A San Diego resident said voting in this election is not only vital to determine the next president but also to legislative control in his home state.
The executive vice president of a Convention of State project and owner of a San Diego-based independent dealership said the 2020 presidential race is of particular importance.
“I think it’s very important,” San Diego resident Mike Ruthenberg said in an interview with the San Diego Record about the 2020 elections. “I think it will determine the direction our nation goes.”
Ruthenberg’s perspective about the importance of voting seems representative of trends nationwide where more than 49 million people have voted early, the U.S. Elections Project reported, mainly because of COVID-19 fears and policy changes.
In California, where early voting is underway, 5,802,511 people have cast their ballots as of Oct. 23, according to U.S. Elections Project statistics,
As someone who is fiscally and socially conservative, Ruthenberg said he is concerned about the influence the executive branch can have on the country’s direction.
He told the Record that his views influenced his involvement in the Convention of States project.
“I have dedicated a big part of my life to returning our nation back to the principles that our founding fathers intended for this nation,” Ruthenberg told the Record. “If we have a liberal president, I think we diverge, more greatly, from the direction that I believe we should be headed.”
Ruthenberg said he sees a “real danger” of the people losing more control to politicians who want that control.
But Ruthenberg said he is also mindful of how his vote can affect local issues, such as Proposition 22, which seeks to define app-based delivery drivers and rideshare operators as independent contractors.
Ruthenberg told the Record that the vote would repeal a California Assembly bill that has forced those people to be employees rather than contractors.
“It has been devastating to the California economy,” Ruthenberg told the Record.
Yet, Ruthenberg said that, as much as he would like to see the legislation repealed, the ballot initiative has been pushed by large companies such as Uber and Lyft, and leaves the smaller industries without the money to fund a ballot initiative out in the cold.
“That’s why I believe full-repeal of AB 5 would be a better solution than this Proposition 22,” he told the Record.
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