Rational voting

Now that election day is right around the corner (tomorrow!), every other political supporter is out there on the streets in full force trying to drum up votes for their nominee. Besides the usual sign bearing, poster holding, brochure passing citizens, there are the anonymous people on the street asking about my political leanings.

While walking down the non-gentrified part of Mission St. (far outer mission) with a friend the other night post dinner, a guy with greying hair and a slight hunch brushed past us before slowing to our pace to ask if we lived in District 11. Yes, there is a District 11 in the city; one that no one's heard of or thinks exists.

"I hope you didn't vote for Ahsha because he's corrupt and will only do harm to our community." he said. My friend just nods at him with the hope he would go away. I, on the other hand, told him I already voted.
"Do you mind me asking who you voted for?"
"I'd rather not say." I said.
"Well, you seem like an intelligent person so I'm going to guess that you didn't vote for Safai."
"right, I didn't actually. I voted for someone else." I replied.
"good, good" he said, before wishing us a nice night and scurried on ahead.

My friend looks at me and announces that she's planning to vote for Safai. Why? I wanted to know. She proceeds to tell me that he seems like a nice person and would make positive changes to our district. She couldn't give me specifics other than he looks like a good person.

Okay, voting based on feelings for a candidate is fine but having nothing to back it up is not the wisest decision. I tend to vote for candidates based on what they have done, not what they say they are going to do. Words hold little weight when there's no action to back it up. In the case of several District 11 candidates, they say what they will do but they lack the credentials or experience to make it happen.

I admit that I make decisions based on feelings, like I did over a week ago, and although the end result was disappointing, I can chalk it up as a lesson learned and never doing it again. But these are candidates we are voting into office for much longer than, say, a four hour period of time on a friday night, but I digress.

Another friend of mine told me he overheard a guy say he wouldn't vote for Obama because he didn't want a black man as President. I was speechless. In this day and age, it's hard for me to realize that there are people still ignorantly racist in the bay area. Maybe I'm sheltered and I don't know what's really going on in the minds of the average American citizen. I suppose everyone has their beliefs, usually based on past experiences and feelings, which they hold onto and vote accordingly. But things change all the time and hard facts remain the same. I wish people would keep an open mind and make sound, rational judgments when voting tomorrow and not go by "gut feelings" or that the candidate appears "nice" in print.