March 15, 2000

An election to be proud of

Rarely have I been prouder of Pacifica than I was after I reviewed our election results, in some cases precinct by precinct.

On 16 of 20 state propositions, Pacifica voted, in my judgment, wisely and well.

On Prop. 15, improving crime labs, we voted No with the rest of the state, shortsightedly, but in Pacifica the result was close, 16 precincts in favor, 15 against. The precinct vote against the proposition was less than 51 percent.

I haven't a clue how voters are supposed to vote intelligently on some propositions, which are deliberately written to confuse and obfuscate. How anyone is expected to vote their honest preferences is beyond me. Props 29, 30 and 31 come to mind. Prop. 30 was put on the ballot by the entities which successfully fought it. If you ever thought you could truly trust insurance companies, remember they brought you Prop. 30, then urged you to vote against it.

As for Prop. 29, not to mention Prop. 21, they were the evil dregs left from the reign of the Dark Prince of San Diego, Peter the Wilson. Prop. 21 will harm future generations of our children, jail them so they can study with hardened criminals and get master's degrees in advanced crime and evil, but keep more prison guards employed.

Prop. 29 was designed to limit the futures of the aboriginal nations who live among us. It contradicts the promise of Prop. 1A. Pacificans turned down 21. A wise decision, unlike that of the rest of the state. A majority of Pacificans voted as I almost did, in favor of 29, probably under the mistaken impression it would help Indians. After all, we voted better than two to one for Prop. 1A.

Pacificans voted overwhelmingly for Props. 12, 13 and 14. We voted for Prop. 26, which would have helped our schools and our children. 26 would have counted your generous, thoughtful, intelligent Yes vote the same as my self-centered, selfish No vote on school bonds. As it is, that No counts two to your Yes's one.

We voted three to one against the evil Prop. 28, which even Philip Morris wanted no part of.

I'm proud to say we voted against Prop. 22, an unnecessary and hurtful measure that will do nothing but harm to our state and many of its citizens of all orientations. It's interesting that Daly City, Millbrae and San Bruno voted substantially in favor of 22, as did Atherton and Hillsborough. Portola Valley and Menlo Park turned it down, however.

The absentees voted much more strongly in favor of 22 than the precincts. In fact about 53 percent of Pacificans in the precincts voted against 22, but mail ballots ran about 52.5 percent in favor. Organization means a lot, and the pressure to conform to expectations is probably a lot stronger for some of those who fill out absentee ballots, perhaps while someone is hovering in the background and making strongly worded suggestions. While the overall vote on 22 was close to even, some precincts voted in favor, and others voted strongly against. For example precinct 3507 voted 112 against, 45 in favor. Both Linda Mar school precincts voted against. Pedro Point voted 62 percent against, a result I'd expect from that feisty and politically savvy enclave.

Some recent Reactor columns may be found at Paul Azevedo's website, http://www.thereactor.net/ Reach him by e-mail at Paul@thereactor.net