San Francisco County, November 2, 2010

On Tuesday, November 2nd, you will have the easiest and least painful way to express your citizenship – you can vote. Voting is easier than serving in a state, local, or federal capacity and less painful than sitting on a jury. However, only fifty-four percent of the eligible voters voted in the 2008 Presidential Election. Fewer than thirty percent voted in the 2006 mid-term election.

The November 2010 election is a mid-term election. Mid-term elections are held two years after the presidential, or quadrennial, elections. For November 2010, all four hundred and thirty-five seats of the United States House of Representatives are up for grabs; thirty-seven of the one hundred United State Senate seats are being contested; and thirty-six of fifty governors will be decided. In addition, many state offices will be selected and numerous state and local propositions and ballot measures will be determined. States are projecting voter turnouts from forty to sixty percent.

I live in California. Over seventeen million people are registered to vote in the state for Tuesday's election, according to the Secretary of State's office. This is slightly less than the number registered for the 2008 Presidential election.

In addition to the open offices we have to select in the Golden State, every election brings a full slate of propositions. Most of them make you scratch your head and wonder what the forty state senators and eighty members of the state assembly do all year long.

This election we have nine state-wide propositions to consider. Even more special for me, in San Francisco County we get another fifteen local measures on which to cast our ballots. That’s a lot of chads to punch, although in our case we just use a marker to connect the arrows.

A summary of my choices are below. You can click on the picures to get a bigger view. Commentary and the logic behind my choices are in the links under the 'Pages' heading to the right. Comments, critique, and civil discussion are welcome.

I will publish a post-election result comparison and round up, after the election.