Jill Tucker with the San Francisco Chronicle writes about a really close election in Alameda:
Students in Alameda are getting a real-life lesson this month on an old civics adage: Every vote counts.A week after the election, the Alameda Unified School District was just three votes short of the two-thirds voter approval needed to pass a parcel tax on the June 3 ballot.But it's not over yet for Measure H. County officials were still counting an unknown number of provisional ballots cast on election day.
As of Tuesday, there were 11,001 yes votes to 5,502 no votes - or 66.6606 percent in favor. That's not enough if it holds.
The district needs sixes to four decimal places to pass, school board President Bill Schaff said.
Central Unified bond backers can relate. The $152 million bond measure to build four new schools and refurbish older campuses had 54.49% "yes" votes, according to a brief in today's paper. It needs 55% to pass.
Wednesday's update had the measure receiving 3,954 "yes" votes to 3,302 "no" votes. Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar expects another update tomorrow, with results from provisional ballots that are still being counted.
I cast my vote last night at Grizzlies stadium for the MLB Allstar AL & NL teams; that vote had more relevance than any vote I’ve cast in the political realm for the last several years. I’ve about given up voting for any national leaders, confining my voting to local elections.
I continue to vote, mostly out of habit - and for what reason I don’t know. Nothing changes. The courts will overturn it anyways. Faceless, unelected bureaucrats continue to circumvent the law with tangled and silly regs that have unintended consequences, that, in effect, negate the good intentions of the few honest individuals in government.
Just how pathetic is that - continuing to vote, knowing that it won’t do any good?
I like what you had to say. More than the low turnout I am concerned that with the massive layoffs at the Bee and its desire to outsource some of its work to India, there may be no one left to tell us how to vote in the next election.