Election Day 2005
It's Tuesday after the first Monday in November, or close enough to it, anyway. You know what that means, folks! That's right, today is Election Day!
Voting is the one annual civic duty that I look forward to. It is the sacred and commonplace ritual that gives expression to my membership in our political society. There is a profound sanctity when I pull the lever and the curtain closes behind me with a swoosh. I feel that I am involved with every "click" of the levers for the various candidates and propositions. There is finality when, holding my breath, I again pull the lever to open the curtain.
At the end of the day I can go home and watch the results as they are posted on the county board of elections website. For statewide or national elections, I can check any number of sources as results pile up. But if I were to go to sleep early, I could wake again in peace. I can be sure to find on the following morn one whole republic where the people's voices were once more heard without the violence that so easily finds its way into the hands of men. Voting is a private act
that I nevertheless share peacefully with millions on the same day.
But I am no fool. I know that the system is far from perfect. There remains today much work to bring justice where it is lacking. There is also room for more choices on the ballot; the current system penalizes those who would vote for the third party.
This election year finds a number of town and county officials in New York on the ballot. There are also two state propositions and a number of town propositions. My town, Brookhaven, has one proposition. I made up my voting booth cheat sheet yesterday with the help of a newspaper voting guide to let me know some of the less widely publicized offices.
The initiatives, I think, are the more interesting part of the ballot this year. One New York prop is a Constitutional amendment that will give the Legislature more power in the budget process. It would also provide for a contingency budget, which will give many state and local agencies a lot of predictability. New York state had not passed a budget on time for most of my life until this year. I'm still unsure about this one.
The other state prop is for a $2.9B transportation bond. Half would be spent on mass transit, mainly trains from what I've read. The other half would be spent on roads. I'm skeptical about the price tag given for some local projects, but I'm leaning for the initiative.
The one town prop would require special elections for vacated offices. Currently, these are appointed by the town council. The reasoning for this initiative is the alternate name for Brookhaven: Crookhaven. I am by ideology in favor of increasing voter choice. But I am afraid of the high cost and low turnout of special elections. Appointment is a very well-practiced form of filling vacancies in government until a normally occurring election. I will be voting No on this proposition.
For the candidate portion of the election, my cheat sheet hits all of the parties that will be on the ballot today: Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, Working Family, Integrity, Law and Order, and No Tax Increase. The last three have endorsed very few candidates and are on my list by no fault of my own. Well, except one Integrity candidate, but she has no hope. I'll be voting for seven different judicial candidates, and I'm splitting them as best I can. I'll also
be splitting my town supervisor and legislature. Having all parts of government under the control of one party is unhealthy for democratic principles. I'm also mixing up my county officials.