Tuesday September 5, 2006

How to vote

don't forget to press the red buttonIt’s election day, y’all! Time for us to celebrate the fact that we live in a free (sort of) country, and maybe even make some changes to make that country better. Oh, but wait, these are local elections? Well, crap, who bothers with the small-time shit? Local government doesn’t do the really important stuff, and nobody knows any of the names, so why bother?

Well, of course voting in local elections just as important as in the nationals: this is about the money and decisions that are closest to us, and since (all the more reason) very few people are voting, one vote can be a really powerful voice. The way it rarely is in, say, presidential elections. Though it was in 2000 in Florida, a super-close swing state, and so, thanks again to you jerks that voted for Nader. But I digress. The question is, how do you decide who to vote for today? I present to you some possible methodologies:

  1. Keep up with local politics all year. Then you’ll be ready. Of course it’s too late to do that now. And by the way, I write a local blog, so I should know more then the average person about this stuff, but I’m pretty clueless.
  2. Just print out the Herald’s recommendations and vote down the line with the Herald (or vote down the line opposite what they recommend, you anarchist you).
  3. Delve deep into the Herald’s logic and decide on which points you agree with them or not. Which would be a lot easier if there were a competing newspaper news source in town who’s recommendations you could compare against the Herald’s. God love Miami Today, but their only mention of the elections just isn’t very helpful in this regard. The New Times? Helpful . . . if you’re wondering who writes the dirt. (Ok, I admit—it’s me. What, the slick design didn’t give it away?[1]) Biscayne Boulevard Times? Nope.
  4. I was going to suggest keeping up with the results throughout the day, and voting for whoever’s behind, the idea being that it’d make it easier for those who do know what they’re talking about to get those people elected, despite, say, the Herald’s recommendation. But now I’m not sure this approach is mathematically correct. After all, you might be counteracting the votes of just those well-educated voters.

So where does that leave us? I guess reading up in the Herald (And, no, the Sentinel’s coverage doesn’t say peep about Miami Dade elections.), and cursing the darkness. You should also check out the antidisenfranchisement guide at Hidden City. The official Miami-Dade elections page.

[1] Joking.

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  1. NicFitKid    Tue Sep 5, 09:51 PM #  

    Well, I voted today. Fat lot of good it does, but hey, I’m stubborn that way.

    The polls were dead, eerie scary movie dead. A few fossils shuffled about, but I was easily the youngest person there. The ballot was crammed with judges for the most part. I went with the info from Murmurs in the Sun Post and avoided any judge that had signed on with the Christian Family Coalition, our own little homegrown group of homophobic theocratic fascists.

    When I was done the poll workers gave me a sticker. Whee!



  2. FD    Mon Sep 11, 02:18 AM #  

    Thanks for your information, but you forgot to mention the SunPost.
    I am an avid reader of newspaper, and especially everything political. And really, the SunPost is doing a great job, especially on local issues.
    New Times was quite good before, but they really softened after the Arthur Teele suicide. I hope they will get back to their normal investigations, because right now they are quite boring.
    And the Herald is doing better now. This House of Lies series deserves the Pulitzer in my opinion. I hope that the Attorney General will follow up on that, and I hope that one day we will know who were the Commissioners who recommended these crook for the job. This wonderful city were we live deserves better.
    And thank you for your great blog.
    FD
    Condo-Hotels