Why Did You Vote for Who You Voted for? Confessions of the Politically Ignorant

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve just sealed my absentee ballot for tomorrow’s elections. I am not an extremly well informed voter. I knew enough to know that I didn’t want to vote for either Bill Simon or Grey Davis, so I left Governor blank. I’d intended to go back after I was finished and see if I could force myself to vote for Davis, or vote for one of the (as far as I could tell) interchangeable independents, but I forgot and sealed my ballot. Well, there’s no “None of the Above” box on California ballots, so I guess that’s the next best thing.

Okay, I’m not a total idiot. I knew who I was voting for in the important races. My mom’s even met Cruz Bustamante through her charity work, for example. But most of these races… I don’t recognize a single name among the candidates running for Controller. Hell, I don’t even know what a Controller does. I usually vote Democrat on the basis that their shadowy corporate masters are marginally less terrifying than the Republican’s. I mostly voted the straight party ticket this year. But that’s not the real reason I voted the way I did. Most of my votes were really for the most asinine, arbitrary reasons imaginable. For example:

Joe Nation (State Assembley) may have been the Democratic candidate, but the real reason I voted for him was because “Joe Nation” is the best name I’ve ever heard for a politician. You could never get away with something like that in fiction.

I voted Yes on Measure C, which allocated more municipal funds for EMS and ER services, on the basis of the bacon cheeseburger I had for lunch.

There’s a position called Director of the Marin Healthcare District. I have no idea what that is or who those people are. Apparently, none of them are doctors. I get three choices. Well, Lynette Shaw is a Patient Services Provider, whatever that is. Sounds kinda like a nurse. That’s one. Jennifer Rienks is something called Health Outcomes Researcher. Well, that has Health and Research in it, which might mean she’s qualified for the position. Or it might mean she writes the Obituaries for the Independent Journal. Either way, she’s got my vote. Last choice. I decide to pass over the two incumbents in favor of Peter Christian Romanowsky, a “Self Employed Tradesman,” because he sounds like a crank, and I can only take so much with a straight face. This may backfire on me when the ER tries to treat my bacon cheeseburger-induced coronary with a quartz crystal and a session of tai chi.

I voted for Carole Migden (State Board of Equalization, D) because she’s a lesbian. Good dykes make good laws.

I voted for John Garamendi (Insurance Commissioner, D) because his last name sounds like “Garibaldi,” my favorite character from Babylon 5. Think about that one. Think how much money John Garamendi spent on his campaign. I have no idea how much it was, I never even heard of the guy before. But it was probably a couple million dollars. He might have had a cutthroat, neck in neck race with Gary Mendoza ®, with vicious attack ads and wild slanders from both sides. And Garamendi gets my vote because he sounds like a guy who hangs out with Vorlons.

And you know what the sick thing is? Compared to the national average, I’m a political animal. I could be on Crossfire. I vote for the dumbest reasons imaginable, but at least I vote. Most Americans don’t even rise to my level of incompetence. I guess that’s the great thing about Democracy. If the politicians don’t squash your faith in humanity, there’s always the voters.

2

I hope I don’t come across something funnier than that today, because if I do I will likely hyperventilate from an inability to breathe.

3

Governer: I voted for Bredesen, because I was in Nashville when he was mayor there and he did a decent job from what I can recall.

Senator: It wasn’t a vote for Bob Clement so much as a vote against Lamar Alexander. I don’t like Lamar. At all.

Lottery: For. Why? Because I don’t want to have to drive to Kentucky, Virginia or Georgia to buy my winning ticket. And I know I’m going to win if it gets set up, aren’t I? :wink:

The other state constitiution issue: I voted to remove the cap on fines that can be set when there’s not a jury trial - it was at $50.

I’m kind of sorry to say that I don’t remember the local issues on the ballot - I read them and made my decision from that, but I honestly don’t remember.

There was one other thing with people. Just to make it a straight ticket vote I went with the democrat.

4

I’m not voting until after work, but lessee: on the statewide (Maryland) races, it was easy: I can look across the river to Virginia, where I’ve spent most of my life, and see the hole that eight years of Allen and Gilmore have put my beloved Commonwealth in. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend will not make anyone forget the faces on Mt. Rushmore, but she won’t cut taxes until the state falls apart. She’s pro-choice, anti-slot machines, and for ballistic fingerprinting. Ehrlich is pro-life, pro-slots, against new gun laws, and for repealing some of the existing ones. Easy choice.

In any national or state levels, the choices are easy: I know what the Pubbies are selling, and I disagree with 90% of it. So unless you’ve got an atypical Republican (e.g. Connie Morella), it’s automatic. And the reality these days is that the handful of remaining moderate Republicans, simply by virtue of remaining Republicans, help Tom DeLay & Co. stay in control. Party affiliation really does mean a great deal at that level.

At the local level, it bugs the hell out of me that I’m supposed to vote on a lot of offices that should be appointed; IMHO, any office requiring specific technical expertise should be an appointed position. But we get to vote on the Register of Wills and all sorts of stuff like that. Sheez.

For the (Calvert) county commission, everyone’s for preserving open space, strengthening the schools, and keeping taxes low. (Who wouldn’t be?) The politics of the national Pubbies have somewhat, but not entirely, filtered down to this level: some of the GOP commission candidates are tax-cutters no matter what. They won’t be getting my vote. One of 'em who’s already on the commission has shown good judgment and a grasp of the county’s problems, and I’m voting for him. And there are four Dems that I like to round out my slate there.

We’ve got a sheriff’s race where both the candidates have some serious negatives. I’m leaning one way, but I might wind up leaving that one blank.

I think I’d better stop there. If I went through the entire list of piddling offices we’ve got to vote on, I’d still be working on this post at lunchtime.

5

Politically Unaware Guy checking in here…

Well, just to make everybody feel superior, I voded Democrat wherever they listed it because that’s what my wife wanted me to do. Otherwise, I voted for the incumbent; if they didn’t list that, I voted for the ones with the Flintstones names: Stoneburner, Flint, Rockworth, etc.

I am so going to hell…

6

Texas here. Voted early on a computer voting machine (nifty).

I voted for Ron Kirk for Senate, because he’s a Democrat, and because he’s a decent guy – one of the few major contendors who I saw no negative ads from (not saying there weren’t any, I just didn’t see 'em).

I voted AGAINST Rick Perry, which means I voted for Tony Sanchez. Perry is a tool and a doofus, and the Republican Party has some virulent anti-gay hate speech in its Texas platform. Easy choice.

For Congress I had a choice between incumbent Pete Sessions, who I worked for in 2000, and whose election would help the vile Tom DeLay, or Pauline Dixon, who won’t win, but a vote for her is a vote for the vile Dick Gephardt. So I voted Libertarian.

I voted for some amendment about something that I forget now what it was, but it sounded quite reasonable at the time.

And then there were the judicial races. Sigh. We shouldn’t vote for judges, they should be appointed to very long terms to prevent them from being swayed by prevailing public opinion. I voted Democrat for all the big spots, and by the 13th screen of judicial races I just swapped between GOP and Democrat to make it interesting.

I voted for the Libertarian if they were running for any job that might involve the collection of taxes of some sort.

I didn’t vote if there was only one person standing for election.

I’m sure everyone I voted for will lose. Sigh.

Kirk

7

I vote absentee in MI, and despite the fact that I voted Jennifer Granholm (D) for Gov. It took every fiber of my being not to vote for the politician with the best name ever: Dick Posthumus ®

In the other races there wasn’t anything terribly exciting. Voting from home has one very distinct advantage. If I get stuck I have the entire internet, and all the time I want, to look up information on the candidates. I like that a lot.

Dick Posthumus: hehehe

8

No, No. There’s a better named political candidate here in MI (although not for governor).

Mike Cox. I giggle every time I hear his ads. “you can rely on Mike Cox.” One of his advisors really needs to pull him aside: “Sir? Maybe you should think about going by Michael. What? Um, no reason. It sounds more, um, formal. And less like a reference to your penis.”

What makes it even better is he is running against…

Peters.

9

Voted Democrat. Always voted Democrat. Started with McGovern. Not that thrilled with Dems, pretty spineless of late, but they are as left as I can vote and still remain relevent.

Even if the Dems pull a total rout, they won’t gain that much power, so that’s more a condition of stasis than of change.

If the Pubbies get total control, even by the slimmest of margins, they will tout that as an unshakeable mandate to do whatever they want to do. Remember, this is the last election before the campaign finance stuff comes into play. The importance of this is hard to overemphasize, witness the staggering money advantage of the Pubbies over the Dems. Which they like. Which they intend to keep. If they get that power, they will tinker with campaign finance until they tinker it to death.

Just once, I would like to see how well the Pubbies can do without the money advantage. If they can still do well, fine, thats democracy. If they can’t, better still. Money talks, can’t much be done about that. Damn sure shouldn’t vote.

Still betting we don’t have an answer for a while yet. Hell, it’s barely noon and already Florida looks all buggered up.

10

Here in Texas, I voted:

Perry for Governor, mostly because I think Sanchez is, uh, dirty(er).

Cornyn for Senate, because I like his occasional commitment to transparency, and I’d like a more Republican Senate (but I’d like a more Democrat House…). Wish that Ron Kirk was a Republican. Clever, though, Ron is…getting all the negative ads run under the party name instead of his own…as if he had nothing to do with them.

Sharp for Lt. Gov., since he my kinda Dem. That and Dewhurst is so unloved by everyone that he’d never get anything done.

Watson for AG, becuse I think he’ll do well as a consumer advocate. But that was before the ad where he rails on his opponent for “hippocracy” in wanting tort reform despite getting a settlement for being paralyzed. A mite sleazy, methinks.

11

I voted in the NC election.

Senate: Paul DeLaney (write-in candidate) because he’s the only person running with good common sense. Also, he hasn’t called my house thirty-seven times in the past two months telling me to vote for him.

District Court Judge: Charlie Brown. He’s a good man.

I didn’t vote in the local elections (except for the above judge) because I was out of the state on Sunday when the local paper printed the candidates and their stances. Ergo, only national and for school bonds and historic site registrations.

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E. Tennessee reporting in:

Voted for the Repubs. Hell, they’re going to win so why bother? When the Democratic candidate is running ads claiming to be for “smaller, cheaper, and less-intrusive” government, when another Democrat proudly proclaims his support for Pres. Bush’s war in Iraq, and another (or it might be one of the two above) defends the 2nd amendment to a fare-thee-well, one really isn’t left much of a choice. So go with the winners.

Also voted against the lottery. Shame on you, Lsura! :wink:

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Oh, and I would’ve voted for any candidate that would’ve had the guts to come out FOR a state-wide income tax. But, alas, none did.

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But don’t get me started on that Lucy Van Pelt.

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For legislative positions, I went straight republican because none of the Democrats made it through my first filter. If a candidate has a D or F rating from the NRA and their opponent has an A or B, their opponent is getting my vote. In NC, all of the Dems for my district were Ds and Fs, while the Republicans were all As or Bs. If there’s not such a sharp divide on my major issue, then I compare the candidates more carefully, and usually end up voting Libertarian becase I can’t stomach the big party candidates.

County Commisioners, I was really, really pissed. I was going to vote against every one of the bastards who passed our recent sales tax hike, but even in the meeting minutes there was no record of the vote, so I ended up voting for the Libertarians in all of the slots, since I can be sure they won’t vote for one.

Judges, I wasn’t really sure - I managed to piece together bits of information and make decisions based on that, but they’re a lot harder to find out about than legislators. Next year I’ll start in earlier on researching them, since they come close to hiding information about how they do their jobs.

16

I didn’t want ANY of the people running to be in office, so I didn’t even bother to vote.

I refuse to vote for the lessor of two evils anymore.

When I vote FOR a candidate, I want to be voting FOR the candidates and not against another.

17

I attempted to post earlier today but evidently the post became hamster fodder.

I voted early this morning. Georgia is using touch screen voting machines throughout the state for the first time today. That was cool. Made casting my ballot easier.

For Governor, I went with the incumbent Roy Barnes. He seems ok to me. Besides the Pub, Sonny Perdue, just got to cutesy folksy with his ads for my taste.

For Lt. Governor, I went with the incumbent because I know him. Nobody hardly knows who the Pub candidate is and for sure no one knows who the Lib candidate is.

For US Senator I went with the incumbent Max Cleland. Saxby Chambliss, the Pub, is just sleazy. He makes my flesh crawl. Besides, he left automated messages on my answering machines for four consecutive nights Friday-Monday, and that pissed me off.

Lots of other statewide races, State School Superintendant, Agriculture Commissioner, Insurance Commisioner, Public Service Commisioner, Labor Commisioner, etc. Chose the incumbents cause they haven’t appeared to do too much harm so far. Oops, School Superintencant had no incumbent, so I voted for Barbara Christmas, just because I like Christmas. How’s that for shallow?

For State Senator, I chose the incumbent cause he’s a pretty good guy who has done a lot for this area.

For State Representative, we got to choose between newcomers since this is a new House district. I went with the dem because the pub candidate stepped on my foot in Wal-Mart three weeks ago and didn’t say excuse me. I don’t want a rude State Rep.

Then there were a bunch of amendments to the state constitution. Voted yes on all except one. It was something about creating a special tax class for commercial fishing boats. I read it three times and still didn’t understand it, so I said no.

A lesson for any dopers considering running for a political office and hoping to gain my vote: Do not piss me off by leaving annoying automated messages on my answering machine and apologize if you step on my feet. :smiley:

swampbear, voter, carrying the torch for really lame reasons for voting voters everywhere.

18

Looks like we canceled each other out. And I could have stayed in bed longer if I’d known (not really, I’d still have voted).

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In Virginia, Senator John Warner is running unopposed by a major candidate. So I decided to do what I was going to do if things weren’t close the last time–write in my Dad.

So, I came up to the official and asked if there was anything I should know about write-ins, and he ran off excitedly. Soon there were about five officials all crowded around my booth as the “write-in expert” gave me and the others his instructions. Everyone seemed happy that I asked, because they all wanted to know in case they had to help someone else through the process. Everyone was enthusiastic, helpful, and professional. I shall write them a thank-you letter.

They told me I was the first person to do a write-in that day (it was already 5pm), so who knows? Maybe my old man has a shot.

20

I voted for the State Senate incumbent in my district because a little more than 20 years ago I bit him. I couldn’t tell you anything at all else about him other than party affiliation.

Of course, right now I’m 21. He’s a friend of my dad since when they were both in the Elks Club, when my dad was a young lawyer and Mr. Candidate was a judge. He was campaigning for a local election or something and doing the whole shaking hands and kissing babies thing at the club and my all of several months bit him.