Exercising the Franchise, Part 1.

I'm going to take this in chunks over the next couple few days. Here's how I'm voting this year, starting with the two statewide measures on the ballot. I'd say the two at the top of the ballot, but here in King County, the ballot designers decided that the best place for the top of the ticket would be tucked away at the bottom of a column of instructions. The perennial frustration with Records and Elections goes on.

At any rate, I found Initiative 1033, Tim Eyman's latest attempt to make a buck for himself while inflicting suffering on the rest of us. Of course, I voted no. I'm pretty much a knee jerk no vote on any initiative, and Eyman's no small part of the reason why. The process has been so debased that it needs to be scrapped. It's a relic of the 19th century that we can no longer afford in the 21st.

Of course, 1033 is awful on its own, as almost every attempt to manage the budget by ballot turns out to be. There are plenty of details on that here. Poke around a bit, find that sucker on the page and vote it down.

On the other hand, I'm voting for Referendum 71 in order to sustain the Legislature's passage of ESSB 5688, the so-called "everything but marriage" domestic partnership bill. I'd be happier if all the effort being expended on behalf of R-71 was for an "actually marriage" bill, but we can't let bigotry have a victory on this one. The new law is something better than a half measure - call it the 90% solution - and it's probably the best we can get out of Olympia for the time being, so two cheers and a vote for are in order.

Next up, the King County Charter Amendments. I bet you're on the edge of your seat...