Moments before 5 p.m. on Friday, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters released another update of election counts.
I trust that it will take as long as it takes to count all the ballots. However, it is kind of strange how passive the Alameda County Registrar of Voters is in terms of public communication. No press conferences, to my knowledge. Not even a little banner on the acvote.org website announcing when the next update will be released.
Turns out the California Secretary of State does at least publicly publish a county-by-county table of uncounted ballots. Out of 58 counties, Alameda County is currently in first place for the largest number of unprocessed ballots. The Secretary of State website also lists when results are next expected from each county:
I've bookmarked that webpage so that in future elections when I read an aspiring politician or a random reporter making claims about an election count being finish — or a huge number of ballots remaining outstanding — I can at least ground their claims in some real numbers.
Measure E (continuing school funding)
Last Tuesday, the Yes on E campaign had enough confidence in the vote counts to declare victory. As of Friday's counts, the measure is passing at 76.04%.
Passing the threshold of 66.6667% is a hard challenge. Thanks to all the volunteers involved in this campaign who helped to make that happen.
The campaign successfully turned out residents who care about the quality of local schools — when they might not have otherwise had reason to pay attention to the date of this "off season" ballot. (As much as you or I might care about voting in the the primary for assistant county dogcatcher, the average voter is probably fine forgetting to cast a ballot in that election.)
This success is also to the credit of the school district and the school board in presenting voters with a straightforward way to keep supporting local schools in the way we already do.
Opponents failed to find effective points of leverage. There were no yard signs — and more importantly, to my knowledge, no mailers — in opposition. Of the two letters to the editor in the Alameda Post in opposition to Measure E:
- One letter headlined Measure E is unfair merely attempted to rekindle a nitpicking argument conclusively refused by the California State Supreme Court.
- The other letter headlined I support Measure E — I just wish I hadn’t read it was a rhetorically amusing and annoying attempt at spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Fortunately, that type of "FUD" just didn't resonate in this race. A super-majority of voters and taxpayers have expressed their trust in Alameda Unified to continue to spend these funds wisely for the benefit of students and teachers.
Barbara Lee Speaks for [Tony]: Part II
Last we heard from Tony Daysog, current vice mayor of Alameda and would-be member of the United States Congress, he was quoting Representative Barbara Lee: "what Congressmember Barbara Lee said last night bears repeating as it is applicable to my situation: ‘Part of the process is allowing the time for every ballot cast—every voice—to be counted.'"
As the vote-counting proceeds, Daysog continues to sit in third place, behind Lateefah Simon (who Lee endorsed) and Jennifer Tran. The top two vote-getters will proceed to the general election in November.
Not to beat a dead horse, but I still don't get what Daysog was thinking when he put together this list of "our shared progressive agenda":
It'll be mildly interesting to see how Daysog frames a run for Mayor of Alameda in a few years... as a "progressive"? as a "moderate Democrat"? as a "moderate Republican"?
Who knows... but it's safe to assume he'll just keep on running for any and every position, with a strange mishmash of positions, most of which will likely be set aside whenever it's actually time to vote — err, abstain — on an actual decision as an elected official.