This is how I’m thinking about voting on the upcoming November ballot measures here in California. I’m making this public because I invite your opinions and constructive discussion, and in particular, I welcome well-reasoned counterarguments. If I’m going to have my mind changed, it better be done before the votes are cast!

For the propositions, I used the Voter Information Pamphlet and Ballotpedia together to make my decisions.

President and Vice President

• Choice: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
• Biggest Reasons: The biggest issues for me include the Iraq War and foreign policy, universal healthcare, fair trade and corporate regulations, education policy (particularly regarding community colleges), tax policy, copyright and patent reform, and net neutrality. I very much prefer Obama’s stances to McCain’s on all of these issues.
• Nagging Doubts: Abortion policy (birth control including the morning after pill is all fine by me, and I can accept abortions in cases of rape or real medical danger to the mother, but I do feel that unborn babies do deserve some kind of legal acknowledgment at some point during the pregnancy in most cases).

United States Representative 53rd District

• Choice: Susan A. Davis
• Biggest Reasons: Although I’m a nonpartisan, I find today’s Republican Party to be particularly corrupt, ruthless, self-serving, pro-corporate interests at expense of individual liberty and general welfare, and right-wing to the point of being backward or obsolete. Thus, even though I disagree with the Democrats enough to prevent me from joining their party, I would certainly much rather see them get enough seats to control the Congress and Senate to undo what the Republicans have done and bring about more progressive legislation to carry the country forward. She’s an incumbent, but maintaining her seat would obviously be a part of this.
• Nagging Doubts: I find her unremarkable, to be frank. Even though she’s not GOP, I sort of associate her with the status-quo. Smells more like “any politician” than “bold idealist” to me.

Member of the State Assembly 79th District

• Choice: Mary Salas
• Biggest Reasons: Same general idea as with Susan A. Davis (but obviously not talking about Washington politics this time).
• Nagging Doubts: Again, same idea as with Susan A. Davis, times a million when it comes to being unremarkable.

All The School Council and Community College Governing Board Stuff

• Choice: Undecided
• Biggest Reasons: All of the candidates seem to say pretty much the same thing. I’m not expecting them to be the most exciting things on the ballot, but it would be nice if they actually tried to persuade me with more than “I’m a lovely person who will be responsible and put education first!” There is a chance that I’ll abstain, not because I don’t care, but because if I can’t tell the difference between the options and thus don’t have an opinion, then I don’t feel like I should. Gasp.
• Nagging Doubts: I personally don’t like the idea of not voting whenever I have the chance to vote, so it’s just kind of uncomfortable for me to outright abstain. It’s funny though because rationally, I recognize that sometimes abstaining is the appropriate option for a voter to take. Am I making sense?

City of Coronado Mayor

• Choice: Casey Tanaka
• Biggest Reasons: He was my AP US History teacher in high school, and was on my top three list of teachers from my whole life well before this election. He can keep the old people happy, but as a teacher, also understands issues that concern the youth, which Coronado has historically ignored to its own detriment (very few children stay in Coronado when they grow up, and that’s not exactly healthy for the city). He’s been on the city council as well, so having dealt with the senior citizens, parents, and youth means that he has a pretty good understanding of what’s important for Coronado’s future.
• Nagging Doubts: I want to see him very specifically and clearly say what he’ll do about our theater. Anybody who knows me knows that when it comes to Coronado, the issue that bothers me personally the most is definitely how they let the theater owners just get away with neglecting it. They’ve said it would re-open more than five years ago. Hold them to it, and if they aren’t willing to do anything with the property, then penalize them until they do. As a recognized historical site, they are obligated to maintain it, and they clearly aren’t. Did I mention that my inner child is still crying from when the theater closed?

Prop 1A - Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: I would love to see trains appear throughout our nation more, and this act helps us do that. The prevalance of trains and resulting ease and affordability of travel in Europe and Japan has done all kinds of good things for them, such as improve their markets, help the environment, and make their people happier.
• Nagging Doubts: Although they have the payments spread out over a long period of time, the sum is still rather expensive. California kind of sucks with that whole “we’re so bad at spending money that we embarassingly haven’t been able to come together to approve a budget in a long time now” thing, so even if you think it will effectively pay for itself after it’s done, you can’t really deny that this would be a new spenditure in a time when we’re trying to cut spending. I haven’t forgotten that.

Prop 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: I have a conscience. Seriously. I’m just surprised we don’t already have this, to be honest. “Requires that certain farm animals be allowed, for the majority of every day, to fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up, and turn around.” Yeah. This will win by a landslide, hopefully.
• Nagging Doubts: None.

Prop 3 - Children’s Hospital Bond Act

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: Our hospitals kinda do need upgrades and stuff in general, not just the children’s hospitals. Go sit in the lobby of an emergency room and tell me if you’re all that content with what you see. Also, my own experiences with having big medical problems has made it very clear that the “expensive equipment” is still super rare and inaccessible, and a lot of the machines they use are far from “the best of modern technology.” This isn’t about turning hospitals into luxury experiences.
• Nagging Doubts: Again, it’s that whole “our state budget sucks” thing. However, I definitely feel that no matter how aggressive you want to be with cutting spending, hospitals are one of the most basic and obvious things that need to be maintained to the highest standards, so this doesn’t really make me doubt my current position very much.

Prop 4 - Abortion Waiting Period and Parental Notification Initiative

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: If I were a parent, I’d want the doctor to tell me before any kind of medical prodedure, diagnosis, or whatever was performed on my children. This definitely includes abortions. I don’t think that’s even remotely unreasonable.
• Nagging Doubts: None, really. If there is concern about the child being abused, then the doctor is
  obligated to contact child protective services anyway, and that’s how
  it should be.

Prop 5 - Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: I’ve always felt that lengthy prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses were ridiculous. Frankly, I feel that the illegality of merely using drugs is questionable as it is (which isn’t to say I think they should all necessarily be legal in public or anything), but regardless of how you feel about the legal status different drugs, the fact of the matter is that our jails are overflowing, and too many of these people really aren’t dangers to society. Providing rehabilitation would be much more beneficial to the individual as well as to society, and cheaper too no doubt.

Prop 6 - Safe Neighborhoods Act or The Runner Initiative

• Choice: No
• Biggest Reasons: I can’t get behind a bill that would deem youths 14 and older convicted of gang-related felonies as being unfit for juvenile court to be prosecuted as adults. They’re minors. They’re exactly what juvenile court is for. If you don’t feel like the penalties are harsh enough for juveniles, then that’s what you should be seeking to amend. Additionally, the bill proposes to allow hearsay statements — yes, that’s the actual name for what they are talking about — as evidence when they can’t get actual witnesses, and I don’t think I’m okay with that.
• Nagging Doubts: I don’t like voting against funding for police. Who does, really? I’m sort of angry that they decided to try to put their funding proposal in the same bill. In fact, I think the proponents of the bill deliberately designed it that way.

Prop 7 - Renewable Energy Generation Initiative Statue

• Choice: No
• Biggest Reasons: Apparently it’s so poorly written that nobody likes it. Seriously. If environmental legislation is written so poorly that the Sierra Club and the Green Party are on the list of opponents, that should be a pretty big red flag. Check out the endless list of opponents for yourself and empty list of proponents for yourself. Nagging Doubts: Even if it’s trash because it’s such poor legislation, the general concepts sound decent. Public utilities should be held at least to the same standards as private electrical companies. And aside from the whole matter of just basic fairness, there is that whole “scientists are saying we’re entering a man-made global environmental catastrophy” thing that makes me feel like we do need to do something (but again, if the Sierra Club and Green party aren’t even on board with this, then it must be really, really bad).

Prop 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry Act

• Choice: No
• Biggest Reasons: I believe that the point of democracy is for society to come together to agree upon laws to protect the idea of “Your rights stop where my rights start.” I do not believe that any religious instition (whether it be coalitions of Christian churches, Hindu mandirs, Buddhist stuppas, or any religion) should be entitled to cross that line and have their beliefs made into legislation. Every cultural group is allowed to have its own definition of marriage. If you don’t want to acknowledge somebody else’s marriage, that’s fine. However, when it comes to legal recognition, the state must remain completely secular and indifferent to purely religious arguments. The only argument left that is being made about gay marriage is that it would be a threat to children, which I think is an unfounded, bigoted, and logically weak claim.
• Nagging Doubts: None. I really would love to hear more from the other side on this issue, but I really have only been able to find people who insist that marriage was created by and belongs to the Christian god so far, and since I do not buy for one second the argument that our nation was intended to be theocratic in any way, that’s kind of moot.

Prop 9 - Victims’ Rights and Protection Act of 2008 or Marsy’s Law or Nicholas’s Law

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: I think it’s very reasonable to notify victims of the different phases of the criminal justice process like bail, pleases, sentencing, and parole. I also think it’s very reasonable to establish victim safety as one of the things judges can cosnider for bail and parole.
• Nagging Doubts: None.

Prop 10 - California Alternative Fuels Initiative

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: I trust our scienfitic community. If they say that we’re heading toward man-made global environemtal disaster, I believe them. Thus, it’s definitely in the public’s interest to fund research for cleaner vehicle fuels and promote their usage. Doing nothing will cost us far more. Also, forgetting the environment and the long-term monetary costs of doing nothing, it would be nice to not be at the mercy of certain opressive nations in the middle east (I’m looking at you, Saudi Arabia).
• Nagging Doubts: I’d actually like to see more aggressive regulations regarding this issue. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to hold car companies to at least the same standards that Europe and Japan already do.

Prop 11 - Voters First Act

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: Letting legislators draw their own district lines was a bad idea in the first place, and has resulted in 99% of incumbents being re-elected. The way districting is done throughout the whole nation is an embarassment to our democracy, quite frankly. This would at least improve it in California. Also, I specifically like that the ACLU supports this.
• Nagging Doubts: It’s true that there isn’t really much accountability to taxpayers if the commission doesn’t have spending limits or anything, and it would be nice if we could vote to approve or disapprove what the commission proposes.

Prop 12 - Veterans’ Bond Act of 2008

• Choice: Yes
• Biggest Reasons: Veterans who risked their lives in places like Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan will be eligible to join the more than 420,000 others who have bought a home with a CalVet loan, and the loans are repaid at no expense to the taxpayers. Supposedly, it’ll also help reinrofrce the housing market in California, too.
• Nagging Doubts: Especially with the lending crisis going on right now, the idea of using taxpayer money to grant loans is a little scary. Simple as that.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.