It’s decidin’ day here in ‘merica. For instance, I need to decide if I’m gonna go vote before work, or after. Probably before, but I need to get gas, too, and I hate to pack all that activity into a single day. Here in NY, besides the vote for Governor (I’ll vote for Howie Hawkins), we have three ballot propositions. The first one is a “change” to how they draw the voting districts.

By change, I mean the same assholes who draw them now (aka, the State Legislature) will basically keep doing it. Here’s the convoluted change they want to make to the State Constitution: Assholes pick eight members of a “commission” and then two more members get appointed by the eight legislatively-appointed members. These remaining two members cannot, in the preceding five years, have been enrolled in either of the two major political parties in New York State. Oh, and if these ten sub-assholes can’t get a consensus, it goes back to the main assholes.

Sounds like bullshit to me. Just a way to avoid changing anything while pretending they changed something. I vote NO!

Second prop is to allow electronic versions of bills to be presented to the assholes who won’t read them anyway, in lieu of printing copies for every member. Sound good to me. Maybe they’ll save a tree or two (though I’m sure their staffs will just print them out anyway.

The third one is money for schools:

This proposal would allow the State to borrow up to two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000). This money would be expended on capital projects related to the design, planning, site acquisition, demolition, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or acquisition or installation of equipment for the following types of projects:

To acquire learning technology equipment or facilities including, but not limited to,
Interactive whiteboards,
Computer servers, and
Desktop, laptop, and tablet computers;

To install high-speed broadband or wireless internet connectivity for schools and communities;

To construct, enhance, and modernize educational facilities to accommodate pre-kindergarten programs and provide instructional space to replace transportable classroom units; and
To install high-tech security features in school buildings and on school campuses.

I think I oppose this. If it was just for the infrastructure to add decent Internet, I might go for it (though even in the rural areas around here, schools have access to broadband Internet, so I don’t know that this is really needed – let them fund it in the State budget as needed). But, like, $2 billion worth of 20 year bonds to buy laptpos that are gonna be obsolete and in a landfill about 15 years before the bonds are paid off? Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. And when they start talking about “high-tech security features,” I start thinking about throwing lots of money away to contractors.

I think I’m gonna have to vote no on this one.

Otherwise, for the first time since we moved here, I get a choice of who to vote for for my State Assembly representative. Used to be the old white Republican dude ran unopposed every year, but this year there’s an old white Democratic woman running against him. I’ll have to go with the old broad (one of her slogans was “Albany needs some fresh blood – even if it IS 68 years old). She used to be a nurse, but I’m trying not to hold that against her.

We also have two candidates for Sheriff for the first time in, I think, my lifetime. The current one is retiring, so we get a choice.

I could go on, but I need to get off my ass and get ready to go if I’m gonna vote on the way in. My only regret is that I can’t stick around for the pancake breakfast at the Methodist church. On the bright side, I earn a day off for working today. Yay!

UPDATE: So, since I know you were all wondering, I did vote on the way in to work this morning (got gas, too – now I need a nap). I saw the wife apparently beat me there on her way in. There was a pretty good crowd, all things considered. I was #64 on the scanner that I fed my ballot in to (there were two machines there).

It’s funny, but I guess I don’t really miss the old lever machines as much as I thought I would. FOr one thing, I’ve been taking standardized tests all my life, so filling in the little circle is second nature to me. Plus, you don’t have to stand in line while the person in front of you spends half an hour trying to figure out how to get the curtain back open (though cranking that lever back over was a lot more satisfying than watching you ballot disappear into the little black box).

Instead there are plenty of little privacy stations where you can actually sit down and read the propositions if you want to. All they need to do is put out a carafe of coffee and add a urinal and it would be the perfect setup.

So my civic duty is done for another year, and now I can just sit back, relax, and wait for the Senate to fall into the hands of the Empire.