Local elections

[beefytee]

I agree with this. Electing judges is just a bad bad idea.

Don't forget sheriffs, auditors, treasurer, surveyors, attorneys, etc.

Why do we want politicians in these positions?

And of course there are propositions and initiatives that are on the ballot too.

What do the elected representatives do again? It appears it is all handled on the ballot.

[SoonerCoug]

I always vote all the judges out. No one gets benefit of the doubt with me. If I don't know them, they're out.

[creekster]

I always vote all the judges out. No one gets benefit of the doubt with me. If I don't know them, they're out.

You are such a follower!

[NorthwestUteFan]

In Utah, and here in Washington as I understand it, the judges are nominated/appointed by the legislature or governor. Their names are on the ballot solely to RETAIN their seat, not that anybody can run for it. As I recall, if a judge is voted out, a new judge has to be nominated and appointed, right?

One local ballot issue that pissed me off this year was a "green facilities" bill that will "greenify" our schools, make them more energy efficient, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and it certainly would be nice to have schools be more efficient (thus costing less money in utility bills for the district).

However when I read the minutae of the bill it was apparent that only ~5% of the money will actually benefit K-12 schools. The rest goes to higher education (colleges). This is not exactly the best place for my tax dollars. The total bond was somehting like $400M. Not sure how much of that would go to build the new Husky stadium...

Hopefully our State Income Tax initiative fails this year. Not having a state income tax is one of the few remaining strengths of this state.

[falafel]

In Utah, and here in Washington as I understand it, the judges are nominated/appointed by the legislature or governor. Their names are on the ballot solely to RETAIN their seat, not that anybody can run for it. As I recall, if a judge is voted out, a new judge has to be nominated and appointed, right?

Yes, that is correct. However, in Utah anyway, the nominees are selected by a commission made up of lawyers and lay people. In Arizona, the lay people have to outnumber the lawyers by 2 to 1. People can submit an application to become a nominee, and then the commission selects applicants to submit to the Governor for appointment. This eliminates a lot of favoritism.

I'm not sure about Utah, and I have no idea about Washington, but I think that if a judge dies or resigns mid-term, the Governor may have the right to appoint someone without going through the normal process, the idea being that they don't want to wait a long time to get the seat filled. But maybe not.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Wow what a system. This justifies my vote against all judges on the ballot.

[Babs]

Rand Paul wins.

[frank ryan]

Rand Paul wins.

He's a weird one

[old_gregg]

I vote no on every single tax and bond issue. I don't care how good it sounds or that it'll only cost me $10 bucks a year in extra property taxes. I just vote no.

i agree. i prefer that my my locality's budget is derived entirely from federal earmarks, but still find time to bitch about the absurdity of the federal government spending money.

[beefytee]

i agree. i prefer that my my locality's budget is derived entirely from federal earmarks, but still find time to bitch about the absurdity of the federal government spending money.

Why should every spending proposition have to go to the voters or be funding by the federal government? Why don't the local politicians man up and make it happen without having to blame it on the people's vote? Why do we have representatives if everything gets done through ballot propositions/initiatives?