Why I-522 Did Not Pass (legalizing GMO labels in WA)

I posted this earlier on I-522 but I think I should reiterate it. I am a Libertarian at heart, and part of that is that I believe we have the right to put in whatever we want to in our body, so if we already have certain drugs/explosives (Salt Peter for instance) in our food what's the difference between legalization of every drug and GMO.

Now forgive me if I sound narrow minded and in this post but I do believe that women played a HUGE role in this not getting passed. Young women I have been around and known and talked to either care too much about their own lives to even bother to vote, or just take on the political beliefs of their BF's. Or if they are married, especially older couples, the woman will VOTE EXACTLY as the man, and since they are older they're more conservative in general and will vote NO so we're already at a disadvantage. Later on when I show you my post to prove my point I'll mention how the thought of voting on behalf of my sister (who's 10 years older than me yet doesn't even know that we're voting) has crossed my mine.

Second after women it's the fact that everything is a mail-in ballot. We used to go to our elementary schools, and me and my young friends, who were all male that showed up BTW, got to discuss the issues at hand and have a forum to speak with other people before we hit the voting booths which don't exist anymore. So now if you're a registered voter, which mostly only young intellectual kids take care of (mostly male again). We must use this confusing system and make sure we get it sent in to by the date, and hope that it doesn't go to our parents house by chance and not our new apt, condo, etc...

Third is the older generation as well. Even though I am conservative most older people will follow their hardcore beliefs and make their wives vote the same way... WITHOUT EVEN DOING ANY RESEARCH OR KNOWING WHAT GMO FOOD REALLY IS. I had to describe to my grandma how they make GMO food taking certain genes from flies to implement in corn etc... but she still AUTOMATICALLY hated it.

Anyways here's my original post, and I was kind of heated when I typed it up. So go ahead and read that and go ahead and flame me if you think I deserve it. Especially ALL YOU FEMALE WA VOTERS, if you think I'm being horrible and sexist and not factual, please don't cuss me out but prove it with some numbers of how many YOUNG FEMALE VOTERS voted in this initiative/election whether for or against. I'll bow down gracefully if somebody can give me a good argument. Anyways here's the original heated post:

I'm pissed. I blame the crappy mail-voting as our only option. NOBODY my age signed up to receive a ballot in the mail, or put in the effort to fill it out and send it in. We used to be able to go to my elementary school and meet up with your friends and talk about the issues, now you have this stupid confusing mail-in ballot.

Add to that the ONLY people that put in the effort to send them in were people like my grandparents who live in the same neighborhood as me and are conservative where GRANDMA ALWAYS VOTES THE SAME AS GRANDPA, and it makes sense. ON OUR WAY BACK FROM THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY GRANT EVENT where we watched millions go to young researchers and FOOD was talked about A LOT in studies, my grandma (God Bless Her) was sooo brain washed, on the car ride back she automatically talked about how evil 522 was when she just saw presentations about how food was genetically modified, and how it causes CANCER (like what my Granpa has) down the road. Even when I explained to her that if you look at soup labels you see Na&K Nitrates/ites which are used in EXPLOSIVES as preservatives, and how bad those are for you let alone GMO she just got stubborn and angry...

I knew I should have filled in my sisters mail-in ballot for her and sent it in, I don't care if it was a felony I would just check the box that somebody else filled it out for her and "X" the area where the old invalids do that can't write, nobody would have known.

THE REASON THIS DIDN'T PASS IS BECAUSE OF BRAINWASHED OLD PEOPLE, WOMEN (BECAUSE MOST OF THE TIME THEY FOLLOW THEIR HUSBANDS INSTRUCTIONS ON WHAT TO VOTE FOR), AND MAIL-IN VOTING!!!!

Anyways feel free to call me sexist and flame me if you want, but before you do that please provide some evidence that shows me how many unmarried women 18-40 actually voted in this ballot.

People are worried that they will not be able to afford the extra packaging costs of a penny an item. The companies are telling people that there will be price increases when in fact it would do little if anything to the cost. I don't know how the heads of these companies fighting gmo labeling can be allowed to deceive people so much....oh that's right, this is America land of the freedom to deceive anyone for financial gain without fear of repercussions.

reply to post by Swing80s


Interesting you should mention some of this. I was talking to my grandmother once and she said that she always voted how her husband (my grandfather) voted, regardless of what she believed, etc.

They both were old school conservatives, and my grandfather was a state senator at one point. My grandmother is now liberal, but I always found it interesting, if strange, that she would unquestioningly vote the way my grandfather said or wanted and that she didn't even bother to think—or vote—for herself.

So I can see your points are entirely valid, even now.

reply to post by Swing80s


After this initiative failed I was shocked. Seeing only four counties passed this I went and checked the the population figures for WA by county. While King county is by far the largest (pro-label) when the combined populations of the rural counties are tallied they outnumbered the pro-label population.

Most of those who voted against the initiative seemed to be rural farming communities and would not be supporting this. I guess if you're a farmer you can grow your own patch of non-GMO foods for yourself.

reply to post by Swing80s


It would have been nice to discuss this with you as I myself am pro-labeling, like maybe how the grassroots campaign to pass a labeling initiative was outspent... but I'm a woman and obviously nothing I have to say on this issue or any issue, matters to you one little bit.

Boy, was I naive. According to GMA documents uncovered by the public-health lawyer and writer Michele Simon, Big Food has no intention of laying down its lobbying or campaign finance swords on the labeling fight. Quite the opposite, in fact. Simon got hold of the documents after the Washington state Attorney General's Office sued the GMA for having "illegally collected and spent more than $7 million" to fight the labeling initiative "while shielding the identity of its contributors." To settle the matter, GMA revealed the names of the companies, which turned out to include Pepsi, Coca-Cola, General Mills, and Nestlé USA. Simon told me that she caught wind that the AG's office had obtained the GMA documents during its investigation, and she in turn obtained from the AG's office under a Washington open-records statute. But not before the GMA was given the opportunity to redact portions of the documents.

Mother Jones

I think the main problem was the misinformation that was spread by the no campaigns millions of dollars in advertising. I would have thought elderly voters had more to do with this initiative failing then women honestly.

All of the mail in ballots were read via a scan-tron and who knows if the machines were hacked, it has happened numerous times before. We may never know the real reason why it failed, but we shouldn't just give up on the issue now. We need to keep fighting.

reply to post by Swing80s


If women are all voting the way their boyfriends and husbands are voting then shouldn’t you be blaming the men?

Here is an idea. Maybe most people didn’t vote for it because there isn’t any substantial evidence giving them a reason to.

I think the brainwashed ones are the people who believe the pseud science over the real science. But you are entitled to your own opinion just not your own facts.

Let me get this straight. You blame women for voting the same way their husbands do over the husbands who made the initial decision to vote in a way you disagree with?

Big Ag outspent I-522 proponents by a ratio of nearly 3:1 (source). A lot of people on both sides of the issue are mis- or uninformed about GMO and are easily swayed by advertising. When businesses/groups on one side outspend those on the other by such a massive amount, you wind up with this type of situation.

On the bright side, WA voters are probably, overall, more informed about the GMO issue than they were before.

My initial reaction to your post was that it was sexist, but the truth is, you aren't being sexist, you are pointing out that women should not vote the same as their husbands or boyfriends, you are pointing out that for some reason, women feel uncomfortable participating in the political arena (historically factual, both) -

And then you go on to say that there is an issue with conservatives voting on issues that they do not research (also historically factual) and point out the third issue, where the mail-in ballots (which are the only legal way to vote in Washington) change the political landscape (probably to more online discussions and such, and at the very least resulting in less in-person discussions).

So I read your statement even after initially finding it a bit out there, and think you have pointed out valid points regarding voting methods.

opopanax
Big Ag outspent I-522 proponents by a ratio of nearly 3:1 (source). A lot of people on both sides of the issue are mis- or uninformed about GMO and are easily swayed by advertising. When businesses/groups on one side outspend those on the other by such a massive amount, you wind up with this type of situation.

Jimmy Carter was recently interviewed and discussed how Citizens United, which allowed massive spending by corporations in politics, was one of the worst decisions the U.S. ever made.

I don't think you mentioned that most of the funding for or against the initiative came from out-of-state?

And even for the informed voter, such as the conservative who does manage to do research, or even me, the confused centrist, is the information we find accurate or biased? I believe almost all of it is biased and misleading on purpose. With that being the case, who influences the information the most (since it is not true to begin with, we cannot say logic or science)?

Those with the most money. Who has the most money? Individuals? No. Corporations.

Swing80s

THE REASON THIS DIDN'T PASS IS BECAUSE OF BRAINWASHED OLD PEOPLE, WOMEN (BECAUSE MOST OF THE TIME THEY FOLLOW THEIR HUSBANDS INSTRUCTIONS ON WHAT TO VOTE FOR), AND MAIL-IN VOTING!!!!

Complete absolute nonsense. It was a stupid law that would do nothing positive for you and than goodness most voters saw through the nonsense. It was one of the most idiotic initiatives ever designed--even more stupid than Tim Eyman's (which also lost).

Your statement is also a good example of why 18 year olds shouldn't even have the right to vote.* It's not old people who are brainwashed; it's people exactly like you who believe any conspiracy that comes down the pike. Your theory about women voters is too ludicrous to even call you sexist. It's too stupid with absolutely ZERO evidence. And you admit to wanting to commit a felony? So it's OK to lie and cheat to get your way.

As far as the mail in ballot is concerned, this is by far the easiest ballot ever! There's no excuse not to send it in. You don't have to go anywhere special. You don't have to remember to go on a specific day. You just mail the sucker in. They couldn't make it any easier for you.

What your tirade here has done is show your understanding to be superficial and emotional with no understanding of the facts. When people say, "What's this country coming to?" they are talking about you. The really scary thing is that people like you are allowed to vote at all.

* No. That's hyperbole. There are plenty of considerate well-informed 18-year olds, just not this guy.

I appreciate ALL of your comments, even the ones that are totally blasting me and calling me ill-informed. But yet nobody has showed me the amount of single 18-40 year old females that vote. In actuality I would like to take that ratio to unmarried male voters 18-40 just for a comparison. Once you have that then call me ignorant and sexist. But I knew what was coming and I appreciate all of your replies, whether you hate me or not. I just want a discussion coming up.

And I never implied I was going to commit a felony, I was just saying since soooo many females DON'T vote but their brothers do and they receive all the ballots in the mail, it was tempting for me to do that, as I bet some have...

reply to post by Swing80s

But yet nobody has showed me the amount of single 18-40 year old females that vote. In actuality I would like to take that ratio to unmarried male voters 18-40 just for a comparison.

It’s your OP and you are the one making claims shouldn’t you be the looking up those numbers and presenting them to make your case. Otherwise you are only ranting it is rater ignorant to expect others to provide the information for you. You do know how to use a search engine right?

Yeah I guess it is ignorant and lazy... I'm just using an estimated guess based on my personal experience and history with women in WA. Using family members, gfs, classmates, friends, etc... Have you ever tried to discuss local politics with a female 20something?

reply to post by Swing80s


Yes I have and my experience was nothing like yours.

I'm not even going to waste my energy being offended at this post... And I'm one of those you would blame for this initiative not passing, yet I voted yes on it, and am the major contributing factor as to why both my brother and husband voted yes... So you might want to rethink your reasoning.

reply to post by Piper96


Well I assumed that many liberal females would be voting for this in the first place. But judging that you're a married wife with children then I would surely hope you would be voting. But how many of your single friends that are under 40 even registered to receive their ballots in the mail, or even acted upon them if they got them? I know I'm being offensive, but when you're a male in your mid 20's and you have to explain politics to your college graduate girlfriends it gets a little old after awhile... and makes you wonder if they really even care or not...?

reply to post by schuyler


I like how that you're finally calling me an 18 year old and without any basis other than using just sheer emotion to drive your statements right now. I would love to compare degrees, certifications, and awards with ya sometime buddy! And to be honest I was acting on emotion as well. But at least I have backed up my emotion with easy facts. If you really want to put the burden of proof on me I'll try my best to find the political facts to back my OUTSTANDING claims (If I can even find them anywhere)! But c'mon, how many 20 something year old lady friends do you have that vote as much as possible, especially on an issue this important? And that's only one part of the problem. Maybe we can pull out the statistics of the WA voters somewhere so you can prove me wrong...