So my boyfriend’s on strike. There will be no clean laundry, no home-cooked meals, and no happy endings until I make this public admission on the SLOG:

I’m voting “yes” on 901, the anti-smoking initiative.

The Stranger Election Control Board, of course, has endorsed a “no” vote on the smoking ban, pointing to the troubling “25’ rule.” This initiative not only bans smoking in bars, restaurants, and clubs, but also within 25 feet of a door, a window, or an air intake—901 bans smoking on city streets and, more troubling, places a new stick in the hands of the SPD that they can use to beat up on bars and clubs.

So if I’m voting for it (see how much I hate smoking, Maggie?), how come the Stranger urged its readers to vote no? It’s like this: the Stranger’s Election Control Board is made up of a half a dozen editorial staffers. (The paper’s publisher also sits on the board but he only votes in case of a tie.) We interview candidates, backers and opponents of initiatives, etc., and then we vote. Not every vote is unanimous. Some times, as with the smoking ban, the vote is split. I was on the losing side of the 901 vote, i.e. I was for it, but I helped to articulate the paper’s case against 901because the paper’s took the opposite position.

Why make this confession now? Well, my boyfriend—he who shall not be named—feels very strongly about the smoking ban, for one, and he also hated reading my defense of the “noâ€� vote position when he knew for a fact that I was voting “yesâ€� on 901.

Is this a case of “do as I say, not as I do”? No, it’s not. The Election Control Board frequently is divided on issues and candidates, and anyone who knows how a board like this works understands that. The Election Control Board dispenses the Stranger’s collective wisdom, for what it’s worth, and the majority rules.

But for my own sake? I can’t stand smoking in bars and clubs and restaurants and I want it to stop—personally, I hope the police the don’t abuse 901, but I can’t say as I much care. I think smoking should be banned on streets, in parks, on beaches—I’m the original anti-smoking Nazi. But mine is the minority opinion at the Stranger.