Election Day 2006

Sent in my early ballot last week. Here are my votes for the upcoming election.

Congressman – Mark Udall (over some nobody)
From all I can tell, Udall is thoughtful and tries hard to represent his constituents well; this one’s a no-brainer.

Governor – Bill Ritter (over Bob Beauprez)
Mostly a party-line vote. As I said previously, Beauprez’s campaign performance has not been promising. I don’t actually think he wouldn’t be any worse a governor than Bill Owens (who has been passable), but I think Ritter has more upside.

Rest of the state-wide offices
Not voting; I don’t know enough about the people involved. Except for …

Secretary of State – Ken Gordon (over Mike Coffman)
I wasn’t going to vote this one as well. Then I remembered that the Secretary of State is in charge of administering elections, and remembered what happened in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, where the respective officers tried to, well, swing elections their way. I’ve heard good things about Coffman, but I’m taking no chances. Party-line vote for the Democrats.

Amendments and Referenda:

Amendment 38 – Petitions – No
Makes the process for getting a petition on the ballot easier to accomplish. We’ve got enough wacky stuff getting on the ballot (see: 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44); we don’t need to make the process easier.

Amendment 39 – School Spending Requirements - No
Requires school districts to spend a certain percentage of their budgets on classroom expenditures. School boards are locally elected and run; they know best. I shouldn’t be telling the school board in Durango how to spend their money.

Amendment 40 – Term limits for judges – No
I haven’t heard enough evidence that the current system is broken to want to try a risky fix.

Amendment 41 – Standards of Conduct in Government – No
Expands rules on gifts from lobbyists, etc. I don’t know much about this one, to be honest, but again I don’t see the evidence that this will fix a serious problem in the current system. I do like the idea of reducing untoward lobbying influence, but I don’t think this is the way to do it.

Amendment 42 - Colorado Minimum Wage – No
Increases the minimum wage, and dictates annual increases. I think the current minimum wage is scandalously low, but I don’t think it should be in the constitution. I also don’t like the automatic annual increase, as that would not be good come a recession. Sure, it would get repealed the next election, but we might have to wait two years for that. If this was just going to be state law, I would vote for it.

Amendment 43 – Marriage – No
The “marriage is between one man and one woman” proposal. Can’t see that it matters all that much.

Amendment 44 – Marijuana Possession – Yes
Legalizes possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. I have mixed feelings on drug legalization as a whole, but I know enough marijuana users to be confident that this particular drug is no more dangerous than the legal drugs tobacco or alcohol. I can’t think of any serious reason why it should be illegal.

Ordinarily, I would vote against this on grounds that this should be a law and not a constitutional amendment. But the pointless drug war is starting to hack me off. Consider this a message vote.

Referendum E - Property Tax Reduction for Disabled Veterans - No
I could go either way, but I’m voting against this just because it seems a better proposal would be need-based. Maybe that’s not a very good reason to turn it down.

Referendum F – Recall Deadlines - abstain
This is actually probably a good thing, but I didn’t take the time to research it well enough to come to a decision. I know it’s pretty lame thing that I couldn’t find the time to figure this one out, but so be it.

Referendum G – Obsolete Constitutional Provisions - Yes

Referendum H – Limiting a State Business Income Tax Deduction - No
Increases state taxes for businesses that employ illegal aliens. Seems pointless since the trouble is that most business don’t report hiring illegals. Let’s address the illegal immigration issue more comprehensively instead of throwing around a bunch of half-baked proposals.

Referendum I – Domestic Partnerships - Yes
Establishes rights for domestic partnerships. Yes, of course. This is a good thing to do.

Referendum J – School District Spending Requirements - No
See Amendment 39.

Referendum K – Immigration Lawsuit Against Federal Government – No
The dumbest proposal on the whole ballot. Hey, if you want the feds to do anything, use your votes for Congress instead of wasting our money on quixotic lawsuits.