The Nov. 2 election is less than a week away, and by now you’re probably sick of the candidates’ TV commercials, political flyers in the mail and calls from political campaigners—but if you care at all about San Francisco, you’ve got to vote.
This election will decide much of the future direction of San Francisco. Five of the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for election. Only one of the seats, District 4’s, has an incumbent running--Carmen Chu, who’s unopposed. The other four races (District 2, 6, 8 and 10) have a total of almost four dozen candidates.
And if Gavin Newsom wins the race for California lieutenant governor, the Board of Supervisors is to choose someone to serve out the rest of his mayoral term, about one year. But it’s unclear which board would do the choosing, the outgoing one or the newly elected one.
So the Nov. 2 election--and your vote--will shape the legislative and executive branches of San Francisco’s government. The city budget will be impacted by several local propositions such as B (requiring city employees to contribute more toward their pensions and health care benefits), G (ending the rule that guarantees Muni drivers the second-highest pay of transit operators in the US), J (raising the hotel tax by 2 percent) and N (raising taxes on sales of property of $5 million and above).
This is critical stuff for San Francisco--and it’s not even counting the state and national races for the U.S. Senate and Congress, governor, attorney general, and other seats and the California propositions.
Vote absentee or vote in person, vote on all of the offices and ballot measures or only some, vote early or on Nov. 2. Just be sure to vote.
Questions about your voter registration, polling place, voting hours or other voting procedures? Here'a a basic guide to voting in the November 2010 California election in the San Francisco Bay Area.
