Seriously, San Francisco?

[owlmoose]

Eleven candidates for mayor? Eleven? And I have to make a decision because the person I least want to see win is the incumbent?

At least in the old days I could have waited for the runoff, but no, SF had to adopt an instant runoff system (pick your top three candidates). So I get to pick now. Not to mention choosing among the three candidates for sheriff, and six for district attorney, and the half-dozen local propositions. Bleh.

Well, off to go read all my political spam. (Seriously, it's been ridiculous. I'm tempted to count up the number of mailers I've received over the last month and vote for the person who sent me the fewest. All those dead trees. Very sad.)

Comments

[zen_monk]

Ah, right. Election time.

I get these phone calls for polling, and because I'm game I let the poor guy rattle on about who is what on the ballot, and I'm like "Who ARE these people? I've never heard of them, much less their nicknames and titles."

It probably shows how little I cared about local/state governance, which is pitiful, but to see many that appear indistinguishable is pretty uninspiring.

[penrynsdreams.livejournal.com]

Haha, my dad is one of the people you have to thank for IRV. It may be an inconvenience in this case, but it does save a fair amount of time and money overall.

[owlmoose]

Heh!

I do agree with the principle of instant runoff voting. It would be great in a field of four or five. But with a group of candidates this large, I fear that it will end up fragmenting the "anyone but Ed Lee" vote, and so Lee will *still* be elected by significantly less than a majority. It would have been nice to have a primary or some other kind of winnowing process, you know?

[penrynsdreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Electoral systems are tricksy things to get right for every situation. Let's just hope that enough people feel the same way you do. I may not live in SF, but I'm definitely affected by what happens across the bay!