Cascadia today: It's election day in Cascadia + Seattle mayor vetoes RV ban + Portland Book Festival
Good morning! It's election day in Oregon and Washington, so if you haven't already, get those ballots IN A DESIGNATED DROP BOX by 8 pm this evening (Tues Nov 3). If you need last-minute recommendations for who to vote for in Washington state supreme court justices, Cascadia Journal has you covered. I'll be live posting results on Cascadia Journal's Bluesky site at 8 pm tonight, give it a follow if you haven't already:
Cascadia Journal
On election day in Cascadia, eyes on feds for shenanigans
As voters return ballots by 8 pm this evening in Oregon and and Washington (and across the US) all eyes are on what the Trump regime will to to discredit results they don't like. Washington is defying a call last week by the feds to set aside 400 ballots it claims without evidence to be from non-citizens. WA governor Bob Ferguson deployed unarmed National Guard troops out of uniform to monitor ballot boxes.
The folks at Seattle General Strike are organizing Rock the Box events at about a dozen ballot boxes across Seattle today from 4-8, including live music and art activities. Or you could try this classic:
Meanwhile in northern Cascadia, a federal judge dismissed Trump's attempt to pause the US senate election in Alaska because some guy named Dan J. Sullivan is running against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. (Never mind that the GOP has long engaged in similar ratfucking tactics, including that time when TWO conservatives named Bob Ferguson tried to run in the 2024 primary election for WA governor). And really, the scandal you aren't hearing about in Alaska is that 18 remote, mostly Indigenous communities in Alaska that were promised voting machines still haven't got them.
Seattle mayor vetoes RV ban
The Stranger reports that Seattle mayor Katie Wilson has vetoed legislation passed by the city council that would have effectively banned people without shelter from camping in RVs in Seattle. She did sign other bills related to helping folks out who live in RVs. The bill, passed 6-3, would have required those in RVs to obtain a complicated permit. The council has 30 days to decide if it will override the veto.
This is great news. You don't solve homelessness by criminalize one kind of shelter. You do it by offering a lot of social services and shelter options, like Denver is doing, a city that has seen a huge drop in its unsheltered population.
Portland school chief of staff to resign
As if the news wasn't already bad enough for Portland public schools, Willamette Week reports that the district's chief of staff is leaving. Portland schools are in the midst of a contentious process to close up to 14 schools across the city. Speaking of schools, if you haven't already, take some time to read an article at Oregon Journalism Project that details the boom in Oregon's awful for-profit, online K-12 schools, which drain money from rural school budgets and whose students underperform on achievement tests.
BC mine plans to reopen in UNESCO heritage site
We're going to be seeing a lot more articles like this one at the Tyee now that the conservatives are taking power in British Columbia: a copper mine is hoping to reopen in a sensitive UNESCO-designated ecological site near the border with southeast Alaska. Their greed knows no boundaries.
It's time for the Portland Book Festival!
If you're in the Portland area, definitely check out the Portland Book Festival running from Nov 2 - 8 with events across the city. The lineup is huge and includes Tanarive Due, Melissa Albert, Andrew Sean Green, Colin Meloy, and many others.
Thanks for reading! Join me this evening on Bluesky for election results from across Cascadia.
Do you appreciate Cascadia Journal's exclusive reporting on the ways the Pacific Northwest is pushing back against US fascism? If you have the means, please consider a paid subscription of just $5 per month. Each subscription helps me produce original reporting and opinionated notes on Cascadia's fight to build a more resilient and autonomous bioregion. And to those who already subscribe, thank you! --Andrew
