I’ve decided on most election issues, but I haven’t mailed my ballot yet because I’m still on the fence regarding three ballot measures:<\/p>\n
1. I-872: <\/strong>“This measure would allow voters to select among all candidates in a primary. Ballots would indicate candidates’ party preference. The two candidates receiving most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party.” <\/em><\/p>\n On one hand, I am like most Washingtonians who are angry about the loss of our cherished blanket primary. Damn the political parties for messing with a good thing. I like the “top two” because I could vote for whoever I wanted, regardless of party, and not have to vote only for one party on the whole ballot. However, I worry that a “top two” approach will make all candidates more centrist. Centrism can be okay for working together, but also leads to blandess and a loss of idealism. What seems to be the real question is whether primaries are for the parties to decide on their own who their candidate should be, or if they’re a “narrowing-down” tool to make the General Election more streamlined.<\/p>\n 2. I-892: <\/strong>“This measure would authorize licensed non-tribal gambling establishments to operate the same type and number of machines as tribal governments, with a portion of tax revenue generated used to reduce state property taxes.”<\/em><\/p>\n This one is particularly hard. The rhetoric coming from both sides disgusts me with its hyperbole. On the Pro side, I am not particularly anti-gambling, and don’t feel a personal drive to keep slot machines out of “our communities”. (I never play them myself, but not because I disagree with them – I just think they’re boring.) Call me crazy, but I don’t think slot machines pose much of a danger to children.<\/p>\n On the Con side, I am even more disgusted by Tim Eyman’s blatant racism in claiming that the poor white casino owners just don’t get a fair shake compared to those mighty Indians. I’m all in favor of Native Americans getting some breaks compared to us – it’s only fair, given our history. That aside, I read a partiuclarly persuasive sentence about this issue in the paper that said something to the effect that it is a measure that takes money from poor people (who are much more likely to gamble) and gives it to rich people (who are much more likely to own property). That idea alone is making me lean against the measure.<\/p>\n 3. Referendum 55:<\/strong> “This bill would authorize charter public schools and would set conditions on operations. Charter schools would be operated by qualified nonprofit corporations, under contracts with local education boards, and allocated certain public funds.”<\/em><\/p>\n On the pro side, this frees underperforming schools from some restrictions, allowing them the freedom to be a bit unconventional in their approach, while still holding them to state assessment standards. I’m very much in favor of local freedom from schools (instead of standards imposed from on high). Also, this measure forbids any religious basis for charter schools, and requires charter schools to enroll any student who applies. Funding will still be the same amount of money per student, and will follow a student to either a regular or charter school.<\/p>\n On the con side, groups that I usually agree with (such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State) are against charter schools. Some of that is opposition to religious charter schools (which aren’t at issue here). But there is also the idea that public schools should be for everyone. Why don’t we just make ALL the public schools better, instead of allowing the highly-motivated and highly-complainy families to run off on their own? If we force everyone to pool their resources into a single system, people will be forced to improve that system if they want things to be better.<\/p>\n I’m not even leaning on this issue – I’m perfectly balanced.<\/p>\n PLEASE, all you Washington voters, help me out here. Tell me how you’re going to vote on these, and why.<\/p>\n (Note: Please leave the other races out of it, as I’ve made up my mind on those.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve decided on most election issues, but I haven’t mailed my ballot yet because I’m still on the fence regarding three ballot measures: 1. I-872: “This measure would allow voters to select among all candidates in a primary. Ballots would indicate candidates’ party preference. The two candidates receiving most votes advance to the general election, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":692,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}