It's been a minute since I've put fingers to keyboard to blog here. A lot has happened, too much to discuss at this point because voting is already underway in many states and the threats to voting from the Orange-in-Chief on down have been growing like mushrooms.
So let me get to the point. Black Woman Blogging (BWB) is not fucking around when it comes to voting this year. We saw how the Russian government tried to steal our votes in 2016. Now, the public housing tenant in the White House and the Republican Party want to steal them.
I want you to vote securely, and to my mind, there's only two ways to be absolutely secure in your vote:
1. Vote in person at the polls, preferably early; or
2. Take your absentee/mail-in ballot directly to your county registrar or election office equivalent.
That's it. Everything else, to my mind, is a crap shoot. So if you're going to the polls, take your masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes (My husband, Black Man Not Blogging (BMNB), and I keep a "Covid Go Bag" that has masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes for when we have to venture out), a folding chair, bottled water, snacks, and some tunes. Bring enough to share. Be prepared to wait. Wear your mask. Practice social distancing.
Here's what I'm not fucking with:
1. Drop Boxes: Unless the drop box is inside a county registrar's office or county election office, I'm not fucking with it. We've already seen how the California Republican Party has created fake drop boxes and then have the goddamned nerve to ask on Twitter why that shit isn't illegal. REALLY? Because you are not the government and can't create your own drop boxes, Republican Party. You know that shit is shady.
Plus, drop boxes that are not inside of a county registrar's office sit outside, unguarded. It's THAT kind of year this year and I don't put it past folks to tamper with drop boxes that are located in predominantly Democratic areas. So, although I am permanently registered to vote absentee, I'm not fucking with drop boxes.
2. The U.S. Postal Service: Although there is a court order to restore mail processing equipment so that absentee/mail-in ballots can be timely processed by the U.S. Postal Service, I don't trust our government to do this in a timely manner. Although I trust our nation's Postal employees, I don't trust their bosses. So, I'm not falling for the okie doke. I will be taking my absentee ballot directly to the county registrar's office.
I understand there are some states, like Tennessee, that do not allow you to send your absentee ballot by any other method other than by mail. I would urge those of you who live in states with similar rules to see if you can send your ballot via FedEx or UPS. I would, if legal, avoid using the U.S. Postal Service at all costs.
3. Election Day Shenanigans: Undoubtedly there will be efforts to intimidate voters at the polls on election day. I'm ghosting the election day shenanigans by dropping off my ballot early and directly to the county registrar's office. I usually drop off my ballot at the polls on election day, but not this year. I will be sitting home, working from home and eating my homemade food while all the election day shenanigans happen.
4. Not Following Absentee/Mail-In Ballot Rules: This is not usually an issue for me because I'm a rule follower to a fault. What I would say for voters like those of you in Pennsylvania or South Carolina is to follow your absentee/mail-in ballot rules to a T and give yourselves enough time to do so up front. If you need a witness to witness you signing your absentee/mail-in ballot, get one. If you need to make sure your ballot is inside a security envelope before you put in the mailing envelope, do it. Take the time to learn the applicable rules for your absentee/mail-in ballot and follow them. The Republican party is looking for any little thing to disqualify your vote. Don't give it to them.
Now, on to my California Voter Guide. Here's what you need to know about me and how it influences how I vote:
1. I am socially liberal but I'm a Jerry Brown Democrat. I'm all for social programs, school spending, and any investment that is proven to make society better overall, but the shit's gotta be paid for and budgets gotta balance. I don't believe in tax reductions or bonds unless they are for a really good reason.
2. Some of my positions are specific to the experiences I have had in my life. They may not apply to yours. My voting his highly personal.
3. I am not easily swayed when large corporate interests say that they will stop doing business in California if they don't get what they want with a ballot measure. California is the fifth largest economy in the world. Fuck you and miss me with your bullshit, corporate interests. If you don't want to do business here, someone else will. I will not be blackmailed by ballot.
4. I support public schools. I believe public education is the ladder to social and economic mobility and uplift. Public education took my family from the cotton fields of Arkansas to Harvard Law School with one generation. If you come for public schools, you're coming for me.
5. Anything I see Alice Huffman in favor of is highly suspect to me.
With that, on to BWB's California Voter Guide
President and Vice President: Biden/Harris. Next.
Proposition 14: Yes. More bonds for stem cell research to cure Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, ALS, spinal cord injuries, you name it. My mother had early onset Alzheimer's disease starting around age 57 and died due to her second bout of cancer at 64. She suffered. Cure all of this shit. Cure it NOW.
Proposition 15: Yes. Proposition 15 splits the property tax rolls and allows for taxation of commercial properties valued at $3 million or more at fair market value for the taxable value. It splits those properties out from under the protections of Proposition 13, which only allows incremental increases in property tax rates for residential and commercial properties based on purchase price, not fair market value. Property taxes are how we pay for our schools.
I never liked Proposition 13 to begin with. I predicted it would be the death of public schools when I was a teenager. In junior high school, I wrote an article opposing it for our school paper. I got called into the principal's office and was told that my article would not be run in the school newspaper because it was too controversial. When I was a senior in high school, I interviewed for an internship in Assembly Speaker Willie Brown's office with his Chief of Staff, E. Dotson Wilson. Mr. Wilson asked me my opinion on Proposition 13. I told him. I didn't get the internship.
Look, I get slowing the rate at which residential property tax increases occur by basing them on purchase price because there's a societal interest in not having people turned out of their homes in old age simply because they can't afford the taxes on the fair market value of their homes. But that same interest doesn't hold with commercial properties valued over $3 million dollars. And with declining residential property tax bases in urban centers with old housing stocks affecting public school funding, I'm all for this.
Proposition 16: Yes. Proposition 16 repeals Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in State contracting, hiring, and public college admissions. I fought 209 when it was on the ballot, and I'm fighting it again now. I saw first hand how it chilled applications from people of color all around the country to the UC system, especially its law schools. Enough of the bullshit.
Proposition 17: Yes. Proposition 17 would allow felons who have completed their prison terms to vote if they are out on parole. Before, parole was considered part of a prison term, so you weren't allowed to vote if you were on parole because technically you had't finished your prison term. You could vote, however, if you were on probation. I don't see much difference between parole and probation. You violate either and you're back before a judge. So I don't see a reason for distinguishing between parole and probation for voting purposes.
Proposition 18: Yes. Proposition 18 allows 17 year-olds who will be 18 on the date of the next general election to vote in any primary or special election that occurs before the next general election in which that 17 year-old would be eligible to vote if he or she were 18. I'm all for increasing voting rights and getting young folks into the habit of voting and having a voice in our democracy.
Proposition 19: Not just no, fuck no. Proposition 19 isn't just Proposition 13, it's Proposition 13 on wheels. Literally. Proposition 19 allows people over 55, the disabled, and victims of wildfire to transfer the taxable value of their current home to a replacement residence anywhere in the state. Let me give you a real life example. I'm over 55. I bought my house as a foreclosure in 2008 and paid $280K, and, under Proposition 13, the increase in taxable value of my house is not based on its current market value of $450K, but on incremental increases based on the $280K I paid. Under Proposition 19, I could sell my house for $450K, buy a new house, and keep the tax basis of my current house -- $280K plus incremental increases that don't come close to being equivalent to its $450K value -- instead of being taxed on the purchase price of my next house as I would be now.
The thing is, this shit is already legal for people over 55 in some counties that have so-called "reciprocity." I don't live in one. But I would benefit personally and immensely from Proposition 19.
This is just property tax avoidance by folks, and since property taxes pay for schools, I'm not just voting no, but fuck no. I'm a proud product of public schools, and I'm not going to turn around and fuck them now that I've got mine. Proposition 19 takes Proposition 13 a house too far. Literally.
Proposition 20: Not just no, fuck no. I stopped reading when I got to the part about wanting to expand DNA collection to include folks convicted of misdemeanors such as shoplifting and forging checks. WTF?
First, I'm not about expanding any powers of law enforcement or increasing prison terms until we deal with the systemic racism in our justice system.
Second, I'm not for expanding DNA collection for fucking misdemeanors. For me, the purpose of DNA collection is identifying suspects of violent crimes because we all know facial identification of Black people is highly unreliable, to wit, The Exonerated Five. I don't buy the proposition that we need DNA collection for fucking misdemeanors. GTFOH.
Proposition 21: No. First, whoever wrote the Voter Information Guide section on this proposition needs to be fired. It is neither clear nor detailed. That said, it increases the pool of dwellings subject to rent control to include any for which the first residential certificate of occupancy was issued within 15 years of the first date the owner sought to rent it out, not just those properties for which a first certificate of occupancy was issued after 1995. Given how tight and expensive California's rental market is, I'm for increasing the amount of housing subject to rent control until we get an overall plan for housing in California. However, the fact that it allows additional increases in the initial rental rate on top of those allowed pursuant to local law seems antithetical to controlling rent, so I'm going to vote no.
Proposition 22: Not just no, fuck no. Here's my problem with Uber and Lyft: They are moral hazards. A moral hazard is something where there are no consequences for the risk taken. In this case. Uber and Lyft took the risk of opening up taxi companies -- and don't try to shit me with them calling themselves "ride sharing apps" -- without doing what other taxi companies had to do for decades in order to operate in many cities: Buy a fucking taxi medallion. They kept on building their business, putting taxis out of business (and, truth be told, the taxi business needed a shakeup because their customer service stank) without having to incur the same regulations or costs as taxi businesses were required to do, including background checks of taxi drivers. Uber and Lyft built their business model on flouting compliance with laws and built their business on the backs of gig workers. In the meantime, many taxi medallion owners, lots of whom were black and brown folks who had mortgaged their houses and sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into their taxi medallions, had to compete with Uber and Lyft and failed. Not fair.
What Uber and Lyft counted on is that, in addition to flouting taxi regulation, they could flout labor laws. Not so. The core of their business is built on these gig workers to the point that they meet the definition of "employee" instead of "independent contractor," and with the definition of being an "employee" comes certain rights, benefits, and protections that independent contractors don't get.
So now Uber and Lyft want to redefine their employees as independent contractors so they can keep on making money without complying with either taxi regulations or labor laws.
Enough is enough. They should have changed the laws before they went into business. What they are doing is asking for forgiveness instead of permission. That's not how the law works.
And what Uber and Lyft are not telling you is that those drivers are being used to perfect their algorithms for driverless cars. Yep, once driverless cars are perfected, those Uber and Lyft drivers are going to be out of a job, and Uber and Lyft will have gotten away with screwing over two classes of workers -- taxi drivers and their own.
So no, I will not support a proposition that encourages businesses to flout the law, engage in unsanctioned and unfair competition, and then ask the voters to give them a pass. And until those taxi medallion holders are made whole by Uber's and Lyft's shareholders, they won't be receiving my vote.
Proposition 23: Yes. Proposition 23 requires a dialysis clinic to have at least one licensed physician onsite at the clinic's expense at all times that in-center dialysis patients are being treated. This physician shall have authority and responsibility over patient safety and to direct the provision and quality of medical care.
This one is personal for me. The father-in-law of a dear friend of mine bled out during dialysis. He was elderly and he was left unattended. By the time he got to the hospital, he died.
Contrary to the commercials opposing this proposition, I don't think the big name dialysis clinics are going to pull up stakes and go out of business just because they have to have a doctor onsite to prevent deaths. Miss me with that bullshit.
Proposition 24: No. Why? I don't trust it. The fact that it took until page four for the drafters of this initiative to start showing how it would amend the law is suspicious to me, as if they were intending to wear me down and have me assume that by talking about privacy protections, I would just go along. I'm not even going to bother reading all 33 pages of this, and I'm an attorney. Come back when you can draft a shorter, concise, and clearer initiative.
Proposition 25: Yes. This upholds the 2018 law that replaced cash money bail. No one should have to sit in jail awaiting trial just because they are broke and their family is through with them. You should sit in jail based on your risk to the community, not the resources you have.
Now, go vote like your life depends on it. Because it does. Here are some helpful resources:
Fact Sheet: Protecting Against Voter Intimidation
Election Protection: 866-OUR-VOTE
