Larimer County Sample Ballot 2004 (pdf)
I want to vote early and not have to deal with other people or lines. I may go by and watch the fracas and ennui that is the reality of voting on Election Day, but I'm not interested participating. The Larimer County ballot’s four pages and I’d like to be able to fill it all out and not just vote for the President and leave (like Jack) or vote straight ticket (like Jack, when pressured to fill out more). Not to mention, I’ve always tested well and I like filling out forms. So, in order to do that, I decided that my duty as a citizen required slightly more than just showing up - it requires cursory Google searches. This is my little guide to the ballot.
I didn’t add the Federal Offices in the analyses because those offices are clear to me (I’m no pea-brained undecided): Bush/Cheney, Coors, Matsunaka.
I try to vote with what I think is right, my conscience, if you will, and I try to have some principles to go by. One of them is “vote for something, not against,” which I’ll shortly violate (see almost immediately, below). Additionally, I really think that Election Day should be a federal/state day off, but that’s another issue.
My thoughts for the Federal Offices, in brief, since you might care about them are thusly:
- President: Bush/Cheney – The hope for restoration of American prominence should be clear and the direction should be firm, no one should inherit the damage caused by said direction, the damage should be undone by the creators, and Kerry’s the wrong choice for, well, anything, especially as the great democratic hope.
- US Senator: Coors – this took a bit of thinking since it's a close race. I don't think North Dakota's a threat, nor do I think parroting Kerry is a good strategy for Colorado or Salazar, who should know better, being our top lawyer. A review of Coors' site comes up disappointingly weak on the issues, except for corporate and tax issues, which I'm keen on.
- US Representative, District 4: Matsunaka – A clear anti-Musgrave grudge vote here. Also, I saw Bob Kinsey the other day and he was singularly unimpressive in his utter lack of independence as he repped a classic leftist “no war” line. Until I saw him in person, I was going to vote Green. A little Boulder in Larimer would be a character building experience.
[Shortly before I posted this, Amanda had gotten back from voting early and dashed my hopes and dreams by telling me that the actual ballot is about 1/3 the size of the sample ballot, due to various precinct specific issues that don't apply to where I live. So disappointed... I really wanted to vote for Squassabia.]
Voter links of use:
Vote Smart
Where're the other entries you ask, dear reader? Well, I'm working on a dts to move over my previous notes from my handcrafted and poorly maintained blog, .shappy, to .Text's database schema. Shouldn't take more than a few days, so fear not!
So, the directory issue that I couldn't figure out wrt Ian's blog was because I have trouble reading the .Text wiki details about the ConfigProvider. All fixed (for me). Will have to look into fixing for Ian, and maybe Jack.
Setting up .Text was rather easy, relatively, mostly because this is the 5th time I've done it. Preloading screwing up fase and cocking nek does help.