DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
“We shouldn’t have authorities by the bulk. We now have authorities by the bulk who take part.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Our major message for the final a number of weeks will proceed to be the significance of your vote. Ballots had been mailed out Monday, and two of our teams acquired their ballots on Tuesday. The remainder of us are ready. We noticed on the information that if you don’t obtain your poll between Oct. 10 and Oct.15, you have to name, or go into the County Elections Workplace at 4440-A Calle Actual.
We can’t encourage you adequate to vote!
Final Monday, 227,000 ballots had been escorted to the publish workplace by two sheriff’s officers for Santa Barbara County’s 14 cities and cities. These ballots are meant for registered voters solely. This is able to imply 227,000 folks vote in SB County out of a inhabitants of 446,499.
That implies that 219,000 residents are ineligible to vote as a result of they’re underage, or they aren’t residents. Different causes for ineligibility embody parolees, the mentally incapable, or as a result of only a easy unwillingness to take part in voting. Nevertheless, the numbers don’t appear so as to add up. Usually, a 3rd of any inhabitants votes, not 50-50. We’re questioning simply who’s to obtain all these ballots? Are the equal numbers of inhabitants versus voters a results of the previous college students registered as voters who’re now not right here?
And who tracks if folks vote greater than as soon as with the identical identify, somewhere else? Are you catching on to the theme right here?
We’re anxious about voter fraud. For the primary time ever, we’re involved, and we aren’t alone in our concern.
It seems that no oversight or management exists for the “chain of proof” of your official voting poll. Have a look at a few of the 32 poll drop field areas, the listing of which got here along with your poll. Places embody Santa Barbara Metropolis Faculty; nevertheless, it’s closed as a result of COVID-19, and nobody is round. So do you vote within the cowl of the evening?
Another areas are Carpinteria Metropolis Corridor or Casa De Las Flores, which is overseen by Peoples’ Self-Assist Housing; Isla Vista Foot Patrol; San Andres {Hardware} in Santa Barbara; MacKenzie Park in Santa Barbara; Manning Park in Montecito; the Solvang Veteran’s Memorial Corridor, and many others. These areas in all probability lack safety, although some might have cameras.
This vote-by-mail diminishes the significance of a presidential election, nor has this ever been carried out earlier than. On prime of this, voters can obtain and print their poll after which mail it. This is named RAVBM (Distant Accessible Vote By Mail) .
Right here is one other quirk: 34 polling locations in Santa Barbara County will likely be obtainable for 3 days earlier than and on the official election day of Nov. 3. 4 days of open polling locations presents a whole lot of time for issues to go sideways.
Additionally, assigned polling areas have modified. The placement is meant to be printed on the again cowl of the county voter’s data information, Nevertheless you in all probability haven’t acquired that, however as a substitute have acquired the state data information with the overview of the Propositions on the poll, in tandem with the official poll.
One other quirky facet — and out of the odd — entails the truth that the County Voter Information with candidate’s statements lawfully should come BEFORE your poll. To date the method is off quilter. Ballots had been mailed earlier than the candidate statements. Per the Elections Workplace, the County Information ought to arrive shortly.
Extra doublespeak: The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19. Nevertheless, you possibly can “conditionally” register and vote at your county elections workplace or voting location after the 15-day voter registration deadline. What’s a deadline if it doesn’t matter?
Couldn’t an individual vote absentee in a location earlier than the election, then vote once more after they register “conditionally” in a distinct place? Is that the identical as a rustic with out borders? Is it a rustic?
Keep in mind final week we spoke of our public data request in seek for “misplaced votes.” We nonetheless haven’t acquired any reply from town aside from requests for extensions. In case you too need to monitor your vote, go to the Secretary Of State’s My Voter Standing on-line (voterstatus.sos.ca.gov), or name the Elections Workplace at 805-568-2200.
Did You Know? is finding out the Voter Information we acquired. Nevertheless, it accommodates solely the propositions. We needed to debate a few of our picks, however are nonetheless ready to obtain the candidates’ statements.
Please take the time to check all of the propositions and all of the candidates earlier than voting. Don’t rush. The truth is, the ballots will not be due till Nov. 3. There are nonetheless 30 days to coach your self and make an knowledgeable resolution.
Talking of ramifications of a vote with out scrutinizing the results: Revisiting the end result of a vote which was forged throughout the election November 2017, the one which elevated our gross sales tax to avoid wasting town’s crucial infrastructure and important group companies, aka “ Measure C.” Transportation’s Rob Dayton is spending $200,000 of “Measure C” cash for what he considers enhancements to the State Avenue pedestrian promenade.
These embody “short-term” plastic planters at every intersection, cheesy string lights traversing the road, inexperienced paint for the bike path down the center of State Avenue at every intersection, and indicators directing the pedestrians off of the promenade and onto the sidewalk, out of the bicyclists’ manner.
Rob Dayton seems to have commandeered all the choices for the State Avenue Pedestrian Promenade. We marvel why bicyclists, together with electrical bikes, are garnering such prominence in these choices for State Avenue, which holds such historic and various curiosity. Who has invested in these electrical bicycles?
Keep in mind when State Avenue was first closed to automobiles as a result of COVID-19, to stimulate enterprise downtown? It was introduced to the general public and the Santa Barbara Metropolis Council because the “State Avenue Pedestrian Promenade.”
Now State Avenue will host electrical bikes, which might journey a median pace of as much as 17 mph. Is that this the form of political favor that was famous within the metropolis’s Novak Report, which was an investigation carried out to find the issues within the metropolis’s Group Improvement Division?
The report said that though the numerous assessment boards and commissions had been cumbersome, these are the identical boards (Architectural Board Assessment, Historic Landmark and Planning Fee) which have stored Santa Barbara stunning for a lot of a long time.
Nevertheless, with unilateral decision-making, that each one goes out the window.
The truth is, Mr. Dayton has mentioned that he mustn’t should go to HLC for the State Avenue modifications.
Unilateral decision-making — akin to dictatorship.
“Politics is the artwork of searching for bother, discovering it whether or not it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and making use of the incorrect treatment.”
— Ernest Benn
Bonnie Donovan writes the “Did You Know?” column together with a bipartisan group of native residents. It seems Sundays within the Voices part.
