500 Page SF Elections Paper Ballot Book - How to Get it E-Mailed & Get Spammed Too

Election Day comes back on November 5th to San Francisco, and while it usually means we vote for candidates and proposals for propositions, you'll be getting something huge in the mail: Your ballot book.

If you are familiar with ballot books, it's basically what every person registered to vote gets in the mail prior to every election.  The books contain the procedures and policies about voting, candidate statements, proposition statements, and plenty more.  In most cases, the booklets are no more than a quarter inch thick using very thin paper to cut down on weight and postage costs.

But for the November 5th elections, your booklet will be roughly 400-500 pages, with a huge chunk going towards a local proposition for a luxury condo property at 8 Washington.  By law, the city has to publish the text of the referendum and that contains hundreds of pages that likely a majority of citizens will simply throw into their recycling bin.

What does that mean to me?  If I receive that, I just look at the sample ballot and maybe the briefing of each ballot measure, than simply dump it in the recycling bin.

But... there is a choice for us voters, we can ask the city to skip on the paper ballot books and review it online.  When you opt-in for electronic ballot boks, you get an e-mail from the city that gives you the link to the ballot book online.

It's a great idea, help the city go green by cutting back on the paper printing, especially when your ballot book will be the size of a telephone book.

However, there's a dark side to giving the city your e-mail address:

"The email address provided on this form will be kept confidential pursuant to Section 6254.4 of the California Government Code and Section 2194 of the California Elections Code, and legally may be provided to a candidate for office, a ballot measure committee, or other person for election, scholarly, journalistic, political, or governmental purposes, as determined by the Secretary of State." (Source: SF Elections opt-out paper ballot book online sign-up)

What this basically tells me is that if I give the city government my e-mail address to cut down on paper waste, there is the possibility that political candidates and proposition pro/opponents will be harassing me via e-mail telling me to "vote for this" and "my opponent is a scumbag?"

Like I need more junk mail in my inbox.  I'm already sick of the phone calls at 8:45PM.  Thanks politicians for passing an elections law that allows you to spam the crap out of my e-mail box; you voted for it because you liked it so you can tell us who or what to vote for, but for us citizens, we hate it.

Here's an alternative the city could do, but it will cost some money: People can opt-out of a paper ballot, but they would instead get a post card telling citizens to visit the elections website to obtain the electronic ballot book; by doing it this way, we don't have to give out our e-mail address.

Akit's Thoughts on the Most Recent Election

I'm not all too fond with politics.  I get tired of watching the morning news and a good portion is covering the everything from ballot measures to candidates trying to get into office.  Whatever political junk mail I get, it  goes straight into the recycling bin, phone calls gets immediately hung up, and doorbell ringers will get no answer because I turned off the power to the doorbell.

I'm personally happy its all over.  Can life get back to normal?

Here's my thoughts on some of the political candidates and propositions that was on the most recent ballot:

City Supervisors: As I recently moved from the Outer Richmond to the Inner Sunset, there was no supervisor candidate to vote for.  I personally don't have any favorites as I think most of the board is a bunch of idiots and clowns for passing legislation such as the Happy Meal toy ban.  As for the supervisor candidate volunteers on election day standing in the medians at the St. Francis Circle intersection during rush hour, they were just inches from a car making a wrong last minute lane change and killing the volunteers.

State Assembly: Really?  Phil Ting won?  Never was a fan of him since he used city public funding for a failed bid for becoming mayor of San Francisco; some say he used his failed candidacy as leverage to take a punch at going for the State Assembly seat.  He can shove that "reset" button up his ass.

Proposition A for City College: Okay, so it passed.  As City College is in fiscal shambles and is on the verge of losing their accreditation, if I see another ballot measure in the next few years asking for more money, don't expect my support.  Manage your money and regain the trust of the citizens first.

Proposition F for the research to consider to drain out Hetch Hetchy: Good this lost with 77.4% saying no.  Losing Hetch Hetchy's water would be devastating to San Francisco, especially when we have some of the best tap water in the nation and the hydro power generates electricity for Muni's trolley buses and light rail.

Proposition 30 for tax money for schools: I work for the higher education sector and this is needed to keep our public education running and open for our students.

Proposition 37 for genetically modified labels: I had to compare labeling food as GMO to California's gasoline.  The state's gasoline is a one of a kind blend (pollution control bla bla bla); this means we can't import gasoline from other states that don't comply with standards, and therefore our gasoline costs more to purchase at the pump with limited competition.  If we were the only state requiring GMO labeling, we'd be in the same situation as manufacturers of food would have to produce special items just to comply with California law, and that means passing the cost to the consumer.

That's my thoughts on these ballot measures.

Dear Candidates for Mayor of San Francisco: Stop Calling Me!

Dear Candidates for Mayor of San Francisco:

You suck. That's right, you suck.

Why do you suck? You call my house to bother me to ask for their votes or do some touch tone phone survey to ask who I would vote for mayor.

Getting calls from your volunteer scumbags telling me who to vote for is just annoying, and I know that you are robocalling me because if I answer my phone and say "hello" and hear silence for about two or three seconds means I'm about to be bothered by another jackass.

To give you a good example, here's the last phone call I got at 8:45PM (yeah, 8:45PM) last night:

I'm quietly reading a book in bed and I get a phone call from some volunteer for David Chiu for Mayor. I quickly interrupt the jackass who disrupted my peaceful time by saying: "Now that you called, I just changed my mind, I won't vote for him." I hung up my phone without letting the guy get one word after that.

Here's a fact, it's NOT FUN to call me. Anyone who dares to ask me to vote for someone or something will get a rude reaction. Another time when someone called me, I said, "is that you Jesus?" then hung up. It's worse if you call me after 8PM because I'm busy enjoying watching a good TV show, writing my blog, or just reading a good book.

I've been also getting robocalls asking me to use my touch tone phone to pick who I would vote for mayor. They gave me nine options (press 1 through 9), instead, I picked option zero: "Get the fuck off my phone."

Here's other annoyances I hate about election time:

• You folks like mailing junk to my house on who I should vote for? Here's what I do: It goes straight into the recycling bin. Oh, Alioto wants to be mayor? Cram it; into the blue bin you go. Stop wasting trees.
• Mayoral candidate cronies (possibly paid ones) who abuse twitter by retweeting every single tweet from the candidate's account. The worst offender: Phil Ting's and his ResetSF (Reset San Francisco) account. Here's one of their "political consultants" and another one. Makes using Hootsuite and other third party programs to keep tabs on hashtags like #muni a nightmare.
  
• And while I'm on the topic of Reset San Francisco, how many of you actually knows that Reset San Francisco is actually a website for Phil Ting to be Mayor? It's not as obvious as other candidate's websites; ResetSF's website mentions it in very little print on the bottom of the site. If it wasn't a political candidate's website, it would win awards for being a pretty good blog, but because it's a candidate's website, it's just using his cronies to write twisted articles, like this one full of incorrect facts about Clipper. Even I put out a tweet asking people if they knew if that website is for a candidate and some of the reaction I got back was: "agreed," and "I don't think most know he's even running."
  

So to all you political candidates who wants to be Mayor of this city: Stop calling me, mailing me, and cramming Twitter. I've got better things to do.

Disrespectfully,
Akit

UPDATE: [Retracted due to error]

Isn't it Nice There's No Political Ads on SF's Lampposts?

In one week will be election day for California, and specifically in San Francisco. There's a lot of items for people to vote for, including a new Governor, school boards, BART board, judges, and of course, those crazy propositions ranging from pension plans to the state budget.

Other than the political junk mail (that goes straight into my recycle bin without reading it) and the bothersome phone calls from idiots saying "vote for me!" and "my rival is a scumbag," there's one bright spot in this upcoming elections.

That bright spot, there's no political ads posted on San Francisco's lampposts. Yeah, you know those ones that are bright in colors, full of stupid slogans, and makes it a total eyesore when driving.

Not long ago, those political ads polluted our thoroughfares of our streets, and every single lamppost on Geary Boulevard was crammed with things saying vote for this, and don't vote for that. There were people who had to park their fancy cherry picker trucks and block our streets to post this crud, and there were some random people deciding to cut down ads off the poles of candidates or propositions they didn't support.

Maybe those folks are getting the message, stop wasting your money on printing and wasting all that paper, and get a bunch of volunteer slaves to hound your ass on the phone and mail you garbage.

I am a permanent absentee voter; I vote immediately when I get the ballot, so you jackasses can leave me the fuck alone.

For once, an election without political phone calls

Yesterday's elections must have been one of the most quietest around here in San Francisco, mostly because the local news press didn't cover it as extensively as other elections in the past...

One of the best things about yesterday's elections: NO POLITICAL PHONE CALLS.

Isn't it so nice when you don't get harassed at 7PM at night after eating a tasty dinner and getting some phone call from an annoying jackass on a recording telling you to vote for Proposition "F-U?" At the last election, I got calls from the SEIU from a live person, and I told them to buzz-off, I was watching Jeopardy!

It's a little sad that our federal government banned those "robocalls," but allowed political messages to be excluded. That sucks. Why doesn't the FTC give us citizens the right to opt-out of political phone calls on the do-not-call list?

Lastly, I did get a few of those annoying mailers telling me to vote for Proposition "D," but I decided to throw those straight into my shredder without reading it. What a waste of trees.

Ex-Supervisor Ed Jew - Pleads Guilty Again! Now for Lying about Residency

Dear Super Shameful, Scumbag, Ex-Supervisor Ed Jew,

I'm so happy that you plead guilty for a second time to charges about lying about your residency. Your career is over! But your career in a maximum security prison is just starting!

What a great moment in San Francisco history for everyone! You never really did live in the Sunset after all. You were just housed in your Burlingame home and driving to City Hall everyday. I don't know why the media just didn't follow you around, but it's so nice you admitted guilt.

You still haven't answered my previous question before: when Kamala Harris got the warrant for your arrest, why did you surrender to police in Burlingame? If you were smart, you would have surrendered with the SFPD or at least in Daly City. But instead, you go to Burlingame? Where your other "home" is located? And let's remember, Burlingame is much farther away than Pacifica, Colma, and Daly City.

So be prepared for prison. That's what the people want. You will be made an example to anyone who wants to pull that kind of crap. You won't get off easy like Julie Lee who got F***ING probation. You are a government official, and the people trust you to do your job legitimately.

Lastly, don't blame the Asian American population that got you in this situation. I'm also Asian American, and it's your own damn fault.

Sincerely,
Akit of "Akit's Complaint Department"

Fed Up with Political Advertising - LEAVE ME ALONE

An open letter to any political group, organization, and individuals involved in political advertising:

Please STOP telling me to vote for somebody, some state or local proposition, or participate in some kind of political survey.

Why am I telling you to stop? It's so simple that if you don't understand it, maybe you should ship your dumb ass back to college or get your GED:

1. I've already voted.
2. I've voted by mail.
3. I CAN'T REVERSE MY VOTE.

Maybe there should be a law that if you register as a permanent absentee that citizens should stop getting daily advertising in the mail, and harassing phone calls once the ballots are mailed out. If people have already voted via mail or visiting City Hall, what a waste of trees and people's time to mail crap and call you.

And I honestly don't care if you are from some labor union telling me that somebody is an evil person and should not be voted. I don't give a crap what you say. I vote for who I want, I don't care if my votes support one political party over another because I vote for what I feel is RIGHT.

And out of personal experience, I used to work for a polling place and a lady asked for some help filling out her ballot. She pulled out this card she got from her mail that told her to vote for such and such candidate and proposition, and I was saying to myself: "you have to be fucking kidding." If you can't think about the truth and consequences of your vote by looking at an ad telling you to vote for, maybe you should not vote.

And especially for any of you who call people for hours on end... JUST STOP CALLING ME. I'm really serious, DON'T CALL. I am about this close to getting a lawyer to cram a lawsuit so far up your butt, or demanding to speak to your supervisor for your resignation. And you call at the most obscure hours too, like when I'm EATING DINNER. Hey, I just want to watch the Simpson's and eat my dinner, leave me be.

And another thing, how about those automated messages? I think there' s a law where if you hang up, the message must stop after five seconds. Well the last few annoying ass calls I received DIDN'T HANG UP IN 5 SECONDS. And how about saying at the beginning of the message: "If you do not want to listen to this message and NEVER BE CALLED AGAIN, PRESS ONE." Simple, easy, and bother free. Or how about for every message you leave, you at least say "This is a political message," then I can simply hang up.

And for all you jackasses out there: I shred any mailed political ads immediately without reading them. I may just consider blacking out my address and mailing it back to you in big black letters in saying "go fuck yourself." Phone calls get the standard treatment (for now), a pissed off Asian American guy ready to cuss like a sailor.

So to summarize this, LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE.

Has Gavin Newsom Gone Crazy?

Don't we love city government? Word around town is that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants all his appointed employees to file their resignation so that he can start with a clean slate (assuming that he gets re-elected).

Is our Mayor just flat out nuts? I would never try to terminate so many employees, especially for a complex system like the government just so that things can possibly be "better." If we eliminate all the top positions at once, we are going to expect some hell from our government when it comes to services. Lets say that the police commission is all fired and a new one is put into place, doesn't it just seem that the new commission will not be in full swing for at least several months? Sigh... we'll be having some out of control cops for a while...

Also, I know some great city commissioners that might lose their positions in the city government. One of them was appointed when Mayor Willie Brown was in charge, but I hope he is able to keep his position or leave without a fight.

Just one more thought, if Newsom wants to wipe out all his appointees, then he will have a government that simply works in favor of him for everything; honestly, we need some past appointees to question the mayor's every single move around here. Remember, always question authority!