Let’s be real, though it’s Election Day, we might not know the outcomes of several races and measures for a while.
In the meantime, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts outlined several of the key dynamics and things to keep in mind as we sort out the results for the next week.
Among them: Has the Democratic Party done a better job reading its members or helping steer them toward its preferred candidates? In the last several races, the party has waded into contested races only to see the candidates it supports come up short (in some cases, far, far short). The party is under new leadership, so we’ll be waiting to see whether it did a better job guiding its voters this time around.
We’re also breaking out the popcorn to see how many of the open Council races shake out, whether there are big upsets on the horizon for candidates like Ben Hueso, Barbara Bry and Georgette Gómez, whether last-minute attacks impact voters and more.
The Weirdest San Diego Ballot Measures
Tuesday’s primary ballot is relatively short and simple compared with some of the bananas ballots we’ve seen recently. You don’t need to learn about kidney dialysis or animal cage requirements, for instance.
That hasn’t always been the case. VOSD’s history expert, contributor Randy Dontinga, rounded up four of the strangest ballot measures San Diego voters have been asked to weigh in on over the years. They include a measure that made it technically illegal to go nude at Black’s Beach (obviously, that one doesn’t get enforced much) and a measure overturning a decision to rename Market Street after Martin Luther King Jr. (Business owners didn’t want to deal with the hassle of changing their stationary.)
More Last-Minute Election Tidbits
- Our election contest is back: Check it out here.
- VOSD’s Scott Lewis hosted a Reddit AMA about the election. We pulled out the best parts of that conversation here.
- County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu told NBC San Diego that in “a few dozen cases” people who voted at new satellite voting locations were given incorrect ballots. Vu said the situation was a training issue and was quickly remedied.
- Assemblywoman Shirley Weber told the Union-Tribune she decided to endorse former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for president because of his plan to increase black home ownership and boost economic development in black communities.
- The Union-Tribune editorial board, meanwhile, endorsed Joe Biden for president after having previously endorsed Pete Buttigieg.
In Other News
- Prop. 57, passed in 2016, made certain non-violent offenders eligible for early parole once they’d served a certain amount of time. But it hasn’t worked out that way in practice. (Union-Tribune)
- Welp, this photo op happened Monday:
The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby, and edited by Scott Lewis.