Importance of Voting in PRIMARIES AND General Elections

What the people who don’t vote in a primary but do vote in the general election in November miss is the fact that some of the issues that are critical to them may have representation in a primary but by the time the top two vote getters are selected for November, the positions that are important to voters may no longer be represented.

As noted on Ballotpedia California uses a top-two primary system, in which all candidates appear on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election.

The reality is that by comparing voter registration and eligibility percentages for the last six years between general elections and primaries we see that in 2018 the last time we had a non-presidential election 28.43% of eligible voters determined what candidates would appear on the ballot in November almost 22% less than what voted in the General November election.

California Secretary of State Data Links

(https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2021-recall/sov/04-historical-voter-reg-participation.pdf)

(https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2020-primary/sov/05-historical-voter-reg-primary.pdf )

For example, in the current election for state assembly D21, I am the only candidate opposing SB9 9, SB10 and the whole build, build, build agenda that claim to solve everything including affordability when in fact all it does is further aggravate problems such as sustainability and affordability.

The Senate bills purport to solve housing problems but actually create more. Developers have spent millions in campaign contributions claim that their projects should not be encumbered with the municipal costs that their push for more buildings will create in terms of infrastructure like water and sewers not to mention supporting systems like public transportation and schools. Not to mention that in the midst of a drought when residents are being asked to cut back on water consumption building more homes is simply irresponsible. It is time to fight back and stop these developer giveaways.

Build, build, build proponents refuse to acknowledge that our water, air and other infrastructure is limited and barely supports the current population not to mention grow at the same rate they want to build. Availability is not affordability. Moreover supply-side economics theory that assumes that greater supply will automatically reduce prices has run into the problem that reality does not always conform that simply to the theory. There is also induced demand theory that actually is much more representative of what is happening in the housing market namely if you only build market and luxury homes only market and luxury buyers will be able to participate in the market and so instead what you will get is displacement and gentrification.

Surveys have found that over seventy percent of California residents understand that and oppose SB9 (https://www.housinghumanright....) If you are part of this group, you can’t sit this primary election out. You need to complete your ballot, vote for me Tania Sole and mail in your ballot before June 7th. Sooner is better than later!