April 14, 2010 – Daily Brief, Boy What a Thrilling Night edition

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

In case you’ve been living under a rock, our City Council election occurred yesterday and the results are thus: McLean, Weste, Ferry, Gauny Boydston. For most of the night Gauny looked out of the running; indeed, KHTS says he was saying thanks to volunteers and was about to wrap things up when his counts started to surge. The consensus seems to be Gauny got a huge proportion of precinct ballots (as opposed to vote by mail ballots). So we don’t have a winner of the 3rd Council seat yet; the City says it will take until Monday to count up the 250-300 provision ballots. SIGNAL, KHTS, MYERS
Some voters complained that their polling places were hard to find, says the SIGNAL. Dave Bossert sees a conspiracy to depress turnout, ala Jim Crow south I guess
What accounts for Gauny’s late surge at the polls? The late ballots were mostly from Canyon Country, so we’ll have to wait for precinct counts to come in for more information. Did the Tea Party, which recommended a bullet vote for Gauny and has a few thousand twitter followers, make an impact? Did Gauny have a really good GOTV operation? Gauny himself says he brought new voters in, just the way Laurie Ender did in 2008
Another email is burning its way through SoCal email boxes: this one says that CalTech has sent its engineers home to prepare for a big 7.0+ quake in the next four days. It’s completely false, says CalTech. KHTS
Dave Bossert says the “darkness shall continue across the land” if Ferry wins the final vote. He admits it’s a bit of a dramatic statement. WRB

Comments (8)

Brandjones73April 14, 2010 at 8:06 am

Really? The City is purposely making it hard for people to vote? I dont believe that one bit. The City has a pretty extensive site dedicated to elections. Its very easy to look up on the website based on your address where you go to vote. Also the sample ballot mailed has all of the precincts and their addresses. Plus, most of the polling locations are located at schools, libraries, or city facilites that are easier to locate than an individual’s private home. Anyone can also send their vote back by mail. Could the City have more precincts so some dont have to travel as far to vote? Sure. But if I understand correctly, polling places are volunteers and the locations are often those that volunteer to do so. Without voluenteers, its hard to have a ton of polling places.

Damage IncApril 14, 2010 at 8:33 am

Bossert is tool. I had no problem finding my polling place like every other election. The people were nice and it took all of 2 minutes. Painless, who are these people? Probably the same people that believe the West Ranch Beacon has any value what-so-ever

Your Web GuruApril 14, 2010 at 9:04 am

Here here (Or is that “Hear hear”? I’m never sure!). You’d think our tiny Awesometown (And I use that phrase with a slight smirk) is rife with “Twin Peaks-esque” intrigue. Even if there were a lean toward the incumbents from whatever source (a theory really not proven to any degree), we’re still of our own mind to make our own decisions AND locate those “hard to find” voting locations (Again with the smirky-face!).

Jeff (But not the one that runs this blogApril 14, 2010 at 9:17 am

The notion of a conspiracy theory is unfounded at best. It seems that any time things don’t work out the way we’d like them to we look to shenanigans as a scape goat. This doesn’t mean that conspiracies never take place, but I think they are only slightly less rare than snipes in these cases. As for Mr. Gauny, while I have not been particularly a fan I am impressed with his ability to mobilize support and with the challenge he is presenting to an incumbent. I like a good underdog battle and hope that he pulls it out, personally Mr. Ferry is the one incumbent that I prefer him to and I hope he makes up the ground. Even if he does not his accomplishment in this election is impressive.

cashApril 14, 2010 at 9:57 am

Hey JW, did Timmy fall asleep around 9:30?

OlenkaApril 14, 2010 at 11:26 am

“It seems that any time things don’t work out the way we’d like them to we look to shenanigans as a scape goat.” I am not a scape goat.

Robert GardnerApril 14, 2010 at 10:03 pm

There were a few mixups in addresses of poll places and can see how that could have confused some people. The City mailed out postcards to residents (I got one) with correct info about a week before the election. The website appeared correct, however hard to use on my iPhone.

mikeApril 15, 2010 at 6:42 am

Not in a city election, but I had to vote provisionally once at a polling place where I had voted twice before a several time later, without an issue. Petz, the law says something else entirely, which is nice. In terms of shenanigans, I actually think the city is erring on the side of caution, even over-doing it. That said, in a month’s time we won’t care that we had to wait a few days to find out.

Brandjones73April 14, 2010 at 8:06 am
Really? The City is purposely making it hard for people to vote? I dont believe that one bit. The City has a pretty extensive site dedicated to elections. Its very easy to look up on the website based on your address where you go to vote. Also the sample ballot mailed has all of the precincts and their addresses. Plus, most of the polling locations are located at schools, libraries, or city facilites that are easier to locate than an individual’s private home. Anyone can also send their vote back by mail. Could the City have more precincts so some dont have to travel as far to vote? Sure. But if I understand correctly, polling places are volunteers and the locations are often those that volunteer to do so. Without voluenteers, its hard to have a ton of polling places.
Damage IncApril 14, 2010 at 8:33 am
Bossert is tool. I had no problem finding my polling place like every other election. The people were nice and it took all of 2 minutes. Painless, who are these people? Probably the same people that believe the West Ranch Beacon has any value what-so-ever
Your Web GuruApril 14, 2010 at 9:04 am
Here here (Or is that “Hear hear”? I’m never sure!). You’d think our tiny Awesometown (And I use that phrase with a slight smirk) is rife with “Twin Peaks-esque” intrigue. Even if there were a lean toward the incumbents from whatever source (a theory really not proven to any degree), we’re still of our own mind to make our own decisions AND locate those “hard to find” voting locations (Again with the smirky-face!).
Jeff (But not the one that runs this blogApril 14, 2010 at 9:17 am
The notion of a conspiracy theory is unfounded at best. It seems that any time things don’t work out the way we’d like them to we look to shenanigans as a scape goat. This doesn’t mean that conspiracies never take place, but I think they are only slightly less rare than snipes in these cases. As for Mr. Gauny, while I have not been particularly a fan I am impressed with his ability to mobilize support and with the challenge he is presenting to an incumbent. I like a good underdog battle and hope that he pulls it out, personally Mr. Ferry is the one incumbent that I prefer him to and I hope he makes up the ground. Even if he does not his accomplishment in this election is impressive.
cashApril 14, 2010 at 9:57 am
Hey JW, did Timmy fall asleep around 9:30?
OlenkaApril 14, 2010 at 11:26 am
“It seems that any time things don’t work out the way we’d like them to we look to shenanigans as a scape goat.” I am not a scape goat.
Robert GardnerApril 14, 2010 at 10:03 pm
There were a few mixups in addresses of poll places and can see how that could have confused some people. The City mailed out postcards to residents (I got one) with correct info about a week before the election. The website appeared correct, however hard to use on my iPhone.
mikeApril 15, 2010 at 6:42 am
Not in a city election, but I had to vote provisionally once at a polling place where I had voted twice before a several time later, without an issue. Petz, the law says something else entirely, which is nice. In terms of shenanigans, I actually think the city is erring on the side of caution, even over-doing it. That said, in a month’s time we won’t care that we had to wait a few days to find out.