Although it is now possible for some homeless citizens to vote, they do not find the choices have much to do with their lives. At least one first-time voter sees the ballot as a confusing example of some peculiar ideas. Pacific News Service and NCM contributor Raendi Beamer, 23, is a writer for YO! (Youth Outlook) and lives with her dog, Sheba, on the streets of San Francisco. (photos are available).

I've never voted before, but I went and voted Tuesday, Mar. 7. Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or just like picking out the cleanest of your dirty socks to wear for the day?

There was absolutely nobody on that ballot I wanted to vote for. Most other people I talked to said they felt the same way. What has this world come to when nobody -- not me, not 90 percent of the people I talked to-- liked any of the candidates? We were just picking out the cleanest of the dirty socks.

For the very few homeless people that do vote, the issues are pretty obvious. About half of the people in San Francisco actually register, but only a small percentage actually vote. Do we hear opinions from the ones who are actually affected? We don't need another Mayor Willie Brown or former Mayor Frank Jordan to take away the little housing that is left, or Government Assistance.

It's a Catch-22. In San Francisco, without a job, you can't afford housing, and you can't afford it even with Government Assistance. But without housing, you most likely can't have a job -- you can't get clean enough for most restaurants, offices, corporations.

Anyways, we don't need someone (like Willie) trying to move the homeless around, jail them, take their carts away until they "disappear."

OK, voting. It was my first time, and I found it kind of weird -- the issues and propositions that were on there, so much prejudice, so much discrimination. Like putting 14 year olds in adult prisons, like not allowing certain people to get married -- what's that? If two people are happy and make a commitment to each other, why not? They'll give a marriage license to just about any male/female couple and the craziest stuff happens. But to a real couple, telling them they can't have companionship that's legally real?

And whose idea was it to put a 14-year old in adult prison? You know, I'm just picturing it. I've been there, not in prison but in jail. As an 18, 19, 20, 21 year old, I barely made it through jail. But prison? I don't care how deep a crime is, and these days we've got the very worst of them, but a 14 year old -- think about it, we were all 14 once and did stupid things. I don't know if any of you reading this have ever been to County Jail, but a child that young needs to have counseling, rehabilitation, love, healthy surroundings. Just locking them up, if they survive, will make them harder instead of better.

Voting was very strange because of the propositions on the ballot. Aren't there more important things to concentrate on than who loves whom (Prop. 22, the measure to restrict same-sex marriage), or giving a child a chance at life (Prop. 21, the measure to create stiffer punishment for juvenile offenders) or refusing to give General Assistance to those who are trying to make a better life for themselves (Prop. E, the measure to convert cash payments for the needy to vouchers)?

There are things, people in your backyard that you choose to ignore. People should realize that a lot of homeless people, like myself, just want to get out of this gutter we live in. We're not here because we like it; we're here because society put us here and then turned their backs on us.

But I've gotten way off on a tangent. The subject is voting.

Well, as a young person my first time voting, I could say I found a lot of unnecessary propositions. I voted for Senator and President -- other names were just names. Not having heard anything about them, I skipped them.

Probably like the ones who are counting will skip my vote and me -- not just me, but most people with my perspective.