Saturday, October 29, 2005

Funny Election Day Mathematics

Although not constitutionally mandated, the United States has long held its elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The why behind such a decision is beyond my personal knowledge, it's just the way we do things. For the most part, the phrase "first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" can be restated as "the first Tuesday in November" because six out of seven times, Monday will come before Tuesday in the month of November.

Not this year! This year election day is the 8th of November because the first day of the month is a Tuesday. Which brings us to the state of Colorado, home of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (a.k.a. Tabor). Tabor is a government growth act adopted by the people of Colorado several years ago which keeps taxes and spending low. Washington State has something similar known as I-601, but it's far more relaxed. The drafters of Tabor, in their infinite, government crippling wisdom, mandated that any changes to Tabor must be put to a vote on... wait for it... the first Tuesday of November.

So Colorado, home of the nation's most restrictive spending limits, must hold its Tabor election on the 1st, and then the state wide elections for every other race on the 8th. Now that's good government spending.

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