In case this passed under your radar, there is an election today:
Online voter applicants who have received an emailed confirmation of voter eligibility may vote online until 9 p.m. Tuesday. The King Conservation District is also providing an “in-person” voting option from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.Tuesday at the district’s offices located at 1107 SW Grady Way in Renton.
That’s right…a King County election with email voting and a single polling place. Goldy rants about it here.
It’s a slow day for comments.
OK, so who are the true conservationists, and who are the rightwing property-rights freaks, on this ballot? Anybody know?
OK, I’m gonna try to answer my own question by pasting in the following candidate profiles from the 11th District Democrats website:
“1. Douglas Bruce Elliott: owner of ‘Elliot Farm and Livestock’ in Kent. He caucused as a Republican in the last Presidential election and is self-identified as a ‘Strong Republican.’ He is a contributor to the WA St Republican Party, the KCRCC, the 33rd District Republican Committee, the WA St Farm Bureau PAC, Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights, Dino Rossi, Reagan Dunn, and Joe Fain. In 2009 he was the treasurer of the King-Pierce County Farm Bureau. He is running on balancing good environmental science and property rights. He was recently endorsed by the King County Republicans for the King Conservation District race.
“2. Teri Herrera: owner of ‘Herrera Real Estate Group’ and a 15-acre equestrian farm in Redmond. She caucused as a Democrat in the last Presidential election and is self-identified as a ‘Strong Democrat.’ She is a contributor to the Realtors PAC, and to Roger Goodman. As a member of the KCD Citizens’ Advisory Committee she is seeking improved partnerships among its stakeholders. She ran in 2010 and lost to Max Prindle in a 4 way race.
“3. Eric K. Nelson: manages Cherry Valley Dairy in Duvall. He did not caucus but did vote in the Primary and General, is self-identified as an ‘Independent’ and contributed to Barbara Heavey. He is a Commissioner in District 6 and former King County Agriculture Program Manager.
“4. Preston F. Prudente: Director of Administration at Moss Adams LLP in Seattle and lives in Sammamish did not caucus but did vote in the Primary and General, is self-identified as a ‘Leaning Republican.’ He is running on bringing efficiencies to the KCD.”
http://11thlddems.org/blog/201.....elections/
Note, none of the candidates sought Democratic endorsements, so the Democratic county and district organizations haven’t endorsed anyone. King County Republicans have endorsed Mr. Elliott.
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This election is for KCCD position #2. For progressive voters, Teri Herrera is the clear choice. She identifies herself as a Democrat and has been involved with, and therefore has knowledge of and experience with, Conservation District matters. The self-identified “Independent” in the race is a dairy farm, and dairy farms tend to be bad guys when it comes to land use and environmental issues — dairy operations are major polluters and dairy farmers don’t like environmental regulations or things like being required to fence cows out of streams to protect salmon runs. So I’m gonna vote for Herrera and I encourage my fellow Democrats, liberals, and progressives to vote for her.
The list of candidates is here:
http://www.kingcd.org/new_ele_candidates-2011.htm
Most are farmers. But Preston Prudente is the exception who just may be interesting.
Oops, you can only vote in person, in Renton, after 9 AM today, so I guess I’m not voting in this election because I can’t drive to Renton today. I wish someone had posted this yesterday, when it was still possible to vote online.
@4 I wouldn’t vote for Prudente. There’s no indication he has any conservation credentials whatsoever, and he’s a “leaning Republican” running on an “efficiency” platform to boot. This smells like “rightwing ideologue” to me. If you wanna vote for a rightwinger, vote for a farmer, they at least know what a conservation district is.
The Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors elections also start today, though affect a lot fewer people.
Can we someday do away with elected offices for every dog-catcher position in the state? This election, with very little publicity or notice, are just the sort of elections which Republicans have been adept at winning in recent years.
Hey, edit function appears in MS Explorer, too!!!! Horay!!!!!!!
@8 I would be okay with appointing people to the conservation district if I felt confident that the official doing the appointing would always be a progressive or environmentalist (which isn’t necessarily the same thing as a Democrat); but what if the appointments were made by someone like Suzie Hutch or Dino Rossi? To be on the safe side, I think that I’d like to have the option of voting for the people in these positions.
Ahh yes, the post in which Goldy works in this twisted and completely nonsensical ‘Nazism of the day’:
“Wouldn’t this be kinda like welcoming German reunification in, say, 1951?”
This makes absolutely no fucking sense, whatsoever. Germany was unified under the Nazis, ergo the crimes committed by the Nazis were committed by a pre-divided (unified)Germany. The division had nothing to do with the Nazis, technically. And the division cost the West (mostly the US taxpayer) untold lives and squandered billions of defense and spook dollars. The metaphor was supposed to illuminate the danger of rolling out online voting before it’s ready. The division of Germany never should have happened (the West totally fucked the dog on that one).
I mean, it’s obvious online voting has some serious kinks to alleviate before it becomes viable, but if you have to invoke a ‘Nazism of the day’ make it a slam dunk and not an airball.
@11 Germany was divided after World War 2 because the Russians, ahem, chose not to retire back to their own border. So if you had been formulating U.S. policy in 1945, your suggestion would have been, what? Fight the Soviet Union?
I’m seriously considering writing a bill to make all special elections, except for those necessary to replace unexpectedly retired officeholders, illegal. They are a useless waste of money.
There is no reason why school bond issues, conservations district elections, etc, can’t be held on the same day as either the primary or the general elections.
My husband and I trekked down to Renton through the pouring rain on Tuesday after trying to decipher the online procedure. It was the most convoluted undemocratic “election” imaginable. I asked how many people had voted so far and was told about 100 in person (at 3pm). When I asked how much this “election” cost, the reply was $50,000. Will be interested to know how many votes were cast. I commented on our dissatisfaction with the inaccessibility of voting; last two years voting occurred at the downtown public library and there were at least 100 people in line. The computer voting at the in-person location was also convoluted. You first had to get a bar code card, then scan it, then vote at an open computer open for all to see, then deposit your bar code card in the box. My husband did print out his vote but it took four tries.
“dairy farmers tend to be bad guys” – idiot rabbit.
are you on fukn drugs you insane old bastard? diary farmers are “bad guys”? WTF? I hope you dont drink milk
and if dairy farmers are bad guys, then what the hell does that make a piece of shit ex-lawyer like you? How many people did you screw out of their money? lots I bet.
you dont know dick about the guy, but because he owns a small dairy farm, he is a “bad guy”.
I will bet he works a hell of a lot harder than you ever did, you scumsucking douchebag.
go fuck yourself roger…better yet, just kick the bucket already and free up some oxygen for the rest of us…your allotment is obviously being wasted.