Are women better leaders?
The League has been working for 88 years to encourage more women to become leaders in civic affairs. In the U.S. many towns and cities have women mayors or city managers. The same is true in many parts of the world and now there are studies coming out to tell us how women fare as leaders. A comparison of villages in India led by a woman and those with a male leader showed that more services were available in women-headed villages than in others. Female leadership was associated with better water supplies and better educational facilities. The catch was, more citizens complained about women leaders than about men. It's hard to say why this was true, but it shows that the League and other organizations working to encourage women as leaders have a lot more educating to do. India is not the only place where old stereotypes of how a woman should behave still rule. It may take another 88 years before the League manages to change the image for good.
Another voting group
After giving up on soccer moms and Nascar dads, political campaign managers are turning their attention to unmarried women. Is this the next big voting bloc on the horizon? It's not clear why unmarried women should have many interests in common. Some of them are raising children, others are childless, some are young business and professional women, others are waitresses and nurses' aides, and many are retirees. It's not clear what similarities bind them together, but we'll leave that to the politicians to figure that out. What is known about them, especially the younger ones from 18 to 25, is that many of them do not vote in elections. These are busy women with many interests and prime candidates for absentee voting. That's why they are the target of the League's Vote at Home campaign, which encourages citizens to register as permanent absentee voters, so even if they can't get to the polls, they can make their voices heard. This will be especially important in 2008 with three important elections coming up for Californians.
California votes first?
Despite the early caucus in Iowa and primary in New Hampshire, many California voters may be among the first voters in the 2008 presidential primary season. More than four million Californians are signed up for absentee ballots and these will be sent out on Jan. 7, 2008, just before the early votes in the East. Presidential candidates are beginning to focus on influencing Californians at the same time they are spending their days making speeches and meeting potential voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. Campaign managers haven't figured out how best to appeal to two sets of voters, but they are working on it. Of course, even though absentee voters could cast their ballots early, most of them will probably wait until just before the Feb. 5 primary election to actually turn the ballot in. Most absentee votes are either mailed, or dropped off at a polling place during the last few days before an election. Still, it's a good feeling for Californians to know that this year for the first time they can beat some of the eager Easterners to the polls if they want to.
Is that a book?
While the big box stores are enjoying booming sales today in stores, some consumers would rather order their bargains online. One of the most talked about new products of the fall is only available online. Amazon.com is marketing a new electronic book reader called Kindle. This small device, according to Amazon may soon replace the printed book because it offers thousands of books at prices lower than print and also provides access to newspapers and magazines. Do people who read books want to read them on a screen? Will people prefer buying their books electronically instead of going to a bookstore to browse and choose? All that remains to be seen, but looking at the lines of shoppers at the stores in the early dark this morning, it seems as if many people still enjoy the in-person shopping experience.
Fixing the machines
It looks as though San Francisco, and other California counties, will get some restitution for the problems caused by uncertified voting machines this year. Secretary of State Debra Bowen is suing the manufacturer of the machines for damages. If the case is successful, the city stands to get more than two million dollars from the fines paid by the company. This may not make up for the long delay in getting final returns from the November election because of the need to hand count the votes, but it will give John Arntz and the staff of the Dept. of Elections some satisfaction after all their long hours they had to put in during those post-election days.
Good news for the weekend
For the past week and more, San Franciscans have been paying a lot of attention to the effects of the oil spill in the Bay. Pictures of oil-covered birds are a reminder of how vulnerable wildlife can be to the mistakes we humans make. At last this weekend there is some good news as area beaches are reopened to the public. There is still danger that the beaches may have to be closed again, if tides and wind send more oil in their direction, but for the time being they are open and looking good. The effort to open the beaches was led by professionals, of curse, but the outpouring of volunteers who helped pick up blobs of oil along the shore was heartening to see. If people could rally around to help solve other problems in the city, we would all benefit. Don't forget that Thanksgiving is coming up this week. There are many opportunities to volunteer and help city residents. Think about it! San Francisco is a great city in part because of its natural beauties, but more importantly because of the hospitable and helpful spirit of citizens.
Winning the youth vote
A view of the audience at Barak Obama's speech at the Civic Auditorium last night showed a majority of young faces among the enthusiastic crowd, just as it was young people handing out flyers for the event at Muni stations earlier in the week. Obama, the youngest presidential contender for 2008 has attracted a large following of young potential voters. The questions now is--will these young voters turn out at the ballot box? In the more than 30 years since 18-year-olds won the right to vote, the turnout figures for this group have been disappointing. Despite increased use of the Internet in campaigns and YouTube videos designed to reach the under-thirty crowd, will the turnout be any better when the primary season starts in early 2008? There are barriers--many young voters work long hours, they often move frequently so have to re-register to vote, and many don't have the patience to stand in line at the polls. The League has worked for years to increase voting turnout, encouraging absentee and early voting for people who find it hard to get to the polls. The coming presidential campaigns will offer a test of how well these tactics work. There is a strong call for change among young people--but will they make the effort to get to the ballot box to vote for it?
What happened last Thursday?
The November election has come and gone, but it ended as quietly as it started and many San Franciscans still don't know it happened. Final results are not in yet, and as the days roll into weeks, fewer and fewer people will care about them. But some important city issues were decided and we can all be grateful to organizations like SPUR which help us learn more about what happened and how the results might impact our lives. Today SPUR held an election roundup meeting featuring political commentators and pollsters David Latterman and Jim Stearns who have been crunching the numbers all week. The turnout was low, measuring about 33%. The figure may go up a little, but will remain in the low thirties. More absentee ballots are sent with every election, and the figure is fast approaching 50%. The most startling result of the election was the landslide victory for Gavin Newsom. Even his supporters hadn't thought he would get over 70% of the vote, but he appears to have done that. And the ballot measure he spoke out against, Prop E, went down to defeat. The latest figures on the results can be seen, updated daily, on the website Usual Suspects. Good news for SPUR and for the League of Women Voters is the victory for Prop C, which may improve the quality of the ballot measures we vote on in years to come. So this quiet little election will indeed have a lasting impact on San Francisco.
What are they up to?
Pedestrians in downtown San Francisco have been were probably surprised to see a pie fight at the Powell Street cable turntable recently. This wasn't the first time a flash mob had pulled a stunt to enliven the urban streetscape. The League's mayoral forum in October was the location of another surprising scene when the audience left the library auditorium to encounter a mob of zombies clustered outside the door. The zombies were harmless, as were the pie throwers, and generally did nothing more than make people smile. This "urban playground" movement has only a vague rationale. According to Kevin Bracken, one of the organizers of early flash mob events, they are designed to counter the passive consumerist culture of today. Whether of not they succeed is open to question, but one thing they demonstrate is the amount of energy and imagination available among young people. Those of us who hope to get more citizens involved in community and civic action might consider whether we can't take advantage of this energy to change society in more permanent ways. After all, those zombies knew about the mayoral forums, perhaps we can entice them to attend future forums and join the struggle for better, more responsive government.
Good election news
Despite many disappointments about this week's city election--the low turnout and the delay in learning the results--there is some good news to celebrate. Prop C, which should bring some order and sanity to the process of bringing initiatives to the ballot. Prop C was supported by the League of Women Voters as well as by SPUR, and it seems that local citizens saw the sense of requiring public hearings on ballot measures before slapping them on the ballot. There are other good results from this election, of course, but this victory is one that the League itself can be proud of.
Still can't decide?
Election Day is tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 6, so those of you who haven't decide how to cast your vote had better start thinking about it. To make it easy for wired voters in S.F., videos of the candidate forums and interviews as well as discussions about the pros and cons of many of the ballot measures we will be asked to decide about are available online. The League of Women Voters with its partners AccesSF and GovTV have produced these programs to allow the candidates to express their views and proponents and opponents of ballot measures to discuss theirs. Before it's too late, click on the site and listen to some of the presentation--and then be sure to CAST YOUR VOTE TOMORROW.
