Election day!

It's election day in Washington. Our primary election is today. Of course, most of us mail in our ballots, so election day occurred a while ago for many. However, Shawn and I were slow to take care of the ballot thing so we did so last night and will mail them in today.

This is our first primary under the top 2 system. Our Democrat and Republican parties sued our state saying that the voter passed top two system violated their rights to A) state which candidate they supported and B) to put one of their candidates on the ballot in November. They lost their case in the Supreme Court earlier this year.

Sure, some areas will end up having 2 candidates on the ballot in November that support the same party, but who cares? If 2 Democrats end up on the ballot in November, isn't that better than having a "show" election between a Democrat and a Republican who isn't going to be elected anyhow? Same for the Republican districts. That scenario of the "show" election reminds me of the NFL playoffs when, almost every season, the real deciding game happens in the last game of the playoffs and virtually everyone knows who is going to win the Super Bowl. Boring, waste of time...which is why the NFL spends so much time promoting the commercials each year rather than the game. Sadly, most political commercials are not as entertaining.

Suffice to say that I like the top two primary system. Also, it turned out that there weren't many instances on our ballots where more than one person supporting one party were running anyhow. My state Senate race featured one candidate "favoring the Democrat party" and one candidate "favoring GOP". Safe to say that in November we'll be voting for the same 2 people. Interesting thing about that race - I don't like either candidate. Both are corrupt, bought and sold politicians. The Democrat being slightly better than the Republican. I wish that I had more choice in that race. Note also that the Republican doesn't have the guts to own her party affiliation. It's a tactic being widely used in Washington this cycle - claim the GOP rather than Republican. It hearkens back to better days and doesn't associate with that nasty Bush/Cheney regime. Since McQueeg will be trounced here anyhow the members of his party have no problem disassociating themselves from him.

Other races had more than one candidate. I saw several "favoring Democrat party" in the governor's race. Since our governor is a Democrat we know who the party is supporting in that race. I also had no problem picking out the Republican candidates, especially for offices such as Secretary of State (since the sitting candidate is a Republican). I even voted for members of both parties, supporting their desired candidates despite the party's worries that I wouldn't be able to do so.

Well, with the election upon us, I had to think of what to serve for dinner last night. I picked some cauliflower and made soup, seasoning it with white wine and dill weed. Fresh from the garden goodness. I served it with toasted French baguette slices topped with fresh mozzarella, basil, and fresh from the garden tomato slices. Yum! And what all-American election night meal be without apple pie? Yep, that was dessert. I bought a variety that I hadn't seen before: Transparent. It was grown in Washington and the sign at Yakima Fruit Market suggested that it would be good in sauces and pies. I made a pie crust using, for the first time, the food processor (saved time and was a better crust to work with, actually). While the dough rested in the refrigerator, I peeled and sliced the apples, mixing them with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and Amaretto. The apples rested a bit before I put them in the bottom shell and then added a lattice topping, a little more sugar and a little more cinnamon. It turned out really well, though the apples were still a bit crisp.