(Do an online version of this ceremony: BLESSING THE HANDS THAT VOTE - in your congregation in upcoming Sundays! "With what hand will you be marking your ballot in the upcoming election? (show of hands on screen) - "May Love guide your hand to vote for the common good. Amen!")
I wish I could claim that my voting choices are perfectly rational. I try to stay informed by attending to credible sources of information about the issues and the candidates. But my heart moves my mind to move my hand to mark my ballot. And a multitude of motives influences each step. I have tribal allegiances. I have ingrained habits of seeing and thinking. My sense of personal identity is tangled up with wider social identities.
And so it is with every other voter in this upcoming momentous election. And in every other election since the founding of this amazing United States of America by people who knew full well the limitations of our rational faculties. That’s why they wrote the Constitution, a document reflecting the highest of our human potentials precisely because it reckons so brilliantly with the lowest. It inspires the best of our instincts by accounting for the worst… which we’ve seen in abundance for the last four years.
And that is why the Constitution itself is on the ballot on November. We can and should debate responses to critical issues like climate change, health care, women’s rights, and civil rights. But large as they may loom, they pale in comparison to the question of whether or not democracy in America should continue.
The real question on the ballot is whether or not ballots matter. We have a president who consistently has denied the lawful result of ballots cast since before he took office. He did not affirm that the 2016 result would be valid even before it was decided. He claimed that he really won the popular vote despite losing it by 2,850,000. And now, in what should be no surprise, he is declaring pre-emptively that the only result of the 2020 election that could possibly be valid would be one in his favor. So Republicans, in a number of the states they control, are scheming to invalidate the results of the upcoming election by appointing partisan slates of electors.
What faces us in this election is unprecedented: it is so outrageous that it strains credulity. But we’ve got to take it seriously. If we hold democracy sacred, we’ll vote for it. And then we’ll defend it firmly and peacefully on the streets in the days and weeks after November 3.
We’re not just voting for Trump or Biden. We’re not just voting to Make America Great Again or Make America Kind Again. We’re voting on whether or not America should be America. Or whether it should be Russia. Or Hungary. Or Belarus. Places where elections are held, but the results are pre-determined. Countries that have sham democracies. Countries where checks are only money and balances are only how much of it is in the hands of the few who make the rules.
We’re voting for voting itself. We’re voting to decide if votes can be cast freely and easily, and counted fairly and completely, and if votes will determine the outcome of the election. A vote for Biden is a vote for voting. A vote for Trump is a vote against voting. If voting wins the vote, and that vote determines the outcome, then – and only then – can we take deep breaths and begin to grapple with the country’s many other challenges.
On November 3, I’m voting for voting.
Jim Burklo: VOTIVATOR
Nov 3, 2020
Candidates (I now live in Ojai, CA)
Biden/Harris – need I say more….
US Representative 26th CA: Julia Brownley
State Senator, Dist 19: Monique Limon
State Assemby, Dist 37: Steve Bennett
Ojai Mayor: Wm Weirick – incumbent City Council member, very competent and good on the issues… environment, social justice, etc… much more experience than his opponent, who is also good on the issues
Ojai City Council Dist 4: Suza Francina – incumbent, good on issues – her opponent works for rich coastal property owners to block public access to beaches.
Ojai City Clerk/ City Treasurer – unopposed incumbents
(I hope you’ll join me in supporting Christy Smith for Congress in the CA 25th district – Simi Valley to Lancaster… send her campaign $$ and offer your volunteer time! A Republican Trumper now holds this closely-contested seat.)
State Propositions:
14: No. Bonds for stem cell research. A good cause, one taken up in the state during the Bush administration which obstructed this research at the federal level. But now, in the midst of a crisis in state finance, funding for such research should come from a level of government that is able to print money!
15: Yes. Revises Prop 13 to allow for taxing commercial/industrial property at market rate. This will not touch the low rate of tax on homeowners. It is way past time for this reform, which will not only bring in much needed revenue, but will make the commercial property market more efficient.
16: Yes. Allows for affirmative action by government agencies in CA. There are smart and less-smart ways to do affirmative action re: race, gender, etc. But without this law, options have been limited and this has slowed down the quest for racial justice.
17: Yes. Allows state parolees to vote. Another step forward in ending the bad consequences of mass incarceration.
18: Yes. Lets 17-year-olds register to vote in upcoming elections at which they’ll be 18.
19: No. Lets seniors keep their low property tax when moving to another home, and also takes away the Prop 13 tax break for people who inherit properties that do not become their primary residences. The last half of the proposition makes sense, but the first is just another tax giveaway to people (like myself) who have already overly benefited from skyrocketing home values.
20: No. Restricts parole in ways that will pointlessly increase mass incarceration.
21: Yes. Expands the ability of local governments to impose rent control. Rent control is a blunt instrument, and even judicious imposition of it will result in unintended consequences - but it is a tool that should be available for local governments.
22: No. The Uber/Lift initiative to relax recent state rules giving gig workers employee protections. This has no business being on the ballot. This is a very complex and changing arena of policy that definitely needs further tweaking, but it should be the job of the state legislature.
23: No. Regulations for kidney dialysis centers. Another matter that has no business being on the ballot. Let the legislature work this out, threading the needle between regulating the creepy corporations that control this medical market and meeting the need for enough of these clinics throughout the state. This proposition does neither adequately.
24: Yes. Amends consumer privacy laws. It is an improvement for consumers, but again, it will need further regulation beyond this proposition.
25: Yes. Ends the outrageous practice of money bail. The objections to this proposition are important ones, regarding the potentially racist outcomes of algorithms used to determine risk of accused people. But the public defenders in CA believe that this proposition will end the dreadful practice of bail and leave enough room for tweaking the algorithms over time, to assure fairness regarding pre-trial release or incarceration.
I am now a resident of Ojai, in Ventura County. But I’ll weigh in on a couple of LA issues.
LA County Measure J: Yes. Really it amounts to asking the voters to slice off a significant chunk of the Sheriff’s budget to be spent on community programs related to housing, youth development, mental health care and criminal justice diversion programs. This partly reflects the current war underway between the Board of Supervisors, which put this on the ballot, and the highly problematic Sheriff. And partly it reflects the current nationwide push for major police reform and resource re-allocation.
LA County District Attorney: Gascon. Time for a district attorney that reflects the community’s social justice values.
Back to my new home turf:
Ventura County Measure O: Yes. Allows for regulated marijuana cultivation.
Ojai Measure G: No. Imposes new city tax on cannabis. Very many local jurisdictions see cannabis as a tax cash cow, and up to a point, that’s okay… but the total tax burden on legal cannabis is getting way too high, and this just drives the market underground – with all the old problems that entails.
Ojai School Measure K: Yes. Bonds to improve schools.