Here Comes Your Ballot–> Make a Plan to Vote!
Plus: Places to Find Voting Info, Endorsements
Every registered voter in California will receive a ballot for the June 7th primary election this week. Do the world a favor and don’t throw it into your “I’ll do it someday” pile.
Put it somewhere where you’ll think about it often, like your dining room table or next to the usual place for your laptop. Make it your new best friend.
I could go through all the usual reasons why you should vote, like civic duty, or canceling your [fill-in-the-blank-crazy-relative’s] vote, but I’ll settle for the best reason of all: keeping your right to vote in the future, aka pissing off Republicans of the authoritarian flavor.
You see, the very concept of democracy is wearing thin in some quarters. Nineteen states have imposed measures like stricter voter ID laws, limited the number of ballot drop boxes, and made it more difficult to vote early or by mail.
The state of Georgia even made it illegal to hand out bottled water to people waiting in line. The state of Wisconsin says it’s illegal for disabled people to get assistance in mailing their ballot unless they’re willing to hire a lawyer to get a hearing about an ‘exemption.’
God forbid anybody with cerebral palsy should want to vote. It’s this kind of cruelty we’re looking at. And, remember, with today’s GQP, the cruelty is the point.
Then there’s this dude, who lacks the basic filters required to get elected, even for a Republican:
It used to be that Republicans were all-in-favor of mail in ballots and the like. It made things easier for their aging demographic, and Democrats, who didn’t typically vote early, were more likely to forget.
This gave the GOP an outsized influence, especially when it came to ballot measures, and off-year elections, when their neighborhood coffee klatches rounded up ballots and turned them in.
Then Democrats discovered early voting. All of a sudden there was automatic registration via the DMV, expanded early voting periods, and special voting centers for those needing assistance. And voters didn’t have to request mail in ballots anymore.
This all looked very suspicious, especially to the party leaders who liked to project their own transgressions on the opposition. (I’m assuming that you’ve noticed the political party that likes to call out opponents as pedophiles, is, in fact, chock full of Chester-the-Molester types.)
Over a not very long period of time the myth of Democrats as the party of voter fraud began to take hold. There was “ballot harvesting,” dead people voting by thousands, bus loads of suspicious looking brown people probably from Mexico pulling up to voting centers, and voting machines magically switching votes.
Election fraud, where ghost candidates were sponsored to split votes, polling places in certain districts had technical problems, and systematic disenfranchisement all seem to have a predilection for Republican controlled areas. But that’s not what they were concerned about.
And then there’s the ultimate GOP middle finger to the electorate, wherein the Trump official (Mark Meadows) making the most noise about rigged elections, was registered to vote in three states.
So the parable of the 2020 stolen presidential election has come to be believed by ⅔ of Republican voters and ⅓ of overall voters, even though it’s easier to disprove than a claim that McDonald's food is vegan.
The rest of the country recognizes that Donald Trump did not win the 2020 presidential election.
After all, he lost by 7 million actual votes and 74 electoral votes. The claim that the election was rigged has been debunked by numerous Republican state elections officials, and rejected by judges in both state and federal courts in more than 70 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its proxies. Trump’s own Justice Department as well as his former attorney general, William Barr, found no evidence of widespread fraud.
This “rigged election” gave the GOP a net gain of 12 seats in the House of Representatives,
At the statehouse level, the GOP also made gains, stepping up from unified control of legislatures responsible for redrawing voting districts from 17 in 2010 to 20 coming out of the latest census.
So the bottom line here is that Republicans –having floated the stolen election claim– are now openly conspiring to suppress, steal, or otherwise manipulate votes in upcoming elections.
It’s easy to look around California, see the Democratic majorities in the coastal counties, and assume that this GOP malfeasance is not your concern.
There are two reasons why you should care. First up, since the remaining members of the Republican Party running for office are just about all raving loons, the fiscal conservative types have morphed into Republicrats.
Some of these types are Republicans that have donned sheep’s clothing; others are Democrats who’ve succumbed to the siren sounds of big business. (Local example: 80th Assembly District candidate David Alvarez.)
The other reason to get off your duff and vote is the larger picture. As in overturning Roe v Wade. As in banning contraceptives. As in racism, misogyny, inaccessible healthcare, and the rest of what making America great again really means.
A bump in turnout come June sends a message about November, and lord knows we’re gonna need all the help we can get.
So that brings me to the really hard part–except that it’s not–how to cast your ballot and who to vote for..
Casting your ballot is easier than searching for movies on Netflix.
Who? What? When?
Voice of San Diego Voter Guide
No endorsements, but a comprehensive listing of all contests in the county, along with short blurbs that give context.
CalMatters Voter Guide
No endorsements. Covers statewide & congressional races. Has a “more details” link for some contests.
San Diego Union Tribune Interviews
If you need an in depth look at a candidate in a particular race, look here. Warning: It’s a time suck if you let it be.
League of Women Voters Easy Voter Guide
Available in five languages. No endorsements. Statewide races only.
San Diego Democratic Party Endorsements
The biggest, most painless list around. First, make the easy choices, do some research on others. (Lots of links)
The Republican Party of San Diego County
Just in case you’re confused.
Sierra Club Primary Election Endorsements
A few enviro-friendly choices
Voter’s Edge Voter Guide
Provides candidate’s answers to questionnaires in contests that appear on your ballot.
Finally, what I think: With all my health issues, I didn’t get the opportunity to cover as many contests as I would like, which is all of them.
There are a bunch of contests where I’m not endorsing - don’t take it personally; I never got to them. You’ll have to figure those races out on your own or you can go with the Democratic Party’s endorsements, which won’t cause too much harm.
I’ll have a full voter guide for the General Election, honest.
State Assembly District 80 - Georgette Gomez
Judge Seat 35- Rebecca Kanter
Judge Seat 36 - Peter Singer
County Supervisor District 4 - Nathan Fletcher
County Supervisor District 5 - Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson
Board of Education District 3 - Alicia Munoz-
Board of Education District 5 - Rick Shea
County Assessor-Recorder-Clerk - Barbara Bry
County Sheriff - Dave Myers
San Diego City Council District 4 - Monica Montgomery
San Diego City Council District 8 -Vivian Moreno
San Diego Community College Board District A - Marìa Nieto Senour
San Diego Community College Board District C - Craig Milgrim
San Diego Community College Board District E - Geysil Arroyo
San Diego Unified School Board District B - Shana Hazan
San Diego Unified School Board District C - Cody Petterson
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com
Lead image credit: Democracy Docket