We The Voters

From Clark County Elections Office:

November 4, 2008 general election – mail ballots now available

Ballots for the November 4 general election are now available at the Clark County Elections Department, 1408 Franklin Street, Vancouver. Election Department office hours are from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additionally, the Clark County Elections Department will be open on both Saturday, October 18 and Saturday, November 1, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mail ballots will be sent to all eligible registered voters. If a voter does not receive their mail ballot by Tuesday, October 21, they should contact the Elections Department by calling (360) 397-2345 and request a replacement ballot. Replacement ballots can be requested in person, by mail or by telephone. Our mailing address is Elections Department, P.O. Box 8815, Vancouver, WA 98666-8815.

On Tuesday, November 4, Election Day, at 5 p.m., the process of entering the scanned ballot information into the ballot tabulation system will begin. No reports of election results will be printed until after 8 p.m., Election Day. Election results will be released to the public and news media at Gaiser Hall, Clark College at or before 8:30 p.m. Election results will also be available on the County Auditor’s Web site at http://clarkvotes.org. A sample ballot for this election is currently available at this Web site address.

Your ballot will be in your mail box any day now.  Here is a PDF sample of the ballot.  Watch for it and please vote.

From Kay Ellison of Vancouver for Peace:

Hi all!

We are excited about the upcoming Vancouver Peace and Justice Fair on Saturday, September 13th at Esther Short Park! We hope you are planning to come!

How can you help and be part of this cool day? There are 3 main ways:

1. If you are part of a group that works for peace and justice, why not ask them to participate in the fair? Perhaps you have already signed up. There are over 40 groups already signed up who will be there with tables and information about their groups! See who has already signed up by looking at the website under the tab: Reserve a Space. The form to send in can be printed from our website www.vancouverpeaceandjusticefair.org

2. Volunteer to help on the day of the fair. We need people to be at the headquarters table, at the children’s area, put up and take down sandwich board signs, “traffic” directors, the Vancouver for Peace table, and even as reenactors of people of peace. Contact Kay Ellison with the times you are interested in doing any of this. We need help a few people at a time from 7:30-6:30.

3. Last, we need posters put up all over town! We have some colored 11 x 17 posters already, and also have where you can download and print posters on our website: 11 x 17, letter size, and small ones that are 4 to a page. See our website www.vancouverpeaceandjusticefair.org to print a poster!

Looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing you at the fair ! Kay Ellison

The name of the political game is money, money, money. What it buys is access and legislation that does not necessarily benefit the people of the district the politician reportedly represents.

Here are two cases in point:

1. Don Benton, a Republican incumbent in the 17^th Legislative District, has now amassed in excess of $180,000 in his bid for re-election. Before the general election in November, it will surely be in excess of $300,000. The salary of a State Senator is $42,106 per year. Most of the money comes from corporations (tobacco companies, Wal-Mart, insurance companies, major banks, etc), PACs, and well-to-do individuals. But, there are also plenty of smaller contributors who obviously believe in contributing to the Republican party. It is these people to which I can feel a real affinity. Don Benton does not need their money and will not necessarily vote in their best interest. Assuming that a person living on a limited fixed income is comfortable making a $25 donation, it would take 64 such persons contributing to make up for one well-to-do person, PAC or corporation giving $1,600 (the limit). Only a fool would be willing to knowingly contribute to this charade.

2. Brian Baird, a Democratic incumbent in the 3^rd Congressional District, has now amassed $1,083,000 in his bid for re-election. The salary of a member of Congress is $169,300. He is facing three opponents in the primary but is not campaigning at the present time. Apparently he is saving campaign funds for the general election. The largest amount of money that any of his primary opponents has raised is $24,275. Corporate and PAC contributions to his campaign are not much different than contributions received by Benton. Indeed, he gives a lot of it away. http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_com/H6WA03135. Recipients have been the Democratic Congressional Campaign ($42,860 in 2007), the Washington State Democratic Party ($5,160 in 2007) and members of the Democratic party running for election. Only a fool would knowingly contribute to his campaign since it is clear he does not need funding.

People wishing to help elect true representation in Congress can contribute to Cheryl Crist who is not taking corporate or PAC money and is running against Brian Baird. Citizens in the 17^th District can contribute to David Carrier (Benton’s opponent). Carrier is not accepting corporate money or PAC contributions. Neither of these candidates currently has adequate funding to counter-act the advantages that big money can buy. Carrier states that he needs $30,000 to mount a campaign – as of 7/28/08 he has received $8,693. Crist has raised $19,195.

The time is long overdue for public financing to be implemented throughout the U.S. and for the influence of corporations to be outlawed. How can citizens possibly be represented in the halls of government by those auctioning themselves off to the highest bidder? It is time for the charade to be over and for citizens to stand up to the puppeteers and start cutting the strings.

Here is the link:

In our view: Probst & James- Columbian.com, Clark County, Washington, Vancouver

The Columbian also has a nice write-up today on both candidates by Durbin.

And now the Republican PCOs are rejecting Dunn also.

Update:  PolitickerWA.com has another story about how overdone Dunn is.

Dr. David Carrier

Meet

David Carrier

Democrat for State Senate

17th Legislative District

www.davidcarrier.org

Sunday July 27th, 4:00-6:00 pm

Hosted by Bob & Dona Dingethal

Special guest: Senator Craig Pridemore

Join us for live music, wine and cheese!

17811 NW 56th Ave., Ridgefield

please RSVP to: david@davidcarrier.org

Discuss ideas for:

§ Affordable housing

§ Energy independence

§ Affordable health care

§ Prioritize education funding

§ Transportation and infrastructure

§ Renewable energy and climate change

§ Sustainable economic growth and opportunity

Meet David Carrier

Democrat for State Senate

17th Legislative District

www.davidcarrier.org

Please join us:

Sunday July 13, 4:00-6:00 pm

Hosted by Alicia Munoz

2519 SE 133rd Ave., Vancouver

Please join us for beer and brats!

RSVP- please call Marina at 360-213-7597

Discuss ideas for:

§ Affordable housing

§ Health care partnership

§ Climate change and conservation

§ Energy independence and security

§ Sustainable economic growth and opportunity

August 5th, 7PM at Fort Vancouver Library

Burgerville

What is the purpose of the August primary?

In the August primary, voters select the candidates who will run for office in the general election.

What is a Top Two Primary?

• In each race, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the General Election. It is possible that both candidates who advance to the General Election prefer the same party.
• Voters do not have to pick a party. They can cast their vote for anyone who is running in a given race.

Will all the parties be represented in the Top Two primary?

In a top two primary, all candidates running for each office are listed without being supported, nominated or endorsed by a political party. Each candidate for partisan office may use any party’s designation after his/her name on the ballot, but that is strictly the candidate’s preference. A party designation does not imply that the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the party or that the party approves of or associates with that candidate.

What is the difference between a blanket primary and a Top Two primary?

In a blanket primary, candidates in each political party receiving the highest number of votes are qualified to run in the general election, thus ensuring that minor parties are represented. In the Top Two primary, only the top two vote getters run in the general election, and they might state the same party preference.

What offices are subject to the Top Two Primary rules?

The August 19 Washington State Top Two Primary rules apply to partisan candidates running for local, state and other federal offices. Included are races for the House of Representatives, the State Legislature, partisan statewide offices such as Governor and partisan county offices. The partisan offices of President and Vice President of the United States are not subject to Top Ten Primary rules. The August Top Two Primary pamphlets and ballots will reflect the candidate’s name and party preference. The party preference, however, does not imply that the candidate is endorsed, nominated, associated with, or approved of by that party. The top two vote getters for each partisan office will advance to the November 4 general election.

Nonpartisan postions do not fall under the Top Two Primary rules. For instance, the state judges, who are nonpartisan, are also running in the August Primary. If a judicial candidate is unopposed or receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary, s/he is elected to hold office.

For more information on the Top Two primary, go to Washington’s Secretary of State website.

Blog content and comments contained here are solely the responsibility of each author and do not represent the views of the We The Voters group nor an endorsement by We The Voters of any candidate or issue that may be mentioned therein. We reserve the right to correct spelling and grammatical errors. Content deemed unacceptable by the group organizers will be removed.

Registered users can submit blog posts here for review:

All blog posts are reviewed for reader interest and suitability prior to publishing.  Actual publishing of blog posts is at the sole discretion of the administrators.

Don’t forget to add the RSS feed to your favorite reader.  Your comments are welcome.