Hold Your Nose and Vote by Tuesday, November 4, 2025

[mithriltabby]

Here are links to the resources I used to figure out how to fill out my ballot. I give my conclusions, and I invite you to come to your own, and I hope this effort saves you a headache. $ means an order of magnitude of money backing a candidate, starting at the thousands, so $$$$ means a candidate has single-digit millions of dollars in their campaign.

This is a special, off-year election, which tends to have low turnout, so your vote will carry more weight than usual.

Nonpartisan Offices

County Assessor

Coverage in the Los Altos Town Crier.

• Rishi Kumar: is campaigning on exempting seniors from property taxes, which is not something that the assessor has the authority to do.
• Yan Zhao. Very well-funded, which is why there are so many signs out there, but lacks experience and is talking about modernizing a system where the modernizing process is already underway.
• Neysa Fligor: endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, Los Altos Town Crier, and Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. My friends in the assessor’s office think she’s competent and the best of the available choices. She’s also the only one who will be qualified on day 1.
• Bryan Do: was not willing to share a résumé with the Mercury’s editorial board and refused to meet with them.

Measures Submitted to the Voters

State

Easy Voter Guide.

Proposition 50: Election Rigging Response Act

Ballotpedia. Republicans are engaging in a naked power grab and doing redistricting in the middle of a cycle— normally, redistricting happens after the decennial census and shouldn’t happen again until 2031. Texas is already gerrymandering to have more Republican seats, Florida is in process for it, and Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and South Carolina are also considering it. Proposition 50 is designed to balance that. If it passes, it will affect the elections in 2026, 2028, and 2030, and then after the next census we go back to our previous nonpartisan redistricting. It only affects representation in DC, not Sacramento. Coverage in CalMatters and the San Francisco Chronicle. Even the Center for American Progress, who support independent redistricting commissions, think it’s important to counter the gerrymandering. The League of Women Voters of California will not take a position.

Supporting	Opposing
$$$$$ Stop Election Rigging Pete Rates the Propositions St. Helena Star Sacramento Bee Courage California Democratic Club of Sunnyvale	$$$$$ No On Prop 50

Yes. While I oppose gerrymandering, I more strongly oppose partisan power grabs; the Republicans in Congress have done nothing to rein in a president who defies the law and has committed dozens of offenses worthy of impeachment and removal. I hope that this might eventually lead to constitutional amendment to prevent gerrymandering in all the states, though plenty of red states are all so thoroughly gerrymandered that they will fight tooth and nail to prevent that.

County

Measure A

Under Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, Santa Clara County is losing a billion dollars in federal funds; if we don’t come up with some way to fund them, hospitals will close and ER wait times in the ones that remain will soar. The biggest countermove that Santa Clara County could come up with that doesn’t require a ⅔ majority is a temporary ⅝¢ sales tax to make up for that shortfall; it goes away in five years. Sales taxes are regressive, which sucks, but having county hospitals close sucks more. This will replace about ⅓ of the federal cuts. Coverage on KQED , the the San José Mercury, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Supporting	Opposing
$$$$ Save Our Local Hospitals San José Spotlight Democratic Club of Sunnyvale

Yes. It’s the least-bad move we have available to deal with the malfeasance in Washington DC.

Comments

[calimac]

Agree on all counts. The way I put the Prop 50 argument is, "I am in favor of nonpartisan redistricting. But I'm not in favor of unilateral nuclear disarmament. If this is a race to the bottom, the only solution is for everyone to give it up, not just one side."

[canyonwalker]

I agree with your analysis. And I point out to people who counter, "Oh, but the only way to end a race to the bottom/mutually assured destruction is for one side to have the maturity/bravery to stop it, unilaterally" is that we already tried that. California, and a few other heavily democratic areas, voluntarily moved to nonpartisan redistricting commissions. While we did that the Republicans, starting at least 10 years ago, moved in the opposite direction, bringing a new level of sophistication to the techniques of gerrymandering. And now, in 2025, they've normalized gerrymandering to the point that the president can openly demand it in national media, and nobody on the political right pushes back.

[wild_patience]

We're with you on all this for the same reasons. We have already voted and I received email from BallotTrax that my vote has been received and counted. I really like using BallotTrax. No more wondering if the ballot has been sent yet or if they've received it.

[merhawk]

As always, thank you for doing this. My ballot is filled out and will be mailed tomorrow.