Election Madness

Over here at 14thandyou, we're big believers in fulfilling your civic duty by voting, even if our Democratic process can seem a little crazy at times.

Unless you've been living in a cave (or perhaps spending too much time hanging out in a local basement), you know that this coming Tuesday you have an opportunity to vote in DC's primary elections, which means a chance to elect DC's next mayor, city council members, ANC commissioners.

The DC Board of Elections has a lot of really helpful information on their website, including a list of polling places, information on early voting (which started last week) and sample Ward 1 and 2 ballots for the Democratic, Republican and Green parties.

But what of the actual races, you ask? Rumor has it that some mayoral race or something is going on, but I haven't heard much about that. There's also an at-large DC Council seat (a battle between Phil Mendolson, Clark Ray, and Michael D. Brown--no not THAT Michael Brown, the other one) and Council Chairmanship (where you have a choice between two colors--Brown or Orange) up-for-grabs. In Ward 1, longtime incumbent Jim Graham is up for reelection, with City Paper-endorsed challenger Brian Weaver nipping at his heals.

At the local level, all of the local ANC seats are will be up for grabs in the general election in November, but only five are contested. Two of the most interesting include Peter Raia's seat on ANC!B and Ramon Estrada's in ANC2B. Borderstan has a great recap of the contested ANC races. In addition to all of the other press, the City Paper has also put together complete endorsements and an interesting 2010 elections poll (sample: How many Vincent Gray supporters are Redskins fans?).

The only people who can't vote in the primary elections on Tuesday? Those who aren't registered members of the Democratic, Republican or Green parties. No worries, though: you can register at the polls if you haven't already.

See you on Tuesday!