Fun with the sample ballot

In the official sample ballot sent by the state (or the county, or whichever branch handles it specifically) it includes the arguments for and against each of the local measures. (For the state measures, those are handled in the larger voter information packet.) I admit I'm not entirely sure who gets designated as the ones to compose the text that appears in the booklet, but I'm pretty sure that the content of these arguments is completely up to those offering the arguments. I presume the text is not altered in any way when the text is typeset by those preparing the sample ballots for printing.

I would imagine that when these arguments and counterarguments are constructed by these groups who either oppose or support the initiative in question that some thought and effort is put into crafting them to be persuasive. This text may be the only thing that some voters see to use as the basis for their vote, so it's undoubtedly in the best interest of those who feel so strongly about seeing the initiative pass or be rejected that what ends up in the booklet be as accurate as possible.

In the argument against a city measure, attributed to an individual identified as part of the city's taxpayers association, the opponent seeks to prevent the voters from approving a bond that would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over the next decade and to stop the "reckless spending" of the city government.

In the next-to-last paragraph the text features a sentence noting the city is "currently at its' spending limit."

Yes, that is exactly how it appears in the booklet.

For those who didn't catch it (and because I didn't interrupt the flow of the text with "[sic]" to distinguish what wasn't my error), when making "it" possessive (as was the case here), one simply appends "s" ("its"); as with the possessive of all pronouns, there is no apostrophe. (There is an apostrophe in the contraction of "it is"—but that appears in the middle ("it's") to denote the dropped letter.)

Of course, we could give the benefit of the doubt and suggest this could be an error of the typesetting, and that those who composed the text knew that "its" never has an apostrophe at the end under any grammatical circumstances. However, in the all-important last paragraph, the text implores the voters to "tell the city it needs to prioritize its' [sic] spending" by voting no on the measure.

Okay, I suppose it could be a coincidence that the typesetter goofed again. It's not outside the realm of possibility. But were I asked to place a wager I'd put money on the explanation being that the taxpayers group hires no proofreaders.

Perhaps they're going for that ignorant vote. (Sadly, that is a rather effective strategy.)

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Of course, it is entirely likely that I am in a minority in this. Not only am I perhaps in an uncommon position of knowing the proper punctuation of "its" (i.e., none at all), I am perhaps one of an even smaller group: those who bothered to read the information booklet for a mere city-level measure.

The worst part: I spent all this time dwelling on this error in the text rather than getting any idea whether I support or oppose the measure itself. I still don't know if I'll vote for it or against it.

I have to believe that's not what the person(s) who wrote this argument had in mind when they threw that superfluous apostrophe in there.

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I'd offer my proofreading services were it not for two things: 1) they haven't asked, and 2) these instances provide me with material.

Probably more the second one.

Hey, I'm just being honest.