Shinn the Writer

Voting etc.

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I was perhaps a little less active a rabble-rouser this year than last. I attended the October 17 “No Kings” rally in Kensington (see the Musician section for a full accounting) but that was about it.

 

This year I did something that ran contrary to my voting practice of the past – I voted early. Like, 2½ weeks early. I dropped my ballot in a nearby drop-box at about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday, October 18. Historically, I’ve waited until a couple of days before the first Tuesday of November deadline just to be sure there is no surprise revelation at the end, but there never is. And until just a few elections ago, I waited until election day and actually went to the polls.

 

It was in the sanctity of such a location a number of years ago (that number being 34) that I had really didn’t know who to vote for – Dukakis or Bush Sr. Yeah, back in 1992 I thought that Nixon had been an aberration. Conservatism wasn’t really bad, and Bush was a much stronger candidate as an individual. Actually, I still considered myself a Republican waiting to happen. But when I got into the voting booth, I decided that I simply preferred the Democrats’ agenda over that of the Republicans and felt this to be more important than how silly Dukakis looked poking his head out of a tank wearing an army helmet or burning his ACLU membership card on television. I knew Bush would win in a landslide (which he did) and simply didn’t want my vote counting toward his mandate. I’ve been a Democrat ever since.

 

As I’ve seen Republicans drift (or perhaps careen) farther from what I consider sanity, I’ve come to vote along party lines, but I’m still left with a whole bunch of non-partisan positions and ballot initiatives I feel I have to deal with more responsibly than just stepping up to a dartboard wearing a blindfold.

 

It was four years ago that a very smart friend of mine recommended a website, Peterates.com as a source of information on ballot initiatives. Peter informs us of certain biases, does what I consider an excellent job of giving the history of the initiatives, who is really backing them and why, and makes his recommendations accordingly. 

 

So who is this guy? It turned out that Peter L. Stahl is really a musician (B.A from Harvard and oboist, like I once was though I suspect he’s much better than I ever was.) He went on to study and work extensively in computer systems. But he also became very active analyzing ballot propositions for the League of Women Voters. Why does he do this? It started when his parents one year split up the propositions between family members to research and he’s done it ever since. Basically for the good of the community. Certainly for the good of me. 

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