Kamala, Lurie, the Great Highway: Why I’m voting for change at every level of the ballot
Editor-at-large
The San Francisco Standard
Published Nov. 04, 2024 • 6:00am
https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/11/04/the-lashs-last-second-voter-guide/
Two emotions describe how I feel about Election Day finally arriving: Existential dread at the national level. Exhaustion at the local level.
For anyone who hasn’t yet made up their mind about our presidential race, well, I can’t help ya. But for the local races and measures, I can empathize with your indecision — or your apathy. It’s hard to get fired up about ballot initiatives on “general obligation bonds” (Prop. B) or credit purchases for public pensions (Prop. I). It’s also difficult to distinguish among mayoral candidates who essentially agree on 98% of the issues, despite acting like they’re foreign adversaries locked in an ideological deathmatch.
Many local organizations and individuals have published comprehensive voter guides in recent weeks. This isn’t one of them. What follows is a sort of last-second voter’s guide to the ballot featuring only the races that I actually care about. These include the mayor’s race, a couple of California voter initiatives, and several San Francisco measures.
You’ll see that there are numerous propositions I am not addressing, either because I haven’t given them much thought or because their passage isn’t in doubt. The truth is, I hate ballot initiatives. This year, there are 10 for the state, the ones with numbers, and 15 for San Francisco, which bear letters. Each, in its own way, is a perversion of how representative democracy is supposed to work.
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