Vote locally Nov. 2

By Editorial

With elections nearing, election coverage has been overwhelming, between what President Bush and Sen. John Kerry's have said, and projected polling results.

But despite the presidential race, Nov. 2 is also about other issues. There is more than one election going on. It's important to recognize the under-publicized races and dispel channels from which college students usually get their election news.

Polling results

TV news is constantly throwing polls at you. There should be a note saying, "Warning, proceed to view with caution." The fact is, it's impossible to get a popular vote consensus.

"Systematic bias" causes problems, especially if a poll comes out every other day. Voters shouldn't base a decision on any results shown on the news.

Political ads

Political ads are useless. They spend millions of dollars digging up dirt on the other candidate for a 30-second clip.

Would you really want a candidate who would squander tax money on unimportant things?

Malicious ads should be dispelled. They're mostly twisted personal attacks that have nothing to do with how a candidate will perform if elected.

This is a subtle way of persuading voters to ignore the real issues. If a candidate will stoop as low as to smear the other candidate, are they trying to overcompensate for something?

Local measures and state-wide propositions

Anyone faced with 16 propositions and over two-dozen local ballot measures would cringe. But that's the beauty of democracy. Luckily there are only three main measures that will affect us Santa Clarans, two of which deal with labor and wages.

The propositions have more of an effect on us, and should be carefully examined before checking the approval box.

We wouldn't want a tax on mental health care funding as stated in Proposition 63, and we definitely wouldn't want a tax on telephone calls for emergency services as outlined in Proposition 67. And Proposition 64 actually wants to limit the number of lawsuits against businesses for unfair practices. Give us a break.

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The Nov. 2 election is a once-in-a-four-year time to change (or keep) the country's chief executive. It's also time to examine issues in our own backyards.