I was just checking out the final numbers and it looks as though our precinct did pretty well. Here’s how the vote for president broke down.
YPSILANTI CITY Ward 3 Precinct 3
registered 1728
voted 865
50.06% turnoutGEORGE W. BUSH (REP)
149
17.25% of the voteJOHN F. KERRY (DEM)
690
79.86% of the voteDAVID COBB (GRN)
3
0.35%MICHAEL ANTHONY PEROUTKA (UST)
3
0.35%MICHAEL BADNARIK (Lib)
6
0.69%WALTER BROWN (NLP)
1
0.12%RALPH NADER (NPA)
12
1.39%WRITE IN
0
0.00%
While the 80% for Kerry is a good number, I was really hoping that we could have done more about the turnout. Just barely over 50% isn’t acceptable. We had 863 registered voters that chose not to cast their ballots. Assuming they would have voted like the 865 people who did turn out, that would have been another 689 votes against Bush. Next year we need to do a better job of turning out the vote. I’m not sure how to go about doing that, but we’ve got almost four years to plan.
While we’re on the subject of the election, I came across a link to an interesting little article the other day at the Ypsidixit site concerning the election of three filter-happy religious zealots to our local Ypsilanti library board. Here’s a clip from the Library Journal article. Unfortunately, it nicely illustrates a point made by Steve and Hillary Cherry in the comments section last week concerning the costs of being farsighted when it comes to politics (that’s the one where you can see things far away, but not near, right? or is that nearsighted?) While a lot us were very busy canvassing for Kerry, we lost sight of the fact that there were people right here at home who wanted to limit our access to information.
Residents of Ypsilanti, MI, who failed to convince the Ypsilanti District Library board to install filters on the library’s computers last summer, instead turned to the ballot box, electing three filter proponents to the board and ousting two incumbents. The library, which does not receive federal E-rate discounts, is not subject to the filter requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Given that one trustee already on the board supported filters, it seems like filter proponents now have a majority….
10 Comments
Only 2 years to plan… Ken Sikkema is going to run against Granholm in 2 years. He has a good chance of winning and nothing could be worse for Michigan.
Good point, Hillary… Hopefully we’ll have some kind of Ypsi-Hamtown coalition up and running by then.
Eek, looking at “sick o ma ” life’s face for 4 years is worse than his policies:
http://www.sikkema.org/resource/sikkahs.jpg
Here’s what we should do:
1) figure out what filtering software they’ve installed
2) figure out what legitimate sites it blocks
3) visit the library, and try to access these sites
4) complain to the library board and cc the local newspapers
5) repeat ad nauseum
I don’t know that they’ve done anything yet, but I agree that if/when they do something, we need to be ready with the list of search topics… like “breast cancer” and “climax michigan.”
Conversely, we could demonstrate that they don’t block everything they’re supposed to.
Safety moms should understand that their kids ought to be supervised.
Will searches involve “male protien” food supplimentation as refered to in a later post? I bet that one gets through.
I wonder if the library staff has any ideas.
I suspect the staff would be eager to shut down the “Jesus wants filters” patrol and would welcome our assistance… Most librarians that I know believe in the free and open access of information.
You’re right, Leighton. It hadn’t occurred to me, but I’m sure that the “Cooking with Cum” site would be blocked… These filter jihadists don’t care who they hurt, even the hungry.