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Election results
Nov. 5th, 2008 09:14 pmCute story I heard today. I'm a museum tour guide; this morning I gave a pair of tours to 6th graders from a mostly African American school in Detroit. After we were done, one of the other docents said that, as she was getting started, one of her kids looked very sternly at her -- "Did you vote yesterday?" The docent assured her that she did. "For Obama?" Of course. And then the girl started jumping up and down and cheering - "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh yeah!" :-)
I finally found the website for the local and "minor" election results yesterday, and was a wee bit amused. I have never voted straight ticket, and in the first few elections I voted in, my tallies tended to be about half-and-half between the major parties, with scattered third-party votes. A lot of the Republican votes have been for local offices and the sort where party really doesn't matter, though.
I currently live in Ann Arbor, one of the most liberal cities in the midwest. Most of our local offices were Dems running unopposed, so no choice there, anyway. I looked over the only local partisan races - county sheriff, AA mayor (Dem vs. Lib) -- and much preferred the Democrat in both. President was a no-brainer, and not only do I really like both my Congressman (John Dingell) and Senator (Carl Levin), but they were both running against people I really disliked as soon as I checked them out. That only left the state Board of Education and the three public university boards, electing two candidates each. Those I checked out and was almost relieved that of my eight choices, three were Republicans. So my total votes-by-party yesterday went for 3 Republicans and 18 Democrats, with no third-party votes. Checked the election results. Of the 21 partisan winners, I voted for 18 of them. Yep. All three Republicans I voted for lost; none of the Democrats did. I'm guessing there was a *lot* of straight-ticket voting this time around.
On the non-partisan ticket, I voted no on a local amendment that passed, but given that my feeling about the amendment was, "eh, too much bother," I'm not really distraught. I also 'lost' on one of my choices for WCC Trustee, but I'm okay with that, too (despite working there). The two real non-partisan races both went to my choice (and both were close!), including the really nasty state Supreme Court justice. I wasn't feeling strongly about that one until I found the point in one questionnaire where the incumbent proudly pointed out that he was one of the key figures in interpreting the 2004 anti-gay-marriage law to disallow any form of partner benefits for state employees, something that I think is still being fought by most of our massive public universities. I'm happy he lost. The other big Michigan battle, over stem cell research, passed narrowly, making a *lot* of my former coworkers happy - especially the ones working in stem cell research. And amusingly, medical marijuana passed by the predicted large margin - we worry about stem cells, and in the last two elections got rid of affirmative action and narrowed gay rights - but we've got no problem with pot.
Others have said everything I want to say about President-Elect Barack Obama (woo-hoo!) and the disappointment in California (to understate things).
On a personal note, I'm officially a student again - I register for classes tomorrow. Already, next semester's schedule looks like it's going to suck. Yay!
I finally found the website for the local and "minor" election results yesterday, and was a wee bit amused. I have never voted straight ticket, and in the first few elections I voted in, my tallies tended to be about half-and-half between the major parties, with scattered third-party votes. A lot of the Republican votes have been for local offices and the sort where party really doesn't matter, though.
I currently live in Ann Arbor, one of the most liberal cities in the midwest. Most of our local offices were Dems running unopposed, so no choice there, anyway. I looked over the only local partisan races - county sheriff, AA mayor (Dem vs. Lib) -- and much preferred the Democrat in both. President was a no-brainer, and not only do I really like both my Congressman (John Dingell) and Senator (Carl Levin), but they were both running against people I really disliked as soon as I checked them out. That only left the state Board of Education and the three public university boards, electing two candidates each. Those I checked out and was almost relieved that of my eight choices, three were Republicans. So my total votes-by-party yesterday went for 3 Republicans and 18 Democrats, with no third-party votes. Checked the election results. Of the 21 partisan winners, I voted for 18 of them. Yep. All three Republicans I voted for lost; none of the Democrats did. I'm guessing there was a *lot* of straight-ticket voting this time around.
On the non-partisan ticket, I voted no on a local amendment that passed, but given that my feeling about the amendment was, "eh, too much bother," I'm not really distraught. I also 'lost' on one of my choices for WCC Trustee, but I'm okay with that, too (despite working there). The two real non-partisan races both went to my choice (and both were close!), including the really nasty state Supreme Court justice. I wasn't feeling strongly about that one until I found the point in one questionnaire where the incumbent proudly pointed out that he was one of the key figures in interpreting the 2004 anti-gay-marriage law to disallow any form of partner benefits for state employees, something that I think is still being fought by most of our massive public universities. I'm happy he lost. The other big Michigan battle, over stem cell research, passed narrowly, making a *lot* of my former coworkers happy - especially the ones working in stem cell research. And amusingly, medical marijuana passed by the predicted large margin - we worry about stem cells, and in the last two elections got rid of affirmative action and narrowed gay rights - but we've got no problem with pot.
Others have said everything I want to say about President-Elect Barack Obama (woo-hoo!) and the disappointment in California (to understate things).
On a personal note, I'm officially a student again - I register for classes tomorrow. Already, next semester's schedule looks like it's going to suck. Yay!
