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Hello! This is a thread about voting! I’m sorry if this is “corny” but I love voting. I am my most optimistic and patriotic when I am filling out a ballot (before the results come in and I am inevitably at least somewhat disappointed).
If you live in California, you can return your ballot by mail, or find a ballot drop box location (no postage necessary!) at http://CAearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov . I found one near my house! I’m going to walk my dog and drop my ballot off there this weekend!
Voting for president is good - but even more important is voting for local races and ballot initiatives! If you haven’t been paying attention to the local stuff, it’s not too late! Take an evening to familiarize yourself! Pour some wine, play some tunes, make a night of it!
I made a spreadsheet for myself of various recommendations on the California ballot propositions and local races - I’ll link to the different endorsement pages in subsequent tweets - the most immediately striking detail to me is the unanimous YESes and NOs.
Here’s the LA Times endorsement page. My read on the LAT editorial voice is it’s very mainstream California Democrat (Pelosi, Feinstein, etc.) with all the pros and cons that connotes: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-09/la-times-endorsements-november-2020-election-trump-biden
The Mother Jones philosophy is that all ballot measures are default bad (for reasons the author gets into), so the iffier propositions get rounded down to NOs (so his yeses hold a little more weight): https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/10/a-short-guide-to-californias-2020-ballot-initiatives/
ACLU of Southern California is a good resource if you want to know what the ACLU thinks (I do!), but by nature of being the ACLU, the endorsements lack the nuance and personality of some of the more individually written recommendations in this thread: https://www.aclusocal.org/en/2020ballotguide
The LA Podcast endorsements are kind of the flip side to Mother Jones in that they round their maybes up to YESes (so their nos hold a little more weight). I like the details in their reasoning here - they give you enough to make your own decisions: https://thelapod.com/posts/la-podcast-voter-guide-2020-general-election/
I’d never heard of The Knock until I saw someone else link to this, but I really appreciate their clear and progressive breakdowns of the issue: https://knock-la.com/los-angeles-progressive-voter-guide-november-general-election-2020-fe6e286b3feb
The DSA-LA Voter Guides have been a great resource for the last several elections. I tend to agree with most of their assessments, and in the places I don’t, their arguments are so cleanly expressed, it’s easy to see where we split:
https://dsa-la.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSA-LA-2020-General-Election-Voter-Guide.pdf
https://dsa-la.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSA-LA-2020-General-Election-Voter-Guide.pdf
Now let’s get real local! Where are my progressive west-siders at? (For real, I’d love to see recommendations from Santa Monicans who pay closer attention than I do.) I read up on the Santa Monica City Council candidates (+ other local races) here: https://www.smvote.org/Candidates/
Personally I’m most drawn to candidates who can at least nod toward efforts to disempower the police, and turned off by candidates who allude to “crime” or “riots” without any clarity or qualification. The best on this front by a long shot is MARCUS OWENS.
https://www.marcusowens.org/
https://www.marcusowens.org/
I also appreciate candidates who can be SPECIFIC about their priorities and plans over vague platitudes. Without Ds or Rs next to their names, it isn’t always obvious what these people actually stand for. In a bunch of these folks, I see hints of ugly NIMBYism.
Broadly, I find the incumbents to be remarkably more forthcoming and aligned with my values than the challengers. I’m particularly impressed with GLEAM DAVIS and ANA MARIA JARA.
https://www.gleamdavis2020.com/ https://anamariajara4citycouncil.com/
https://www.gleamdavis2020.com/ https://anamariajara4citycouncil.com/
Finally, I’m voting for George Gascón for LA County District Attorney. Get Jackie Lacey out of there!
Thus ends my corny VOTE thread! Another corny thing about me is I once (non-ironically) purchased (with money) an mp3 of American Idol contestant David Cook’s Eddie-Vedderish take on Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” - but David Cook won that season, so sometimes voting works!
