AZ Politics: Prop 203 ahead with <10k votes to be counted…
Like Lenny said, it aint over til it’s over~
Awesome GWTW Kravitz mashup by LittleMissVain
The lamestreams all reported this as failing to pass a week ago. They like to report AZ is too red to let Medical Marijuana pass, they ignore we passed it twice already. Cali shenanigans almost killed it this time ’round- keep fingers crossed, only a few thousand votes to be counted~
Arizona appears on the verge of finally getting a law that actually will allow patients to obtain marijuana legally.Figures released late Friday show Proposition 203 ahead by 4,421 votes out of more than 1.6 million cast.
Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, whose office has the last of the ballots to be counted, told Capitol Media Services she has only about 10,000 ballots yet to be tallied.
That includes about 2,000 provisional ballots, largely those that were cast by voters at the polls on election day by people who had previously requested and been mailed an early ballot. Purcell said her office needs to make sure they had not voted twice.
Purcell noted the trend in the provisional ballots has been running close to 2-to-1 in favor of the measure.
That leaves just 8,000 early ballots from voters who overinked their marks, resulting in a bleed-through to the other side of the paper.
Among early Maricopa voters, the measure is losing by a 48-to-52 percent margin. And County Elections Director Karen Osborne said the last of these early ballots being counted are running virtually the same as those already tallied.
If that pattern holds, there would be fewer than 4,200 additional votes against the measure and more than 3,800 in favor, making it virtually impossible to bridge that 4,421-vote edge, plus any others added to that from the remaining provisional ballots.
Among Maricopa County voters who went to the polls on election day as they had planned, the “no” votes exceeded those in favor. But all of those ballots already have been counted.
Proposition 203 actually won in only Pima, Coconino and Santa Cruz counties. But the big margin of victory in Pima — more than 43,000 votes out of nearly 306,000 cast — was enough to cancel out opposition elsewhere, especially with the measure losing overall in Maricopa County by fewer than 4,000 votes….
This is a classic example of where, with all respect, I think that Sen DeMint is wrongin his statement that we cannot be fiscally conservative and socially ‘liberal’. I consider myself moderate because I am both those things for the most part.
Libertarians that are fiscally conservative also fall into this group. People who have certain medical conditions should have access to a natural remedy for their condition, and no lobbying by Big Pharma (who are No 2 on my Teh Evil list behind certain Bankstas) should stop people from being free IMO.
Hang On Sloopy, we’re almost there~
Updates: Be the Wave!! AZ-05 David Schweikert (R) – GOTV
SCHWEIKERT WINS!! WE DID IT~~~WOOT!!!
Everyone please GET OUT AND VOTE!!!
10/30 Phone Banking Report – Team Schweikert office was full so I was assigned to GOP Victory office around the corner and did calls to GOTV for the entire GOP Team. Did around 100 calls, many messages, wrong numbers, but 5 positives, with a Semper Fi! thrown in. 2 had mailed early ballots back already the other 3 were psyched to vote. Very few hangups, maybe 6, only 2 who seemed to be Dem votes.
David Schweikert Conservative for AZ - 05
AceofSpadesHQ and FreedomWorks have launched Be the Wave! A GOTV effort aimed at getting our feet on the ground to make calls and GOTV for our districts. Be the Wave!!
Here in AZ-05, David Schweikert is our guy. A conservative who has run against Harry Mitchell (D) before, and this year is our year.
Please contact the Schweikert Campaign Team and volunteer to make calls, donate, or help staff events.
http://www.david10.com/getinvolved
Post continues after the break:
Update 5: Brewer signs parts of budget: brings back equalization property tax…
Update 5: 9/4/09 4:41pm AZ Time: Well with 1 day to go, Jan Brewer has signed off on parts of the budget and not others, we lost a great chance at tax cuts, Brewer is polling lower than “anyone else” literally, so her numbers cannot get much worse, but this really sucks:
If the election were held today, when given the option of Jan Brewer, or anyone else on the face of the earth as Arizona’s next Governor, voters opted for the latter, according to a poll released Monday.
The local political consulting group that conducted the poll, The Summit Group, found that only 18 percent of Arizona voters would cast their vote for the execrated chief executive, in contrast to 46 percent, who say they would vote for just about anyone else…
She allowed the comeback of the property tax, great for residents and commercial interests right now eh? and she vetoed spending cuts again. She did not get her sales tax ballot referral but she seems to be ‘bitterly clinging’ to the idea:
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer OK’d portions of state budget bills Friday, but she nixed a permanent repeal of a $250 million property tax on businesses and residents. Brewer’s move upset business and real estate advocates who want the state equalization rate gone. The property tax was temporarily repealed in 2005, but will come back without action.
The Legislature has blocked the sales tax increase vote, and Brewer could call another special session to try again on that front. The state budget should have been done July 1. The governor also nixed some education cuts in the budget bill she signed off on Friday.
…“The whole concept of taxing our way into prosperity, as Winston Churchill once said, is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Let’s face it, everyone knows that increased spending and taxes are the worst possible option in this economy,” said Lawless, whose group has been a major proponent of getting rid of the equalization tax…
Moderate in the Middle 