Post Election
The election is over and here is how Santa Cruz Voted with my comments at the end:
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| DEM – BARACK OBAMA | 78,495 | 77.41% |
| REP – JOHN MCCAIN | 20,063 | 19.79% |
| PAF – RALPH NADER | 1,137 | 1.12% |
| LIB – BOB BARR | 548 | 0.54% |
| WRITE-IN | 512 | 0.50% |
| GRE – CYNTHIA MCKINNEY | 377 | 0.37% |
| AIP – ALAN KEYES | 269 | 0.27% |
| Total | 101,401 | 100.00% |
After Barack’s win there was literally dancing in the streets of Santa Cruz.
Here is a map of how California Voted from the LA times website:
The propositions went as follows (with over 98% of precincts reporting):
1A – Safe, Reliable High-Speed Train Bond Act
YES: 5,050,544 52.2%
NO: 4,637,484 47.8%
02 – Standards for Confining Farm Animals
YES: 6,231,157 63.2%
NO: 3,636,609 36.8%
03 – Children’s Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program.
YES: 5,287,834 54.8%
NO: 4,362,002 45.2%
04 – Parent Notif. Before Terminating Minor’s Pregnancy
YES: 4,731,731 47.9%
NO: 5,136,053 52.1%
05 – Nonviolent Drug Offense. Sentencing, Parole, Rehab
YES: 3,891,964 40.1%
NO: 5,811,967 59.9%
06 – Police, Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Laws.
YES: 2,909,341 30.7%
NO: 6,551,035 69.3%
07 – Renewable Energy Generation
YES: 3,400,514 35.1%
NO: 6,276,945 64.9%
08 – Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry
YES: 5,354,570 52.4%
NO: 4,864,517 47.6%
09 – Criminal Justice System. Victims’ Rights. Parole.
YES: 5,071,120 53.5%
NO: 4,419,634 46.5%
10 – Altern. Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy Bonds
YES: 3,868,056 40.2%
NO: 5,735,570 59.8%
11 – Redistricting
YES: 4,641,802 50.6%
NO: 4,544,533 49.4%
12 – Veterans’ Bond
YES: 5,966,799 63.5%
NO: 3,436,467 36.5%
And the city council results:
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| NP – RYAN COONERTY | 14,158 | 19.37% |
| NP – DON LANE | 11,506 | 15.74% |
| NP – KATHERINE BEIERS | 9,668 | 13.22% |
| NP – TONY MADRIGAL | 9,414 | 12.88% |
| NP – DAVID TERRAZAS | 9,405 | 12.86% |
| NP – TIM FITZMAURICE | 7,599 | 10.39% |
| NP – SIMBA KENYATTA | 4,206 | 5.75% |
| NP – LISA J. MOLYNEUX | 3,477 | 4.76% |
| NP – BLAS JACOB (JAY) CABRERA | 1,793 | 2.45% |
| NP – J. CRAIG CANADA | 1,636 | 2.24% |
| WRITE-IN | 248 | 0.34% |
| Total | 73,110 | 100.00% |
My comments:
Well It sucks that prop 8 passed. I’m surprised that Obama can win 61.1% but that gay marriage also passes. I guess the only thing that is reassuring is that in the future these types of things won’t keep happening:
CNN exit poll Vote by Age
Yes No
18-29 (20%) 39 61
30-44 (28%) 55 45
45-64 (36%) 54 46
65+ (15%) 61 39
Obama’s victory was pretty much in line with the polls and was to be expected.
I’m pretty happy with most of the other propositions (especially 1A…Hooray for high speed rail). I noticed that 11 passed and I had up on my blog my support for 11 up until the last minute when I switched my vote. Question is… how many of my vast blogging audience were swayed by my charm but failed to check my blog right before they went to vote and could it have changed the result? The world may never know.
On the local level, the candidates that I picked for 2-5, so David is left off the council. It was incredibly close between David and Tony (9 votes). I saw a lot more signs out for Tony, so I had expected him to be higher on the list.
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apparently one big problem was that people voted “Yes” thinking it meant yes, I like gay marriage.
Another was that the presidential election was pretty much decided by 6:30 Pacific time, and a lot of casual voters stayed home. The ones who really cared about Prop. 8 (mostly the people terrified of The Gay)were the ones who made sure to show up and vote.
Another theory I had heard was that the increased turnout of minority communities boosted Yes on 8 because some minority communities have a stronger anti-gay bias. Of course, that could also be racist scapegoating, so I’m not sure I buy it.
Bah, and you changed your mind about 11? I’m going to have to go see if you posted why…
… so you weren’t real specific. Arguments I’ve heard are that it give a disproportionate influence to republicans and that is ignores the role that other political parties have to play. I’d like it best if the districts had to be made without demographic/polling data available. I agree in general that 11 is not a perfect solution, but I think it’s better than what we’ve got.
The reason I opposed prop 11 was that it set up seats for 5 democrats and 5 republicans even if these numbers do not reflect the demographics of the state. I think the solution should not be giving equal say to two partisan groups but to attempt a non-partisan solution. Since prop 11 passed I guess I’ll see how this system works.
I also think that deciding district boundaries might be better solved at the federal level because then you won’t have some states with gerrymandered districts and others with an over-empowered minority. If republicans can get the blue states to give them an equal say in states where they are the minority and keep the red states a gerrymandered mess, it would favor their party. Of course if you implement a federal redistricting law then people will scream bloody murder about states rights. If you try to institute a federal district line drawing scheme, both parties would have to agree to a fair solution because an unfair solution might help them in some states but hurt them in others.
I’m not convinced that the prop 11 solution will result in a fair distribution on counties. I was willing to send law writers back to the drawing board to figure out a better system. I guess we’ll see how well prop 11 works instead.
Apparently the Mormons donated $20MM or so to the Yes on 8 campaign. They also read a statement in all California churches encouraging members to vote a certain way. There’s a blog that’s started to get their non-profit status revoked for taking taking a political stance. They even tell you how to file a formal complaint with the IRS:
http://lds501c3.wordpress.com/
If nothing else, and interesting read on the machinations of 501(c)(3) law. Also interesting that a group that started out as polygamists would be pushing for “one man, one woman.” Irony is funny that way…
Wow. That blog is awesome. I’m going to have to use that in a post.