Thursday, June 12, 2014

Early Voting Starts Today at Wheaton Community Recreation Center and Other Spots

Update: the primary election is tomorrow, Tuesday June 23!  Get out there and vote if you haven't already.  I will be voting in the morning before work.

Polls are open 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM and you can look up your polling place here by street address.

This article today about Takoma Park development makes me question my stance on voting for Heather Mizeur and Elrich, but it strengthens my desire to vote for Hans Reimer.

So for Council that would be Reimer and Leventhal for sure. Maybe I'll also vote for Malloy since her staffer was kind enough to read and comment on this post.

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If you want to check out the historic Wheaton Rec Center building before it is demolished, take the opportunity to vote there early for the June 24 election!

Early Voting will be June 12-19, 10 AM - 8 PM at the rec center.  I will vote there early to avoid having to figure out how to get to my official polling place, which is far from the metro.

Regarding County Council, 4 at-large council members are up for reelection and there are 2 new challengers for the 4 seats. I won't be voting for Beth Daly.  She is 1 of 2 non-incumbents running and seems to be the anti-public transit/biking/walking/metro-centric growth candidate.  She is described as having views just like Marc Elrich, which makes me wonder about him, and lives way up by Sugarloaf Mountain.  How is that area even part of the same county as Wheaton?  The area is much too large and I don't think someone who lives up there really identifies with the urbanites of Wheaton.  She obviously doesn't share my values according to her answers on this questionnaire on transit issues.

I'm not sure about incumbent Nancy Floreen. In this Post article, Nancy Floreen said she likes suburbia and wants to preserve bedroom communities.  I'd rather have mixed use with people walking to places they need to be.  Bedroom communities are like deserts with nothing you want or need nearby, and recipes for car-dependent obesity if you ask me.  However, the WaPo endorses her and her Twitter feed links to some articles that I support wholeheartedly, like this recent one on why walking in Scandinavia is so much nicer than in the US.  I want to put their principles into practice.  I'm also not sure about challenger Vivian Malloy.  It looks like she lives in Olney, which is a pretty non-urban place, so I'm leaning against voting for her.  The WaPo article didn't mention her at all for some reason.

The other 3 candidates look fine... I like Hans Reimer because he focuses on young people, bicycling and walking-friendly communities.  I like George Leventhal because he wants to bring fresh food into the schools and improve services for homeless people (and he's advertizing on Pandora!).  Marc Elrich lives in Takoma Park and the WaPo likes him because he is the only current member of council who stands up to real estate developers.  I think developers need to really make a case why their new buildings are needed to avoid wasteful development.

Regarding the MoCo state delegate race for District 18, I have met Emily Shetty twice so far (at Taste of Wheaton and in the Wheaton metro station).  She is also the only candidate who lives in Wheaton, so may be a good pick to get more attention to our local issues.  I also met Rick Kessler, but wasn't impressed with him overall -- he gave off the impression of a smooth talking politician.

For governor, I'll probably for Heather Mizeur, even though she is an underdog.  She has a good plan to lower income taxes for people who aren't super high income, plus the other two candidates have things that make me not want to vote for them.  For Brown it is the horrible waste of money on the Maryland health exchanges, of which he was in charge.  For Gansler it is his abuses of police power as attorney general; that stuff will just increase as a person gets more power.


Here's a flier that someone handed me June 9 outside the Silver Spring Metro Station with more info about early voting.  Get out and vote!!



4 comments:

  1. First, I love your picks. Also remember that some of your readers (east of Sligo Creek) might be in County Council District 5, where Evan Glass has run a very similar set of issues as Hans Riemer. Tom Hucker is probably closest to Nancy Floreen. The rest are also-rans as of now.
    Second, you can go to ANY early voting place, you are not restricted to the one closest to your house, so you can just metro to Rockville or Downtown Silver Spring and cast your votes there.

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  2. Great tip about being able to go to any polling place. That is helpful. In the fall I went to the Silver Spring Civic Center downtown to do early voting. I'm happy that this year we have our very own early polling place in Wheaton.

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  3. Thank you so much for the shout-out! I'm honored to have your support! - Best, Emily Shetty

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  4. Give VIvian Malloy another review.. Check out the Montgomery County Media At-large Debate. I am interested in hearing your views.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMTTkAcy32E&feature=share&list=PLHhZeHpemi3ymykNch5ERl1z4PcCBr6Pc&index=2

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