Here are some preliminary numbers for Georgetown:
Filed under Uncategorized
Photo by LopezJuanDiego.
GM doesn’t normally do a lot of endorsements for elections. Typically, the elections around here are either uncontested or lopsided. And for the most part, Georgetowners will find most of the ballot that way this year too.
But not all of it.
There is one genuinely competitive race that Georgetowners will be able to vote in next week (or right now, if you want to vote early): the at large slots.
It’s virtually guaranteed that Vincent Orange will win the Democratic slot. GM wishes this weren’t the case, but it is. Who will win the second slot (which must go to a non-Democrat) is hard to predict. It will likely come down to a race between Michael A. Brown and David Grosso.
GM expected very little of Brown before he was elected. He failed multiple times to win an election as the Democrat that he is, so he “switched” to independent in order to win the less competitive second slot. (He still goes on TV billed as a “Democratic Strategist”). Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday, the Georgetown Hoya student newspaper published a somewhat provocative editorial calling on students to not register to vote in DC and rather vote absentee in their home states.
The reasoning behind the piece was that with DC disenfranchisement in Congress and its guaranteed three electoral votes for Obama, students would “get more bang from their ballot” by voting in more competitive and consequential elections back home.
There’s some undeniable truth to this reasoning, but it’s myopic. The editorial throws a bone to the admirable DC Students Speaks effort, but kicks the legs out of that campaign by stating “it’s evident that poor student turnout in D.C. has been problematic.” In other words, because students don’t vote here, why bother voting here?
The heart of the editorial points to the slim 537 votes that George W. Bush beat Al Gore by in Florida in 200. It notes that 250 current Georgetowners are from Florida and concludes that “you never know beforehand if voting will make a difference.” Continue reading
Filed under Politics
Yesterday, the Board of Elections released the final maps for ANC redistricting. The ANC2E one is the same as that decided upon by Tom Birch last fall as depicted above.
The map has a few small changes to the old map and one significant change. The small ones include making SMDs 2, 3, and 5 a bit bigger. And the big change is the brand new SMD 8 on the eastern edge of GU campus. (If you want to rehash the fight that produced this map, read this).
Starting on June 15, candidates have been able to pick up nominating petitions. They have until August 8th to collect 25 signatures of residents of their district. So far, sitting commissioners Ron Lewis and Bill Starrels have already picked up their petitions. GM suspects most if not all the rest of the non-student commissioners will go again next year. Continue reading
Filed under ANC
Photo by biberfan.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Last November, At Large Councilmember Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown was elected as chair of the D.C. Council. That meant his at-large seat has to be filled. So the District is holding a special election on April 26th.
But there’s no need to actually wait for April 26th to vote. The District has very permissive early voting rules. You can just go down to the DC Board of Elections and Ethics at One Judiciary Square and vote right now. The doors are open from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM. You don’t need to pretend you’re going to be out of town, or observing Passover, etc. You can just go an vote early, no questions asked.
You can vote by mail too. Go here to order an absentee ballot (again, no need to pretend you’re going to actually be absent on the 26th). Continue reading
Voting in Georgetown was light on Tuesday, even for an “off-year.” The number of voters who showed up was down from 2006 (the last “off-year”) both as a matter of percentage of registered voters as well as in real numbers:
Interestingly, while the total amount of voters showing up was off about 5%, the number of those voters who bothered to cast a vote for ANC was off by 10%. Continue reading
Filed under Events
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