This and That

 

On my second trip to town yesterday, I decided to pick up a chicken noodle casserole from Miller's Country Store. 

Since it's close to the old neighborhood, I took a drive down some of the roads near where we once lived. 

While going past my first grade teacher Mabel Kinney's house, the handsome buck above was enjoying lush green grass in her front yard. 

He had a girl friend with him. 

It looks as if nobody lives in the Kinney house right now, so the deer are feeling quite comfortable. 

Mabel and her husband Bill were key figures in our neighborhood telephone system. 

I can remember the days when my parents would go to telephone meetings. 

So, while driving by, I saw an impressive rack of horns and took a brief trip mentally through Memory Lane. 

On my first trip to town, I visited my wonderful medical provider Paige Russell.  We talked about my overactive gut and she gave me pointers for keeping it under control when we travel. 

The great news and definitely the headliner of the appointment was that I registered the lowest blood pressure they have on record for me.

Without details, let's just say the others were high. 

Two different years Paige has given me a piece of paper with instructions to take my blood pressure at home twice daily for two weeks. 

Both times the sheets have gone back to her office with almost every reading in normal blood pressure and downright healthy blood pressure range. 

White Coat Syndrome is definitely part of my MO. 

I am one nervous puppy when I go to the doctor, and, in the past, I've been known to drive around the block several times before having the nerve to show up in a doctor's office. 

No medicine has had any impact on the blood pressure; instead, having a provider with whom I feel comfortable has made all the difference.

After my appointment I received a note that one of my good friends was in the hospital after having emergency surgery. 

So, with Paige's office part of the hospital complex, I went to visit my friend. 

After our brief visit, I walked out and saw the gentleman pictured above. 

Let me tell you Nurse Andy Chapin gives enthusiastic bear hugs. 

I think it had been well over 20 years since I last saw him.  Andy was a student in my English class at Sandpoint High School, as was his father a generation before. 

After spending several years in Hawaii as a nurse, Andy has come back to Sandpoint and Bonner General where he was extremely proud to show me his office. 

He is working as a nursing supervisor and he is thrilled to be back home, working in a setting where many other Sandpoint grads are employed. 

I was thrilled to see him and very proud. 

Welcome home, Andy.  

It was the rain in Spain for Annie today, and the washdown made for beautiful scenery. 

https://adventuregirlannie.com/

A vine-ripened tomato on our front deck.  

Apple time for the horses, below. 

Another deck phenomenon occurred yesterday when the visiting Siamese and our Bridie engaged in a stand-off.  

The cat is not afraid of Bridie and the two keep their distance while maintaining intimidating stares. 

I wish I could get a closeup of this, my tallest sunflower (about 13-14 feet), but it's too far up there to get a good image. 

Below:  from Luke Mayville, co-founder of  Reclaim Idaho and the main force behind the Initiative for Idaho to have open primaries and ranked choice voting. 

I see letters in the paper opposing this system, and often, these letters include misinformation.  

So, as one knows Luke and his sense of integrity, careful thought and intellect, I ask that if you have any doubts about the Initiative to read the following clarifications in response to myths circulating through the electorate. 

Also, please pass on the information below. 

Finally, I'm sorry that there are a couple of graphic glitches below, but every time I retype, a new glitch shows up. This is a cut-and-paste for the sake of time.   

Thank you. 

~~~~~~~~

A new misinformation campaign has formed under the banner of "Secure Idaho Elections." This is a group with close ties to the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee--a committee whose leaders have been spreading lies about the Open Primaries Initiative since Day 1 of our campaign. 

There are at least ten myths about Prop 1 being pushed aggressively by this new group. Let’s go through all ten of them, one by one, and counter each myth with the facts. 

 

MYTH: Open Primaries & Ranked Choice Voting will be difficult or confusing for voters.

FACT: Voting in a Ranked Choice election will be as simple as counting to four. In general elections, voters will simply be allowed to rank up to four candidates by order of preference. A voter can rank just one candidate if they choose.

Utah recently held elections with Ranked Choice Voting in 21 cities. In a survey conducted after the elections, over 80 percent of the Utah voters surveyed said the election system was easy to understand. A 2022 Alaska survey found that 85 percent of Alaska voters viewed the process as “simple.”

MYTH: Ranked Choice Voting violates the principle of “one person, one vote.” 

FACT:  Ranked Choice elections give every voter a single vote and each vote counts equally. 

Under the proposed initiative, a vote is initially counted for a voter's first choice  If the voter's first choice is eliminated in a subsequent round of tabulation, that single vote goes to the voter's next choice. 

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2011 that each ballot in an RCV election is counted as no more than one vote, and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that "there is no question that a ranked-choice vote is a single vote. 

MYTH: It will take 15 days to get election results.

FACT: Ranked Choice results can be ready and released just as quickly as other election results. Some large states like Alaska choose to wait to release ANY election results simply to ensure they have all ballots returned by mail. This choice has nothing to do with ranked choice voting. In Utah, the results of Ranked Choice elections are announced on election night or the morning after. Most jurisdictions who administer Ranked Choice elections are able to release ranked results alongside other election results on the same timeline.

 

MYTH: Ranked Choice Voting is expensive to implement.

FACT: As we’ve seen in states and localities across the country, the one-time cost of implementing ranked choice voting is minimal. In the state of Maine, the cost of setting up ranked choice voting was $441,804, or about 50 cents per voter.

MYTH: Ranked Choice Voting lacks transparency and involves complicated algorithms.

FACT: The “algorithms” involved in counting RCV results are simple addition and subtraction. It’s 3rd-grade math. RCV has been around since long before voting machines, let alone computers. 

MYTH: Ranked Choice Voting elections can’t be audited. 

FACT: RCV elections can and have been audited. A conventional RCV audit requires only a voting system that includes a verifiable paper trail, a voting system that can export a cast vote record (most do), and audit procedures. Risk-limiting audits (RLAs), the gold standard of post-election audits, can also be used with RCV elections. RLAs have been conducted on RCV city elections in Colorado, and for three RCV presidential primaries in 2020. In addition to auditing the machine’s reading of ballots, the round-by-round tally can also be audited via the publication of the cast vote record. 

MYTH: With Ranked Choice Voting, it’s impossible to hand-count ballots.  

FACT: RCV does not require electronic voting machines or computers; it can be counted or verified via hand count. RCV has been around since long before voting machines or computers. 

Examples of hand-counting RCV elections:

• St. Paul, MN and Telluride, CO
• Nationwide elections in Australia, Ireland, and Northern Ireland 
• The Virginia GOP used paper ballots for RCV contests in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and hand-counted a GOP congressional nomination in 2022

MYTH: RCV lowers voter turnout

FACT: There is no hard evidence for the claim that RCV lowers turnout. Some research finds that RCV increases turnout while other research suggests it has little or no effect on turnout. 

MYTH: With Ranked Choice Voting your ballot can be thrown out.

FACT: Ranked Choice Voting counts the ballot of every voter. Just because none of a voter’s chosen candidates win or make it to the final round, it is false and deceptive to claim that their ballot is “thrown out.” 

Under our current election system, voters routinely choose candidates who don’t have a real shot at winning. We don’t say those voters’ ballots were “thrown out” just because they didn’t vote for a competitive candidate.  

These are the facts. During the final months before Election Day, we will organize Town Halls, coffee hours, and door-knocking events across the state. Every opportunity we get, we’ll debunk the myths and make sure voters know the truth about Prop 1.