If you voted this week then you probably know polling places are a bit odd here in LA. Unlike in the UK where it’s usually a school, library or town hall, you can vote almost anywhere here. I heard of some bizarre reports of people voting at a local swimming pool, in a lifeguard station by the Pacific Ocean, an art gallery in Beverly Hills, Some people even voted in a Laundromat. Only in LA, right?
I was asked this year to volunteer as a clerk at my local polling station, which was in a boring old apartment building in Hollywood. Even though it was a long day (6am -10pm), it was really great saying hello and getting to know some of my neighbors. Political views aside, it was rewarding and nice to see so many people excited and helping those who were voting for the first time. Some had their fingers crossed, others were annoyed at the lack of parking opportunities around the station. A little confusion arose as there were two different precincts voting in the same place. But we were extra diligent to make sure that the right people hit the right section at the booths. If you haven’t volunteered to help at the booths yet, I highly recommend it….and not just for the cookies and pizzas and doughnuts and coffee kind voters brought to us as a thank you.
It was a very busy day, but the time flew by as it was reported that there were record numbers of people at the polls this year in California – which is awesome and shows that people are exercising their right to be heard at the ballot box. Between the electoral college, mid-terms, voting for congressmen and/or senators, local, county and state initiatives and measures, it can all prove difficult to understand for newcomers, and that’s understandable. It took me quite a while to figure it out too. But once you have a handle on the system, you can get see how it works at times and how flawed it can be too, regardless of your party preference.
As most of you already know by now, The Democrats took control of the house while the Republicans maintained power in the senate. Nationwide there were some encouraging firsts… Jared Polis became the first-ever openly gay governor for the state of Colorado and Rashida Tlaib and Ilham Omar became the first Muslim women elected to Congress. In Minnesota, representative Omar succeeds US Congressman Keith Ellison, who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to Congress. He is now stepping down to run for state attorney general.
And in Michigan, Ms Tlaib also has a history of breaking barriers – in 2008 she became the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan Legislature and now moves on to the house of representatives. The oldest of 14 children, Ms Tlaib was born to a family of Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, where her father worked at a Ford Motor Co plant. Speaking to MSN, Ms Tlaib linked her campaign to the surge of female political activism in the US following Trump’s stunning 2016 victory, alluding to the millions of women that took to the streets of Washington and major cities across the country after his inauguration.
“Today, women across the country are on the ballot. Yes, we marched outside the Capitol, but now we get to march into the Capitol,” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “We are coming!”
The midterms had us not only voting on our officials, representatives and governor, but also on measures. We were voting on subjects as diverse as whether we keep daylight savings time year round whether we should the use of cages in egg production completely by 2022. Both measures passed.
Our minds inevitably are gearing up towards the Presidential election of 2020, but before we do here’s a summary of this week’s results:
Diane Feinstein kept her seat as California State Senator for California and Democrat Gavin Newsom will be our next Governor after beating Republican John Cox in a landslide. It was a tighter race for Lieutenant Governor as both candidates were Democratic candidates, Eleni Kounalakis pipped Ed Hernandez. Secretary of State stayed blue with Alex Padilla beating Republican Mark P. Meuser. Elsewhere Attorney General and Insurance Commissioner both went to Democrats, Xavier Becerra and Ricardo Lara respectively.
Now on to the measures: State Measure 1 – Authorizes bonds to fund specified housing assistance programs. This passed with a 62% YES
Measure 2 – Authorizes bonds to fund existing housing programs for individuals with mental illness.;This passed with a 67% YES
Measure 3 – Authorizes bonds to fund projects for water supply and quality. This didn’t pass – 51.17% of people voted NO.
Measure 4. – Authorizes bonds funding construction at hospitals providing children’s health care. This passed with a 67% YES
Measure 5 – Changes required for certain property owners to transfer their property tax. This didn’t pass by 60%
Measure 6 – Elimates certain road repair and transportation funding. This didn’t pass by 60%
Measure 7 – Conforms daylight savings time to federal law, allows legislature to change daylight saving’s time. Passed with 59%
Measure 8 – regulates amounts outpatients kidney dialysis clinics charge for dialysis treatment – Californians voted sagainsrt this measure with 59%
Measure 10 – Expands local governments authority to enact rent control on residential property. This was a NO in a close race with only 52%
Measure 11 – Requires private sector emergency ambulance employees to remain on call during work breaks. – the people voted yes with a 60% vote.
Measure 12 – Nearly 70% people votes YES on this measure that establishes new standards for the confinement of specified farm animals.
For those that could vote and did thank you, and for those that can’t vote yet, you can still get involved and volunteer!
See you next time round!
Craig
