Voting

Happy election day, everybody.

In case you were curious, my pending votes (I can't vote before school because the polls don't open up until after I'm already at school)...

• Issue 1 - Issuing bonds to pay vets - No - This isn't a vote against supporting vets. The vets get paid a salary, and they get health care - which probably needs to be improved - during and after their service. My vote her is against issuing of bonds to pay them an extra stipend. If the stipend is justified, and I'm not sure one above and beyond their regular pay, then it should be done out of regular budgetary funds, not out of a special bond issue.
• Issue 2 - Creation of a livestock regulation board - No - Why the heck is this a constitutional amendment? Amendments to the constitution (of Ohio, in this case) should come very, very rarely and only for hugely significant changes/clarifications. The livestock board is not anywhere near worthy of such treatment. And I have big concerns about the membership of such a board. Check this post for more on the concerns.
• Issue 3 - Casinos in four Ohio cities - No - I'm not morally opposed to gambling. It doesn't interest me in the least, but I know a lot of people enjoy the heck out of it. I also know that people on both sides of this issue have raised the level of rhetoric to unreasonable heights as they've brought threats of total tax waivers, societal disasters, influxes of carpetbagging workers, collapsing budgets without gambling, and even eternal damnation to the debate. My issue here is that I just don't want casinos around. We have a bunch of them in Southern Indiana, and to me, those are close enough. If people want to gamble, let 'em drive a little.
• Lakota Local School Board - Dibble and Murray, strong yes...Green and Powel, thorough meh though I'll end up voting for one of them somewhere along the way...Cooper, huge no - I attended the second of the open forums with the five candidates and thoroughly enjoyed myself, learned a lot about the candidates and still can't find a third candidate (three will be elected) that I really like. Murray's too talkative, and I didn't like his habit of name dropping the current superintendent and treasurer as though they were best buddies, but his politics seem to be in the right place, and I love that he's willing to actually explain his positions thoroughly. Dibble's a rook who is likely to get killed in this election, but he's firmly in the camp of a more modern approach to teaching and seems to be reasonable about the financial state that Lakota is in. Green and Powell are the two incumbents, and the last negotiations didn't paint either in a positive light (not in a household with one Lakota staffer, anyway.) Powell seems a little too aggressive for my tastes. Green gave an answer about intelligent design that was right up my alley, and that'll probably be the leaner for me. Cooper seemed like Will Ferrell character - straight laced, uber-conservative, too confident in his answers. He was hilarious. I didn't like his use of the term shyster, his preference for the classrooms of the 1960s to those of the 21st century, or his comment that trying the choose the best candidate was like trying to find the most patriotic, best American at a Tea Party. I don't think Mr Cooper and I agree about much.
• Every other race - no clue - I've searched the League of Women Voters, the Butler Board of Elections, the Hamilton Journal News, the Cincy Enquirer, the Pulse Journal, and I've found absolutely no information at all on our other races. I can't even find a full list of the issues and positions that are up on my ballot this year.
  
  Frustrating.

No matter what, though, I'm going in and voting on the issues and races that I know about. I'll probably leave a number of other races blank, and I feel bad about that, but I'll at least vote the ones I know.