Casting Call

I've been poring over the California primary returns for the last week looking for my vote. It's not there. And I'm waiting for a promised call from controversial and very nice Assistant Registrar of Voters for San Diego County Michael Vu. 

Confusion loves momentum. Seemingly casual blunders are really just foot soldiers looking to bring on the madness. And so it was that events conspired against my polling station, leading me to cast an illegitimate write-in vote for Barack Obama on the Green Party ballot. I wasn't pranking around in the polling booth looking for a good story to tell when this happened – I intended to cast my primary vote for Obama as a registered member of the Democratic Party. Little things went wrong until poll workers and I were officially irregular.

I have written a one act play about this experience and am now casting performers. A word of special thanks to Michael Vu whose surprise guest appearance transformed this from boring voting story to personal political drama.

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One Down, Two To Go

California's role in the presidential primaries may be complete, and the surviving presidential candidates have moved on to fresher hunting grounds for voters as they attempt to secure their parties' nominations, but the 2008 election cycle is far from over: one down, two elections to go.

According to the California Secretary of State's Web site two initiatives have qualified for California's June election.

The two qualified initiatives, Propositions 98 and 99, would both amend California's constitution to change state and local government power to acquire property for private uses.  The issues are similar to those that would have been addressed by passage of Proposition 90 in 2006, an initiative that was defeated with 52.3 percent of the voters voting against amending the state constitution.

But government acquisition of private property, for whatever use, is in the news. The federal government is taking property to survey and build a border fence.  Downtown redevelopment is back in the limelight as San Diego and the Centre City Development Corportation, no strangers to using the power of eminent domain for private use, celebrate the restoration of the Balboa Theatre funded by downtown redevelopment tax dollars.  

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Four Ways to Spend Forty Million Dollars

I just listened to Mitt Romney's attempt to save face while suspending his campaign. In bowing out while trumpeting supposedly conservative values he cast aspersions at the French, Great Britain and most of Europe. He played the old broke down tunes about single welfare mothers, the threat of gay marriage and the Liberal plot to destroy American Culture (whatever that is.) I have no animosity toward Romney and think he is further evidence of the greatness of America - where else can a man spend $40 million to scratch an itch?

-Chris McConnell is a bookseller, freelance writer, former high school English teacher and odd jobber who lives in La Jolla.

Bring It On

Yesterday I worked the polls, as did two fellow bloggers, Trina and Chuck. Unlike Chuck, who articulated his experience in terms of celebrating a working democracy, doing my civic duty did not leave me so much with images of revelry as it did with a dream of voting absentee for the rest of my life. 

In a word, it was awful.

Working with the public wasn’t bad - neither was getting up at 4:30 a.m. nor finally wrapping up at 10:30 p.m. Maybe getting one tiny 45-minute meal break in a 17-hour day wasn’t so great, but that’s not what made it unbearable.

What was awful was working with someone - I’m pretty sure loathed me by the time the votes were dropped off to the Sheriff. She may have started to despise me earlier in the day, but it was clear by then where she stood.

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The Morning After the Democracy Party

Having been working at the polling station at Escondido's Pioneer Elementary School from 5:30 a.m. until we left to turn in our ballots at 9:30 p.m., I can attest that yesterday was certainly an Election Day. On the other hand, the exhaustion and soreness this morning all point to a highly successful Mardi Gras celebration.

Mind-numbing paper counts and the stickers, stickers, stickers attitude lead to morning-after effects very similar to the more traditional Mardi Gras activities.

The worst part of the day was putting this news junkie into a news blackout zone for most of Super Tuesday. The TV was turned off. There were no publications around that might politicize the environment. The occasional news update message to the Blackberry served as more of a tease than to satisfy any actual cravings for good, hard news, and small doses of KPBS coverage over the car radio while running errands on my breaks were all I had to keep from going into complete withdrawal. 

From my standpoint, Touchscreen Inspector for a precinct that only had one electronic ballot cast, the election went smooth.

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“I’m a Republican. Gasp!”

Jack Bauer for President!  What?  He’s not running?  Dang!  Well, maybe he will be tomorrow.  After all, a lot can happen in 24 hours…

Before I reveal my political slant, I want you to know that I’m open-minded and would love to hear YOUR thoughts.  Feel free to present your case.  As long as you don’t call me a fat, ugly cow I’ll listen.  No need to insult the cows.  The end of my blog should be the beginning of a fun discussion!

My editor asked me: “If the election were tomorrow, who would you vote for?”  My vote today goes to Mitt Romney.  I’m really interested in Ron Paul; however, I fear my vote would be wasted.  I don’t think he’ll win the primary and I want to make sure we get a strong candidate who has a fighting chance against the powerful Democrat Machine.

Yeah, you heard me…I’m a Republican. Gasp!

I like that Romney has shown leadership and accomplishments in both private enterprise and public service.  He sees a problem and fixes it, while his counterpart career-politicians sit around debating or throwing money at it.  He built a hugely successful company and turned around the 2002 Olympics, which faced financial crisis before his arrival.  Our country is in need of rescue again.

A recent poll shows that concern about our economy tops the list of important issues for both Democrats and Republicans.  Romney balanced the Massachusetts budget every year as governor and has a sound understanding of economics.  America is clamoring for change and Romney appears to know how to make it happen.  

I like Romney’s stance on immigration, health care and education - just three of my hot buttons.  There is so much more for us to talk about, but I’ve been told to keep this blog short or else I’ll be shot. (Editor's note: I never said I would shoot them. I said I would meet them in the back alley of KPBS.)

We have some fascinating months ahead of us.  The general election isn’t tomorrow, but we San Diegans have the opportunity to submit a primary vote and send a message to the rest of the country next Tuesday.  Let your voice be heard!

If you judge a person by his “fruits” then Romney looks ripe for the presidency. And who do I think Romney’s running-mate should be? Jack Bauer, of course.

 
-Trina Boice is an author and mother of four who lives in Carlsbad.