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Once again, California is having a strange and stupid election. If you're a California voter, or if you're not but are aware of this situation, I would like your opinion on an element of the vote to recall Governor Gavin Newsom.
To catch up anyone who isn't aware of this idiotic situation, our governor Gavin Newsom pissed off basically everyone this last year for a multitude of reasons I won't bore you with. (Me included. I voted for him and regretted it.) However, on a scale of US governors, he's not that bad. Honestly we could do a lot worse. And we might be about to do a lot worse.
Republicans launched a recall effort in an attempt to replace him with a Republican. This succeeded, and we're going to have a special election on September 14 to determine whether or not we'll vote him out. Here is where things get really weird.
There are two questions on the ballot. One is "Should Governor Newsom be recalled? Yes/No."
This part is straightforward. I'm voting "No, do not recall him." So should you, no matter how much you dislike him. We'll have a chance to vote for someone better (please God) in the regular governor election in 2022.
The next question is "If Governor Newsom is recalled, who should replace him?" Then there's a list of candidates. You can leave this part blank or vote for one of them, regardless of how you voted on the first question.
Here comes the fucking insane part. If Newsom is recalled, whoever gets the most votes on the second question becomes governor. So if 51% of Californians vote to recall Newsom, and the candidate with the most votes only gets, say, 18% of their total votes because the votes were spread out among the other candidates or most people didn't vote for another candidate at all, Mr. 18% is now governor of California.
WHAT THE FUCK, CALIFORNIA??? WHY CAN'T THE RECALL BE ITS OWN VOTE, AND THEN HOLD ANOTHER ELECTION IF AND ONLY IF HE LOSES?
The other candidates doing best in polls are Republican Larry Elder, a Trumpist radical right-wing radio host, and Kevin Paffrath, the only Democrat getting any traction at all, a landlord vlogger with with no political experience.
Republicans are unsurprisingly very excited about voting in this election. Democrats are unsurprisingly not. Lots of people don't understand how this election works, because it's so fucking bizarre. Newsom is polling badly and may well be replaced by one of these jokers.
My question is this. Like I said, I'm voting no. But should I leave the second question blank, or should I hold my nose and vote for Paffrath on the basis that he's less bad than Elder?
Newsom and the CA Democratic Party is advising everyone to leave the question blank. But since the questions are independent of each other, what's the advantage of doing so?
ETA: via AP: Cox has sought to gain attention by campaigning with a 1,000-pound Kodiak bear, which he said represented the need for “beastly” changes in the state.
To catch up anyone who isn't aware of this idiotic situation, our governor Gavin Newsom pissed off basically everyone this last year for a multitude of reasons I won't bore you with. (Me included. I voted for him and regretted it.) However, on a scale of US governors, he's not that bad. Honestly we could do a lot worse. And we might be about to do a lot worse.
Republicans launched a recall effort in an attempt to replace him with a Republican. This succeeded, and we're going to have a special election on September 14 to determine whether or not we'll vote him out. Here is where things get really weird.
There are two questions on the ballot. One is "Should Governor Newsom be recalled? Yes/No."
This part is straightforward. I'm voting "No, do not recall him." So should you, no matter how much you dislike him. We'll have a chance to vote for someone better (please God) in the regular governor election in 2022.
The next question is "If Governor Newsom is recalled, who should replace him?" Then there's a list of candidates. You can leave this part blank or vote for one of them, regardless of how you voted on the first question.
Here comes the fucking insane part. If Newsom is recalled, whoever gets the most votes on the second question becomes governor. So if 51% of Californians vote to recall Newsom, and the candidate with the most votes only gets, say, 18% of their total votes because the votes were spread out among the other candidates or most people didn't vote for another candidate at all, Mr. 18% is now governor of California.
WHAT THE FUCK, CALIFORNIA??? WHY CAN'T THE RECALL BE ITS OWN VOTE, AND THEN HOLD ANOTHER ELECTION IF AND ONLY IF HE LOSES?
The other candidates doing best in polls are Republican Larry Elder, a Trumpist radical right-wing radio host, and Kevin Paffrath, the only Democrat getting any traction at all, a landlord vlogger with with no political experience.
Republicans are unsurprisingly very excited about voting in this election. Democrats are unsurprisingly not. Lots of people don't understand how this election works, because it's so fucking bizarre. Newsom is polling badly and may well be replaced by one of these jokers.
My question is this. Like I said, I'm voting no. But should I leave the second question blank, or should I hold my nose and vote for Paffrath on the basis that he's less bad than Elder?
Newsom and the CA Democratic Party is advising everyone to leave the question blank. But since the questions are independent of each other, what's the advantage of doing so?
ETA: via AP: Cox has sought to gain attention by campaigning with a 1,000-pound Kodiak bear, which he said represented the need for “beastly” changes in the state.
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I think anyone should be able to get into public office, but I feel like governor of any state, much less California, is something you should work up to, and none of these people seem to have any relevant experience...
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Though my memory of her politics (from several decades ago) was that there would be worse options on the ballot. (Okay, also based on the LAST time we did the stupid recall election dance.)
(Recall system still not quite as bad as the proposition system. Both are what happens when the people originally setting up the rules are populists who don't really trust government and who also don't actually think through what their rules mean. That said, recall should absolutely be 'recall, yes/no', and then treat the second question like a primary and have a run off of the top 2. And the Lieutenant Gov. can run things in between.)
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Which did remind me that if you think the current list is bad, last time there were 135 candidates.
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