Election Day 2004…
Today is Election Day. My status is as a permanent absentee voter, so I avoid all the problems with the voting machines, waiting in long lines, etc.
For the record (since the information is public anyway), I voted for John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Zoe Lofgren, and Joe Simitian — surprisingly straight Democratic. I have never based my decisions on a particular party, so I am slightly amazed for that reason at my choices. I withheld my vote for Rebecca Cohn because of an official campaign mailing I received last week that smeared Ernie Konnyu. Whether or not it was accurate, I could care less about. I don’t subscribe to that type of campaigning and Cohn lost a vote she would have easily had — again surprisingly along Democratic lines. So, I left my choice blank for the choice of 24th district State Assembly member.
I won’t go through the entire list of propositions, and I actually didn’t vote on many of them anyway — I believe in voting only if you have an informed or decisive opinion. I usually don’t side with the ACLU, but I voted for Proposition 66, the limitations on the “Three Strikes” law initiative, disagreeing with Schwarzenegger. However, I agreed with Governor Arnold by voting against Props 68 and 70, and for Prop 69. Proposition 71 in support of stem cell research also got my vote.
I’m glad to see that CNN is not yet projecting a winner for the presidential election. Since I trust no other national cable network (especially not FOX), I’m not monitoring the other channels, so I have no idea whether or not they are projecting results.
Enough of all that boring stuff.
On to new boring stuff instead.
I saw my first Christmas commercial of the pending holiday season today, an ad for Outback Steakhouse. Guys, it’s NOVEMBER! At least let me start digesting the turkey before you release Christmas jingles throughout your TV spots!
I found electronic copies of the 1901 Census in Hants County, Nova Scotia yesterday and, after a full day’s effort, was able to add another 140 people to the family tree. Wow! My latest efforts have revolved around gathering electronic proof of relations and events where necessary — and, thanks to some additional documents I’ve located, I’ve now got proof of some branches of the tree going back until the birth of John Harvie (my father’s mother’s mother’s great-great-grandfather) in 1730. I wish I could get past my great-grandfather, John E. LeCour — although I recently gleamed that he was born in Quebec, as all I had previously known was that he was born somewhere in Canada. Total number of individuals: 733
We need some new blood mixing around the Soapbox. It’s been five weeks since anyone’s voiced up. COME ON!
Signing off for now…
UPDATE: Everything I voted for or against (except Prop 66 and all-important John Kerry) went the way I voted. CNN should use the opposite of my voting record as an indication of the projected presidential winner since I have NEVER picked a winner in my personal voting history. I picked Carter over Reagan, I abstained in 1988, Perot in 1992, no vote in 1996, Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004.
