Burnt Orange Report

I Voted!

By Byron LaMasters

So, I voted today, performing my civic duty for the tenth time since I turned 18 in July 2000. I was thinking about that on the way home. I've never skipped an election in which I was eligible (The ten are the 2000 General Election, 2001 Dallas City Council, 2002 Democratic Primary, 2002 Democratic Primary Runoff, 2002 Austin City Council / ACC / AISD, 2002 Austin Community College Board Runoff, 2002 General Election, 2003 Austin City Council, 2003 Austin City Council Runoff and now 2003 Constitutional Amendments). Now, I didn't vote in an August 2000 bond vote for DART Bond Election (word file), because I only found out about the election one week beforehand and I had not yet registered to vote. I also didn't vote in either the December 2001 Austin Special Mayoral Election or the Dallas January 2002 Special Mayoral Election because I changed my voter registration from Dallas to Austin in between the two elections so that I could vote in primary elections in March 2002 in Austin (I had originally planned to keep my voter registration in Dallas).

Anyway, the University Democrats made the following endorsements last night regarding the Constitutional Amendments. They reaffirmed all of the endorsements of the Burnt Orange Report and made endorsements in every other race.

Here are the Endorsements of the University Democrats:

Prop 1: YES
Prop 2: NO
Prop 3: NO
Prop 4: NO
Prop 5: YES
Prop 6: YES
Prop 7: YES
Prop 8: NO
Prop 9: NO
Prop 10: YES
Prop 11: YES
Prop 12: NO
Prop 13: No endorsement
Prop 14: YES
Prop 15: YES
Prop 16: NO
Prop 17: NO
Prop 18: NO
Prop 19: YES
Prop 20: NO
Prop 21: YES
Prop 22: NO

For the record, I voted the UD endorsed slate with one exception (I also voted NO on 13). I voted YES on Prop 20. The arguement against that proposition was that it was designed to help military communities, but that it would be silly to give lucrative bond rates until after the next round of base closures in 2005. I'll be optimistic that Rep. Chet Edwards and our other senior congressmen will be around to help save Fort Hood and other military bases, and I think that it's good to support military communities and our men in uniform (even though I don't agree with the decisions made by our current administration in using that military, that's beside the point). Even though I opposed the war in Iraq, I can say in good faith that I support our troops more than some hypocritical Republicans who say they support our troops, yet cut their pay at the same time. Our troops are getting shot at in heat of 120 degrees. I wouldn't have sent them there, but damn, even considering cutting their pay is downright unpatriotic, so shame on Bush for not doing a damn thing about it, yet attacking patriots like Max Cleland who did far more to serve America than our president. But I digress...