As in, how bizarre how few things there are to vote on.
And how bizarre that the only things on this most recent ballot were amendments to the Texas Constitution.
The long-winded verbiage on the ballots, explaining each amendment, was confused gobbledygook.
And yet Texas voters passed all the amendments on the ballot.
The one amendment which I could pretty much make out what was being voted on was #7. In this amendment voters were voting to approve billions of dollars to be spent on roads, with no new taxes, fees or tolls.
Huh?
The amendment did not spell out where this road money was going to be spent, or specify where the money for the road building was coming from.
And why is such a thing an amendment to a state's constitution?
Do any of the other American states put goofy constitution amending stuff like this on their ballots?
I suspect not.
Even a General Election in Texas is bizarre with the few items to vote on. No wonder so few Texans bother to vote.
And how come the Texas Election Committee, or whatever it is called, does not mail voters a Voter's Pamphlet? My old home state did this. The issues being voted on were explained, along with pro and con statements. Information about all the individuals running for the various offices, at the state level, is also included.
Speaking of Washington....
So, let's go to Tuesday's election in my old home state to see why it is I find Texas elections so bizarrely nonsensical. It costs a lot of money to stage an election. To do so with only goofy nonsense on the ballot, that should have simply been measures passed by the state legislature, well, like I said.
Bizarre. And nonsensical.
So, that long skinny graphic you see above is all I could screen cap of what was on the ballot on Tuesday for Seattle voters. I got this from the Seattle Times. Yet one more example of something I see in a west coast news source that I would not see in the Star-Telegram.
Or any other Texas newspaper.
As in a ballot with lots of actual meaningful stuff to vote on.
I had to shrink my browser's text to 25% to capture what I could of what was on the Seattle ballot.
This was an off year election. Yet on the Seattle ballot there were some substantial issues which the voters said yes to. Such as the "Move Seattle" ballot measure.
In Proposition 1, known as Move Seattle, voters voted to spend $930 million over nine years on various transportation projects, including one I think to be quite cool. That being 60 some miles of elevated bike paths.
Note the last line in the graphic above, informing us that Snohomish County voters passed a transit issue regarding buses. Snohomish County is the county adjacent to Seattle's King County to the north. My old home county, Skagit, is the next county north. All the counties in the Puget Sound zone have voter approved public mass transit.
Seattle voters approved Move Seattle and its almost billion dollar price tag. A price tag very close to the current cost of America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which the public has never been allowed to vote on, hence that project is not fully funded, hence that project has no real project timeline, unlike Move Seattle, which, with its 9 year project timeline, will be finished in 2024, a year after The Boondoggle is currently claiming its project will finally be finished.
Even though America's Biggest Boondoggle has no actual project timeline because the project is not fully funded.
Somehow I think Move Seattle will be moving Seattlites long before Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision moves anyone anywhere. Except maybe to jail after convictions for criminal malfeasance.
I digress.
Another thing on the Seattle ballot. Democracy vouchers. Approved by the voters.
I had no idea what Democracy vouchers were before I read the 'Democracy vouchers' win; first in country article in the Seattle Times.
I can not imagine such a measure on a Fort Worth or Texas ballot. Well, maybe in Austin.
Click the link to the Democracy Vouchers article. Read the article. Ask yourself if you can imagine reading such an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As in the Seattle Times article about Democracy Vouchers is very detailed, very balanced, very well written, sort of edgy, sort of self deprecating, sort of sophisticated, and well, just overall very intelligent.
All attributes one rarely finds in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Except, maybe, occasionally from Bud Kennedy. And even then it is a bit of a fluke.....
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