My votes this Tuesday

My votes this Tuesday

By |

This Tuesday, Oklahoma, along with much of the rest of the nation, will head to the polls to select governors, congressmen, senators, and a smattering of state officials ranging from the obscure to the seemingly trivial. In Oklahoma, in addition to the slate of elected officials, we have 11 state questions on which to cast our vote. I know most of you are asking yourselves, "How is Jason voting?" My response is, "That’s an impolite thing to ask!" But I’ll answer anyway. 🙂 In no particular order, here’s how I’m voting, and possibly why.

  • Governor: Mary Fallin

  • Lt. Governor: Todd Lamb

  • US Senate: Tom Coburn

  • US Congress District 5: James Lankford

  • State Auditor: Gary Jones. I think.

  • Attorney General: Scott Pruitt

  • State Treasurer: Ken Miller

  • Superintendent of Public Instruction: Janet Barresi

  • District Judge: Pat Crawley (I hate robocalls, especially on Sundays, Cindy Truong!)

  • Labor Commission: Mark Costello

  • State Questions

    • 744 – Amount of money the State provides to support common schools: No

      I have two problems with this bill. First, it doesn’t, to my knowledge, specify where the money will come from. The ads say we can afford it by cutting waste, etc., but an ad on TV doesn’t make legislation. My biggest problem, though, is that the bill sets spending education, not by careful, thoughtful examination of the needs of Oklahoma students, but by blindly averaging the per pupil spending in surrounding states. Insanity!

    • 746 – Voter Identification, Proof of Identity: Yes

      It’s absurd that we don’t make someone prove they’re who they say they when casting a vote. This fixes that.

    • 747 – Limiting terms of office of certain elected officials: Yes

    • 748 – Apportionment Commission changing to Bipartisan Commission on Legislative Apportionment: No idea 🙂

    • 750 – Initiative and Referendum Designation of signature percentage base: Yes

    • 751 – Providing that the English language is the common and unifying language of Oklahoma: YES!

    • 752 – Modifying the composition of the Judicial Nominating Commission: probably yes

    • 754 – Providing the Legislature shall not be required to make expenditures for any function of government using a predetermined formula of any kind or by reference to the expenditure levels of any other state government or any other entity.: Yes

      This seems to be the anti-744. Formulas based on what other states pay seem pretty silly.

    • 755 – Courts to rely on federal and state laws when deciding cases forbidding courts from looking at international law or Sharia Law: Yes

      The reference to Sharia law seems a bit out of left field, but, that aside, I find it inappropriate for a judge to take into consideration foreign law or precedent when deciding US law. If the US law happens to be on the wrong side of things, the place to fix that is the legislature, not the bench.

    • 756 – Health Care System: Yes

      I hate Obamacare as much as the rest of most Americans.

    • 757 – Constitutional Reserve Fund: Yes

      Saving money is almost always a good idea.

Incidentally, that’s pretty much straight-ticket voting, but it’s an informed list.

Comments are closed.