In my opinion it is very wrong for just one person, i.e., a county supervisor, to be the deciding vote that completely upends the voting districts in our county. The supervisors adopted the Patten map, which appears to be blatant gerrymandering. I think those in the districts that are adversely affected should file a class action suit. It makes no sense to combine districts that have very little in common and whose aims are at odds with one another. Also, they should realize that trying to sideline whole segments of our population will just make for very active voters who will work hard to replace those who have “done them wrong.”
Shane VerPlanck
Los Osos
This article appears in Dec 2-12, 2021.
I agree wholeheartedly, Shane. Make no mistake about it – we WILL vote out the three republican turds!
This certainly appears to be a blatant attempt at a power grab. It remains to be seen if voters will allow them to get away with it.
Let me explain the principle of districts. The vast majority of the area of SLO county is conservative, with only SLO city and relatively small pockets of the coast being liberal. The county is divided into districts so that each area will be heard, instead of just allowing the densely populated population centers to control the entire county. The Democrats have no right to be allowed to strategically split up their population center so that it is able to overwhelm and control the rest of the county, as that defeats the purpose of having districts in the first place. The SLO City liberals will have to accept that they have no right to run the lives of the rest of the county, no matter how much they feel entitled to do so.
Hate to suggest this, but in a vote among two groups, where one group wins over the other by one vote, it is not a single person’s vote which results in the win, but the vote of all those who are in the winning group.
“Areas” don’t vote or belong to political parties, John. People do. The majority of the registered voters in the county vote Democrat. I guess democracy and majority rule become less important when you’re in the minority. If that’s your position, just say you don’t much like democracy.
“majority rule become less important when you’re in the minority.
“If that’s your position, just say you don’t much like democracy.”
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
and
“Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”
– Ben Franklin.
Perhaps the voters will decide to elect members of the out of power political parties
{AIP, Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom or None at All}
“Ben Franklin never said that. I bet it sounded good on Facebook, though.” – Some Guy.
I knew that Ben Franklin was a pretty forward thinking guy but I never realized that he posted on Facebook. How could he have done so with an old person’s flip phone?
Peschong, Arnold, and Compton clearly do not represent the majority of San Luis Obispo County voters, routinely ignoring the fact that Biden, Newsom, Clinton, and Brown carried the County in the most recent general elections. For that reason, the majority of San Luis Obispo County residents are justifiably outraged by the Three Trumpers’ attempt to redraw and gerrymander the County’s supervisorial districts in order to advance their personal, narrow political interests and lock in their minority views for the next decade.
Understandably, thoughtful County residents are preparing to challenge Peschong, Arnold, and Compton’s power grab attempt in the courts. There may also be another, complementary option: the County’s citizens may petition directly to the State of California to protest the undemocratic plan and call on Sacramento to reverse it. It’s no coincidence that the Founders Fathers enshrined the Right to Petition in the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution because they recognized the occasional tendency of desperate politicians to try to bend our institutions – in this case our County government – to their wrongheaded will.
Fortunately, our State and our County are not republics but democracies. Let the People petition and be heard.