Election Alert: Don’t Cancel Your Own Vote

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THOSE CONFLICTING SETS OF PROPOSITIONS ON THE BALLOT! I’ll just vote No on both–but that’s just what the people who put the second one on are counting on my doing in my confusion.  OK. I really like one, but the other sounds like it has merit, too, so I’ll vote Yes on both. THEN what happens?

Actually, you may be helping to pass the one you like a lot less.  Look at Props. 30 and 38.  They’re very similar in their general intent, which is to help the schools. They go about it differently, though, including who is taxed in what way for how long, what restrictions are included and how they affect a school’s chances for planning ahead, who proposed it (do you prefer a group or a single person?), and who’s giving the big bucks to support it (again, groups vs. the actual proposer, anti-tax groups, educational groups, etc.).  I weighed all of these things and came to my own personal decision.  I like some of the provisions of the one I’ll vote No on, but I’ll still vote No.

Why?  Because there’s a possibility that both, as independent propositions, may get enough votes to pass.  If so, the one with the most Yes votes is enacted and the other is discarded.  If I were to vote Yes on both, there’s a possibility that, if both pass, my additional vote on the one I like least will affect the numbers, giving that one more votes than my favored proposition.

I can’t have both, or the best provisions of both.  That means I must vote Yes on one and No on the other.

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