Santa Clara County’s well-publicized problems with its elections system, manifested glaringly last week for all to see and critique, do not inspire much confidence in the polling setup there.
According to media accounts, it appears to be unfortunate light years behind its far more advanced neighbor to the north, San Mateo County, where election results are uniformly timely, accurate and lacking in controversy.
Fortunately for Santa Clara, there is a sterling resource available nearby for consultation and advice. It can be found in the person of Warren Slocum.
He is the savvy fellow who is primarily responsible for San Mateo’s seamless and exemplary elections setup; he is currently a member of its board of supervisors.
He was elected to that seat two years ago after directing the local Elections Office. So, give this guy a call; it can’t hurt.
Rent control
Those Burlingame residents (and their activist supporters) unhappy about the increasing cost of renting in that town are scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Thursday at the Burlingame United Methodist Church, 1443 Howard Ave.
The stated aim is to consider ways to address what is termed a rental crisis.
Looming over any movement to try to implement some form of rent control, however, is the stark fact that Burlingame voters approved a measure banning such a draconian move a generation ago.
Is another ballot measure designed to reverse that earlier election decision on the horizon? Time will tell.
Blue Tahoe
Heading east across the San Mateo Bridge last week, we noticed a huge recreation vehicle towing a car. The lumbering tandem was in the slow lane motoring along at about 55 miles per hour. On a rear window of the massive RV was this sticker: “Keep Tahoe blue.” The irony was too obvious to ignore.
Lonely places
Back to the election for a moment, some final notes: Of the 122,527 total individuals voting in San Mateo County, just over 61 percent did so via mail-in ballots. The rest voted at polling places, increasingly lonely places on the Peninsula at election time.
Pleasing teasing
Finally, back in Burlingame recently, a hair salon on Lorton Avenue featured this provocative blurb outside its entrance: “We tease to please.” In another context, that could have a bullying connotation. With hair, well, not so much.
John Horgan’s column appears Thursday. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.
