This Year’s Powerful El Niño May Preview California’s Climate Future
Flooded highways. Inundated airport runways. Water-filled neighborhoods. Beaches washed away. All of these impacts, and more, could take place this winter as El Niño continues to unfold.
Several new reports this week suggest that El Niño’s effects this winter — flooding from temporarily high seas and potential storms — foreshadow a future shaped by human-caused climate change.
“This is really a preview of the near future,” said Fraser Shilling, director of the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis. “We can think of it as training wheels. This is what’s coming down the road, and we really need to figure out how to deal with it.”
Shilling published a special report highlighting the areas of the state he’s most worried about during El Niño conditions. His concerns span the California coast — Southern California cities already battered by waves, San Luis Obispo, parts of the Bay Area, Stinson Beach and Humboldt Bay.
Right now, voters are asked two things when there’s a statewide recall: Whether an official should be removed from office, and who should replace them.
If Prop. 5 passes, voters would only decide whether or not to remove the official.
The vacancy would be filled later through a special election or an appointment.
If the Governor is recalled, the Lieutenant Governor would step in until the next election.
Supporters say this amendment would create a fairer system for voters to choose who governs them.
Opponents say changing the current recall system would be costly because it would require a second election. And, for officers lower than the Governor, it would keep the post vacant and people without representation.
With voting for the Nov. 3 election underway, a Santa Cruz elections official is highlighting her term for a safe, secure way to return your ballot that might make you blush.
At an elections event in Santa Cruz, county Clerk Tricia Webber ran through some ballot return options before blurting out a personal favorite:
“Or, they can vote naked.”
“Naked voting” has nothing to do with clothes, or lack thereof. It’s when a voter turns in their marked-up ballot at an in-person voting location. Voter? fully clothed. Ballot …
“ The ballot itself is naked because it’s not inside its envelope,” said Webber.
“ Santa Cruz can get away with a naked ballot,” said Monterey County Registrar of Voters Gina Martinez. “Monterey County, we’re going to say ‘vote live.’ You can vote your vote-by-mail ballot live.”
Either way, the voter provides their name and address and verifies each with a signature before handing the ballot over to an election worker.
Naked — or live — ballots are processed more efficiently than ones that arrive in an envelope. Martinez and Webber are fans because voters can still fill ballots out at home and yet end up saving time for their busy staff.