Belated Measure H wrap up.
So today is the first day for people to pull papers to run in the upcoming fall elections for School Board, City Council, City Treasurer and City Auditor. While speculation on who’s in and who’s out is really fun, it’s not something I’m planning on spending a lot of time on, choosing to wait until the filing deadline passes. At the end of the day, many people will pull papers to run, only some of them will actually do so.
So I wanted to wrap up the last election, Measure H, by writing my very late thanks to the KASE folks who pulled this one out, and don’t kid yourself it was a squeaker….again. They deserve major props for their hard work.
In watching the vote counting, it became so apparent how warped voting on taxes has become, that you need a 2/3 majority to pass anything. So when I say the election was a squeaker, it barely made it beyond the threshold for passing, but it was HUGELY supported by the community. Bitter comments regarding the narrow victory from the gloating, then depressed, anti-H faction should not be believed, voters supported this 2 to 1.
But how close was it? That’s the question, and it speaks to the work of KASE and it’s volunteers. Had 40 voters changed their minds, the measure would have lost. So we can thank the KASE volunteers for any and all votes that they converted from “on the fence” to “Yes.”
Another way of looking at the vote is that there were 119 more “yes” votes than were needed to surpass the “no” votes. This means that KASE’s get out the vote strategy worked, as it’s HIGHLY likely that more than 120 people voted on the day of because of their GOTV work. Again, thank you, each and everyone vote counted.
Lastly, and this is where the less than democratic (as in one-person, one-vote) method of passage gets highlighted. The “No on H” side needed only 60 additional votes to keep Measure H from passing.
No matter how you slice it, the vote was incredibly close, and no matter how I look at it, I can’t help but feel that the KASE posse is directly responsible for the passage of this parcel tax.
And for that I say again, “thanks!”
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