One of these things is not like the other
Here's an oddity in the Portland City Council elections: The number of votes counted so far in District 1, the outer east side, is way less than those counted in any of the other three districts:
| District | No. of votes counted |
| 1 | 29,162 |
| 2 | 53,784 |
| 3 | 60,250 |
| 4 | 56,575 |
Is this just a quirk in the way the votes are being counted? Did the makers of the district map screw up and include too few voters in District 1? Is the turnout that much lighter out that way?
Avalos, the top vote-getter in District 1, got only 5,124 first-choice votes. Hmmmmm...
UPDATE, overnight: The answer's in the comments below.
Getting elected with only 5K votes seems wonky. I almost feel like if I would have ran getting 5K votes seems doable if you put in the work. Seems like with all her endorsements she should have had 3 or 4 times as many first round votes.
ReplyDeleteJack, I love you, but head out into "The Numbers" east of I-205 and drive around for 20 minutes. Take a look around. Your question will answer itself.
ReplyDeleteI go out there. Do you mean it's low turnout? It's hard to believe the turnout would be half of what it is in inner southeast.
DeleteHave you seen all the plywood apartment barns and bunkers & all the foreigners that live out there?
DeleteYou think they vote en masse?
Home owners and business owners hurt by taxes vote in America w/some younger whiter more English speaking &/or wealthier educated folks that vote as habit id think?
If you don’t have time &/or feel like you get anything for your vote & it’s not habit, why would you?
Why are they even registered?
DeleteDMV registers everyone automatically these days.
DeleteIt’s because the districts are set by population, not by number of voters. Over the past 60 years, families with children have left the City of Portland west of about 92nd Avenue and increased their numbers in East County. The four districts have similar populations, but the easternmost district has the most children as a percentage of the population, and therefore the fewest adults, and therefore the fewest voters. That demographic trend shows up in school enrollment as well. Over the past 50 years or so, the Portland school district has lost 40% of its students.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification.
DeleteAnd you still have to be a citizen, supposedly
Delete^and that for sure?
ReplyDeleteBut yea, of who’s left, why would you even register?
I’d guess among foreigners they’re just hustling / dealing with today’s problem and don’t think about &/or necessarily want to stick their head up?
+ lots of kids?
Without all that many homeowners or business owners sans older &/or more well established people that vote as habit, even of who’s left, why / how would you?
There are good pockets, but having grown up & never lived past 82nd / 205 much (maywood park is all?), I’m grateful not to have caught a stray/errant (or targeted?) bullet on/near SE Division/stark/burnside past 205 that’s really become the ‘street of screams’ & sprawling hell-scape if you land on a bad square from 205/the max to ~162nd-182nd of late?
Checkerboardy/can land on a good or real bad square out there…
At best I see endless plywood apartment barns / human breeding pens past 205 or 217 where I try not to go / wish I could just catapult myself over in either case to get to Mt. Hood or the beach?
Hood River or Columbia county here I come of what’s left of californicated oregon / greater PDX metro?
Maaaybe Canby w/PUD electric carve-out in outer Clackistan?
Probably not / stuck here for another decade, but I can dream, or, if you can, hard to blame many people for running for the exits if they can vote with their feet or getting shoved out past 205 or 217 in apartment breeding pens and ‘80s and newer tract housing hell-scape…
I should add, swirling cul-de-sac late 70s/‘80s and newer swirling tract housing shit-hellscape is mostly Alohabeaverboro.
ReplyDeleteEast Portland…mostly all post war grid sprawl garbage of car-centric sprawl /endless car dealers popping up along Hwy 213 & 122nd by the late 50s/early 60s w/some larger lots still…lots of ugly ‘raise your family in the still comfortable working class arm pit’ ugly 70s slab-front split levels (could do worse?) of the detached housing out there & some small/modest ‘60s houses on larger lots w/good lumber in them still, but no full basement, in the middle of the lot/hard to divide the lot nicely w/o bulldozing/demolishing the house, lots of frontage to secure/police/appearances to keep up visible to the public , foundation often not strong enough to add a 2nd story to/built to a ‘completed state’ w/at least 4 distinct points of ingress/egress /hard to repurpose? All pretty energy inefficient.
Traffic bad and catching your death / serious injury or paralysis on the giant surface streets and people running lights or speeding also likely.
Of somewhat common/modestly sized detached (or nicer parts of NJ, Philly, Baltimore & Montreal row?) housing, all I like is the top ~10% or so of ~1890-ww1 & 1930s housing & street layouts/development patterns, but also you have to keep in mind most people lived in shacks & Hoovervilles in those times, heh?
And that stuff often needs a ton of updates / is old & full of asbestos, lead and god knows what else w/lots of years of previous neglect and poorly conceived alterations.
Insurance companies turning people down for *any* knob & tube wiring (mostly they just don’t want any in the attic that anything could fall on) & do want you to update to arc-fault breakers to minimize spark and fire risk, hopefully dope growers & all of everybody’s modern devices & tenants in slumlorded houses aren’t overloading the old wiring or alterations aren’t hacking and molesting what’s left in the walls…
…tough break for pre-Romex wired houses pre truss roofs even if the bones and foundation are basically solid w/some seismic and other carefully considered and executed updates?
Lots of words. Im still working on the translation.
DeleteIt’s a special dialect of English known as “text message”… The poster prob typed it on a Nokia phone circa 2009.
DeleteThe answer to your "why are they even registered" query, is that the party you support, no matter who's the opposition, in 2016 rammed through the Oregon Motor Voter Act. Hence, the "voters" who are American "nationals", but not citizens, from American Samoa.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your usual racist rant. But as Isaac points out, the districts are set by population, not voter registration. Now go watch your Hannity and snuggle up with your gun.
DeleteThanks, Isaac!
Delete