Washington state has a primary election on August 16th. Admittedly, the 2011 general election isn’t exactly electoral arena rock. I’ll only be voting on one election—King County Court of Appeals, Division 1, District 1, Judge Position 2, where an appointed incumbent is running uncontested. Still…with mail-in voting, there is never an excuse to not vote. Consider it practice and debugging for 2012.
Is your registration active? Address current? Now is a good time to double check here: verify your registration status, update your home address, check out your voting history, read your voter’s pamphlet, and even find contact information for your current elected office-holders.
Not registered to vote? Register online here. The deadline for on-line registrations is next monday, July 18th. After that, you can register in person through August 8th.
You mean second next election! The next election of consequence is Tuesday, July 19, when Wisconsin holds the second of four recall elections in that state. Of course, we don’t get to vote in that one, but we can cheer for the good guys. (Yes, that is a clear-cut White Hat vs. Black Hat election.)
After all four elections are over and the dust has settled, I expect GOPers to defeat 1 of the 3 Democrats up for recall, and Democrats to defeat 4 or 5 of the 6 Republicans up for recall, which will give Democrats a net gain of 3 or 4 state senate seats. They need 3 to get a majority and shut down Gov. Walker’s legislative agenda.
Not too much going on down Gig Harbor way. One of our city council members is leaving and will be replaced by one of two people who will vote and act exactly the same and exactly like the council member which is leaving. Which is to continue to turn our nice little town into a retch inducing suburban version of anywhere USA.
Yay.
Did I mention that I’m probably moving?
I am ready. I love voting. I wanted to start voting when I was 6 and met Governor Dixie Lee Ray. (I have met all living Governors since.) I registered to vote the first day I could. I also voted the first day after my 18th birthday.(Republican Presidental Primary). I have only missed one election in my life. My ballot for 1996 general election arrived after the election. I filled it out anyways out of principal but it did not count. (And people wonder why I do not trust this all vote by mail stuff).
In accordance with free market principles, this year my vote is up for sale. Volume discount for those interested.
Michael @ 3
Where are you headed?
@2. Roger Rabbit spews:
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repubs deserve to take a beating in special elections as a result of the idiotic Ryan medicare plan.
@6
I’m not sure. I’m looking at small to mid-sized cities (50-150K people) with a traditional layout (older cities are way better than post WWII ones for bike commuting) and colleges in them. Four season climate, but probably a little light on the winter. Has to be a good place for growing your own food. Or I might move back to Spokane, which meets some of the above requirements anyway. Iowa City is actually pretty high on the list. Given the above requirements where would you go?
@7 “repubs deserve to take a beating in special elections as a result of the idiotic Ryan medicare plan.”
I assume this is your comment in response to my post @2? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re saying you think Wisconsin’s GOP state senators up for recall may catch some blowback from Wisconsin congressman Ryan’s scheme to privatize Medicare? Which YOU think is “idiotic”?
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it looks like our friend AF may have been gripped by a paroxysm of pragmatism, and is worried that Ryan’s Medicare scheme may not only be impractical but also politically toxic, and could rain radioactive dust on his party’s down-ticket candidates at the state level?
Interesting. We could use more Republican pragmatism in this country right now. When even our most dogmatic trolls see a problem with the way Repubs are doing things, that suggests there may be a problem with how Repubs are doing things.
@8 Sounds like you’re describing Bellingham, but I can’t tell you where to go. I’ve always been urban wildlife and can’t see myself trying to live in the woods or a small town. The trouble with small towns is that private things which are nobody else’s business always end up being everybody’s business. I’ve never been in a small town where people weren’t at each other’s throats. The advantage of cities is they’re so big you can be anonymous in them. For that reason alone, I’ll never leave Seattle, even if it grows to become an L.A.
8
I think Bellingham, Eugene, and Missoula would be candidates; for me, at least, they would be. Not sure they fit your climate goals, though. Portland, ME would be a great place, but the winters there are pretty harsh.
@10, 11
Bellingham’s a great town, but I’m trying to get out of the cold and rain. I find that the older I get the more my seasonal affective crap kicks in and the last couple of years have just been dreadful weather wise. I’ll probably windup either back in Spokane, I used to live there and still have a lot of friends there and really like it, or somewhere in the lower half of the mid-west.
@12: Assuming you have to work, somewhere from Northern CA to SE Alaska.
What your skills are makes a difference. As I recall you do social services. Anything else you want to try your hand at (besides grunt labor, I mean)?
I note you’re basically describing Kunstler’s criteria, which the Pac NW area fits to a tee. I get the dark and cold thing, but trust me, this really is the best place on earth to live, especially in the long term. Our problem is going to be when everyone else figures that out.
@12: I love Portland. Have you thought about Bend? Baker City?
Also note that serious crazies (like Chuck Baldwin) are actively recruiting other wacked out, right wing survivalist types to take over what they refer to as “The American Redoubt”: basically the Mountain States and Eastern Oregon/WA. I love N Idaho / W Montana, but it’s getting very scary there.
@14
I’m probably going to be beefing up on the healthcare end of my resume and going that way in the future. My job skills transfer to just about anywhere and since I don’t have kids, I don’t have to worry too much about schools.
I spent part of my summers growing up on a farm outside of Estacada, just SE of Portland, great country down that way. But, I’m thinking that other than Spokane I’d want to try someplace new.
Missoula is a great town and so was Salt Lake City, before sprawl killed it, but they’re too isolated for my taste. If you haven’t been to SLC in a while you’d be appalled at what’s been done with the place.
I have a few friends and acquaintances in the midwest and I think some of those older towns that got kinda skipped over in the last 20 years are going to be coming back fairly strong in the next 20 years. I’m going to go hangout in the midwest for a couple of weeks this fall and see how it goes. There’s, actually, some really great biking in the midwest. And of course there’s my dream kitchen garden and OMG houses are cheap. We’ll see how it goes.
Michael,
We may have our gray days, but we don’t have tornadoes, among other things. I can handle our weather. For now, at least. Plus, it’s really nice to be surrounded by thinking people.
@16
There’s, actually, some really cool folks out there. They’re not necessarily hooked up in the political realm, (and I’m getting less hooked to it by the day) but when you start looking at bicycling, food systems, peak oil, going back to making anything by hand, music, there seems to be all sorts of cool stuff going on in the midwest. I’ve never spent much time there and there are places, like there are anywhere, that you want to avoid. I’ve been to Omaha, it’s a hole. But, I’ve got a couple of acquaintances in Iowa City and the place sounds really neat and hits all the right buttons on the liberalism stuff. IC’s a UNESCO City Of Literature (1 of 4), for example.
Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of vacation saved up and I’m going to go check things out in the fall. Going to see friends in MLPS and family in KC (which is a hole) and checkout Iowa City, Madison and a couple other spots. I’m not leaving unless I find something that I really like.
I like the Driftless area–southeastern Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa. Brook trout streams there. Greg Brown’s from there. Great old folk singer. Still, humidity and lack of mountains. Just don’t know.
@18
Yeah, I saw a pretty little town in there, Decorah IA. Too small for me, but I’ll be going right though there from Minneapolis to Madison.