is getting your “I Voted” sticker, which for California comes in multiple languages! With this sticker you can go get yourself a free cup of coffee from Starbucks, a free ice cream cone at Ben and Jerry’s and a free donut at Krispy Kreme. Nothing like the most patriotic duty of it all (voting) to encourage more patriotism (consumerism)!

Happy Voting to All, and to all a great day!