All right, he says, rolling up his sleeves. Let's do this.
This time of year, I descend into madness and talk about upcoming elections, chasing off those readers who are expecting theatre reviews, book reviews, and the occasional cavalcade of new game releases. I've been doing it for twenty-five years now, so why stop now?
And, for people who have just stumbled onto this site, I have rules, because what are we as a civilization if we don't have rules?
- I comment on races that are on my personal ballot. And those are for the northern portion of Kent, Washington, that includes Panther Lake, on the East Hill. And I like it that way. I mean, who am I to tell you what to do with your vote if I don't have skin in the game? And while I will on occasion dabble in elections beyond my normal ken, I try to keep it to a minimum.
- For the primaries, I ignore races which have only two candidates, usually. Washington State is a top two primary state, which means that top two vote-getters go ahead to the general election. That has a tendency to reduce (but not eliminate) the power of traditional political parties. Now, they have money and the ability to get their message out, but that's not always the case. Further, because it is top-two, we often see two Democrats (and rarely two Republicans, but it happens) vying for a position.
- I really want to put good people in office. You know, folks who will do the job, even if they don't agree with me on every point. I further like people who are willing to listen to opposing viewpoints, and maybe, maybe see their own viewpoints altered as a result. And for a bunch of offices, we don't even list who is the official Dem/GOP candidate, so you have to do your own digging and see who is endorsing who.
- I don't post these on Facebook, Bluesky, or the other socials, because these are frankly my opinions and I don't feel like splattering them over the joint (there are enough people already doing that sort of this - go have at!). So if you want the very-local political dirt, you have to tune in here to this station.
- I give other references, though that number has subsided in recent years, much to my frustration (I really miss the Municipal League). The Seattle Times tends to lean towards pro-business, centrist views, though they have a new publisher, who is son of the old publisher. The Stranger also has a new publisher (and is looking for a new editor-in-chief), and usually swings to the left, though this year they don't like much of anyone because even the progressives don't tick all their boxes. There are a few others out there, like the The Urbanist, which endorses on a wide swath of offices and for the serious lefties among you, the Lefty Cheat Sheet compiles all the various endorsements (unions, blogs, newspapers) in one place. We also get a voter's guide, which should help as well, since all the entries are penned by the candidate, or at least by candidate's people, and while there is a high percentage of "I'm honored to serve you" type of statements, there are often red flags and windows into dark souls in that mess.
Now, Washington is mail-voter state, which means you get a ballot, you fill it out, and you mail it back (or drop it off in one of a number of drop-boxes). I think that works. When I first moved here, we had more traditional voting, where you had to take time off whatever you were doing that day and get to a polling location. We were in Rush precinct, and the polling location was at the bottom of the hill at Meeker School. I would pop in before I went to work and would be voter #3. The Lovely Bride would show up in early afternoon and be voter #16. So, yeah, I like getting more people voting, even if they don't vote the way I want them to.
Now, some of our conservative brethren are not wild about this state of affairs. They love elections, mind you, but of the authoritarian breed, where there is one official candidate, selected for you in advance, and only certain people are permitted to vote. And opposition candidates tend to get arrested, exiled, or fall out of dangerously unsafe windows. They've already tried to get an initiative this year where they can go through the voting roles and get rid of folk they don't like (which failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot this fall, so I'd say it wasn't popular). On the National Level they've been trying to convince people that Trump won in 2020 (they've lost 60 court cases so far trying to prove that) and want the Post Office to stop delivering ballots to your home, and to stop counting those ballots if the Post Office doesn't postmark them in time. So vote early folks, while you still have the chance.
And that's about it. We are on a fairly tight schedule here - the due date is 4 August, which is right around the corner. So let's blow through the ones on my ballot and I can get back to talking about collectable quarters.
More later,
