So, I'm filling out my first ballot in a US election ever (became a citizen last year) and it's the Primary and Special election here in WA. I googled each candidate and managed to independently come up with exactly the same votes as if I'd just voted the King County Democrats endorsements. Except ...
Except when it came to the one and only Proposition on the ballot. It's a small property tax levy to fund continued King County participation in AFIS (automated fingerprint identification system). So it sounds like good, technology-for-law-enforcement stuff, and the KCDs have endorsed it. But... as the Seattle Weekly pointed out in 2000, they keep funding this by 5 year propositions (that was the 3rd time, this will be the 4th!) instead of putting it the law enforcement budget where it belongs. And as a columnist pointed out that year:
One of the supposed benefits of this system was that it quickly identified anonymous WTO protesters last year when many refused to give their legal names. Gee. Just what we need, a quick, accurate way for the state to figure out the names of the people whose constitutional rights it is violating.
By the way,
here is the official page describing the proposition in detail, and giving the officially sanctioned arguments for and against.
So, I'm curious what other King County residents (or others who have thought about similar issues) here at Kos think of this proposition.