Election

[jethrien]

Never got around to posting about this yesterday. We had a slate of state officials up for election, a referendum, and a special election to replace two of our city council members. (Both were part of our oh-so-corrupt mayor's team--one was old and sick enough he shouldn't have run last time and resigned because of illness, the other got taken out on corruption charges. Shock.)

None of the state officials deigned to answer the League of Women Voters' questions, which is my usual method of choosing. Actually, there wasn't much info on any of them that I could find. Ended up voting on party lines, which I hate doing.

The city council election had 17 candidates. Totally overwhelming. Fortunately, there was a Facebook page and the debates had been posted on YouTube. Which is an awesome way to handle this. I could watch the debates and make a choice based on at least a little data. (Although it still feels kind of arbitrary for this local an election. I know I don't know enough to tell which ideas sound good but are impractical, and no one is going to come right out and say "I'll totally take bribes, yo!")

The referendum...oy. They'd like to amend the state constitution to allow gambling on sports at locations at which there is already gambling, in the event that the federal ban is ever lifted. So we were asked vote on whether something should be legal in our state this is illegal on the national level, just in case that ever changes. That was a great use of everyone's time, good job.

Oh, New Jersey.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

...I missed the polls by five minutes. I only feel slightly bad about this, as my attempts to research the candidates kind of failed.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

We have that sort of referendum all the time. "So, pot. Legal in Vermont, y/y?"

Oh, Vermont.

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

NJ is the only place I've lived that has party lines on local elections. I find the whole concept fairly ridiculous. But then, I have a certain amount of disrespect for political parties, period.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

I was in L.A. Tuesday, making it the first election day I haven't voted in years. However, all the elections in my district were for uncontested judgeships (I.e., vote for 5 judgeships between 5 nominees). At least I know that if I run for NY state judgeships in the future, I just have to get nominated to win...

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

I think we must live in the same district, or close enough. I checked the sample ballot and got the same thing, so I decided not to bother voting. In my experience, voting too much gets you on the junk mail list for your political party.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think you have to feel bad about missing that one.