October 20, 2006
Early Voting In Utah
Early voting is going on in Utah now through the day before election day.
Today I went to the Salt Lake county building (2100 S State, South Building) where County Clerk Sherrie Swensen runs a very efficent operation. Even right after noon, the line was just under five minutes long.
When Sherrie Swensen came to our Liberty-Wells Community Council meeting this Spring to talk to the community about new voting machines she told us that voting will take just a little longer than it did on the punch cards and also that the legislature arranged to buy quite a lot fewer of these new machines than she had of the punch card machines they replaced. The result is that there may be lines longer that you are used to on election day so vote early if you can.
You don't need any excuse or special reason to vote early in Utah. Just show up and vote. (Bring picture ID.) The state elections office has a list of early voting sites across the state (warning: link is a PDF file. this Google link is plain text).
I voted early and you should too.
October 16, 2006
Mayor Garn's Endorsement
In the Trib's blog, Heather May reports that former Salt Lake City mayor Jake Garn (1971-1975) is endorsing former councilman Christensen for mayor in 2007.
I don't know if I'd want an endorsement in this particular race from the mayor who presided over the opening of the two downtown malls that sucked the life out of our city center. I'd be especially dubious in the year we finally admit the mistake and knock them down. And I hope the following years will be even more devastating as the better planned replacements revitalize the neighborhood.
