Sample Ballot: 2022 General Election Cuyahoga County Congressional District 11 Edition
Today I voted early in person. This is by far the best way to vote and I recommend that everyone who possibly can vote this way. This isn’t going to be a super interesting sample ballot because the choices are so obvious but at the same time uninspiring. The Republicans promise to starve grandma, do a nationwide abortion ban and end bourgeois democracy itself to replace it with something worse. The Democrats at least say they don’t want them to do these things.
So yeah that pretty much means I voted for Nan Whaley for Governor (even though she’s way behind in the polls) and for the Democrats running for all the other statewide offices (even though they’re barely running campaigns). Where it got interesting was US Rep to Congress (11th District). I couldn’t bring myself to vote for the truly awful Shontel Brown or long time local crank Eric Brewer who is running as a Republican against her so I left it blank.
I of course enthusiastically voted for my State Representative Mike Skindell to be re-elected as he is probably the most consistent progressive voice in the Ohio General Assembly. I also voted for State Senator Nickie Antonio to be re-elected.
Then the ballot has some Appeals Court Judges. I just don’t vote if they’re unopposed. If it says they’re Democrats and they’re running against Republicans I vote for them.
Then it’s County Executive. I voted for Chris Ronayne, though with no great enthusiasm.
Then there’s about 10 million different Judges listed without party affiliation. My crankish take on this is that I don’t vote for any of them unless I’m given an extremely compelling reason to do so. Either way “good judges” and “bad judges” are both perpetuating a terrible system and I’m not going to waste my limited time and attention promoting or campaiging for any of them. That said I voted for Tim Hess because he represented me in a criminal matter and did a good job. His website was all about how he would make sure his Court followed the Constitution and respected peoples’ rights which is way better than what most of these folks say.
I also voted for Jeffrey Saffold because he’s made some noises about wanting to fight mass incarceration etc. but I don’t really trust him and he was converted to the cause like five minutes ago. I also vote for Jennifer O’Donnell. She’s touted as some kind of progressive reformer simply because she was a Public Defender. Better a Public Defender than a Prosecutor I guess but again same shitty system. I didn’t vote for Kevin Kelley because c’mon he’s Kevin Kelley but I didn’t know his opponent so I left it blank
And of course I voted for all three of the Democrats running for the State Supreme Court
That leaves Issues:
No on 1!!!!! A thousand times no on 1!!!!!! Whatever the language sounds like this is purely an attempt to increase the use of money bail and make the amounts charged for bail higher. I fear that because of the way it’s phrased on the ballot this will easily pass though
No on 2!!!! The whole thing about allowing only citizens to vote is a red herring!! Non-citizens already cannot vote. The big deal here is that according to this language 17 year olds who will be 18 at the time of the general election will no longer be able to vote in the primary
Yes on 5 Vote to renew the Metroparks levy duh
Yes on 6 Vote to renew the port levy duh
