My ballot, such as it was, has been cast. (Assuming, of course, that the little black box will do what everyone assumes it should. If it doesn't, no one, including me, will ever know the difference. Curse me for not requesting an absentee ballot earlier.)
For the pleasure and enjoyment (or boredom) of all, here are the details.
Candidates:
President: John F. Kerry / John Edwards. Duh. Though they're far from perfect, the delusional psychopathic madman has got to go.
United States Senator: Ken Salazar. After getting over my grudge from the primary (Miles still would have been far better), I toughed it up and came to grips with the fact that the alternative is far scarier.
U.S. Congress District 2: Mark Udall.
Regent of the University of Colorado: Daniel Ong. I'll confess a general indifference on this one, but after reading his positions, I decided I liked his platform somewhat more than the others. Besides, Libertarians are cool. Jennifer Mello would have been a close second choice.
State Senate District 19: Jessica Corry. Yes, that's right, I voted for a republican. The first I heard of her was from the negative ad flyers I received in the mail. When I returned from my trip, I found a rather large pile of them, featuring mostly attacks with little substantive value (paid for by Sue Wendels, her democratic opponent). That turned me off more to the attacker than the attackee. But I wanted to give both candidates a fair hearing. So I looked over both of their websites, and read the QAs from both of them. Sue Wendels - generic, clichéd, and vague; it's almost as if she were trying to run a campaign like John Kerry (which works well if you're running against someone as bad as George Bush, but not otherwise). By contrast, Corey was basing a large part of her campaign on a very specific issue (though it wasn't the only thing): Eminent domain abuses. (And included a document with detailed info about what's going on.) She gave me a real reason to vote for her. The only thing that really gave me pause was her "yes" response on the question about overturning Roe v Wade. That's a big red light. But hopefully, she won't be able to affect that from her position anyway. That's what I'm counting on.
State Representative District 29: Debbie J Benefield. I liked her positions somewhat better those of her opponent, Bob Briggs.
District Attorney, 1st Judicial District: Mary A. Malatesta.
County Commissioner, District 1: Tanya Ishikawa. I'll shamelessly admit that in the absence of any strong preference, I broke the tie by choosing based on party, rather than person. Go Green!
County Commissioner, District 2: Abstained.
Jefferson County Sheriff: Abstained. I read both of their profiles, and didn't really like either of them based on their responses!
Judges: Yes on all except for Judy Archuleta, for whom I voted No. I used the little blue book in the mail as my reference. I don't like judges who hand out harsh sentences. To the charge of voting with a terribly tiny amount of knowledge, I plead guilty. Nothing further, your honor.
Ballot Initiatives:
Amendment 34, to repeal pain-and-suffering limits on property damage tort by contractors (and other related changes): No.
Amendment 35, to increase tobacco taxes by a huge margin: No. It's what we call a "sin tax". I don't like smoking, but I don't believe in taxing people huge amounts for their addictions, especially when most of them are already poor.
Amendment 36, for proportional representation of the popular vote in Colorado's electoral college: No. I thought long and hard about this one, having been one of the signers of the petition to get it put on the ballot. The way we elect our presidents does need some serious reform, but this amendment by itself would only give Colorado less influence in the races. So you can quote me on this: I voted against electoral college reform before I voted for it. Furthermore, before I voted against it, I favored having it brought to a vote.
Amendment 37, renewable energy: Yes. Getting over our addiction on pollution-causing middle east oil is long overdue.
Referendum A, Personnel changes. No. I believed the people who said it would promote cronyism. Their arguments made sense to me, although I admit that I'm far from an expert on the subject.
Referendum B, deleting obsolete crap. Yes.
Referendum 4A, RTD FastTrack: Yes. Though perhaps this measure isn't perfect (as my dad argued), I believe getting more mass transit is a step in the right direction.
Referendum 4B, Cultural facilities district: Abstained. So many little changes to sales taxes (both up and down), I had no clue. I will vote neither for nor against something I don't understand.
