Just turned on Hardball and heard Matthews note that the Republican party has not won a Presidential election without a Bush or Nixon on the ticket since 1928, and that reminded me that I forgot to mention that I voted today. I will be traveling on the 4th, so I figured I might as well go in and get it over with.
I am of mixed minds on early voting. While I really like the idea of making voting more available to everyone, and I understand that people’s schedules in the modern era make it difficult to vote on a specific day, there is still a part of me that really enjoys waking up on election day, having my coffee, going to my polling station and hanging around talking to people while waiting for my turn to vote. Not to sound all syrupy, but it just feels like a profoundly American thing to do, and I think the practice of voting is good for the country. It is one day to do your civic duty. It should be something people look forward to doing and treasure, and part of me thinks that early voting strips away some of that sense of community.
At any rate, the early voting in our area is set up in an old Wal-Mart on the other side of town, and the whole thing was quick and painless. I was in and out in under ten minutes. There was a steady stream of voters the entire time I was there, and I think there is going to be massive turn-out this election.
Other than Obama, I voted for the Mountain Party candidate Jesse Johnson for Governor. He does not have a chance in hell of winning, and Manchin is polling around 75% to win, so I figured I would encourage a third-party candidate. We need more parties, not fewer.
Down ticket there were not many competitive races, and my mother and I both refuse to vote for someone running unopposed, so there really were not many races to choose. A couple local races had candidates from both parties, but most of the folks were Democrats running unopposed. WV will probably go to McCain, but otherwise it is going to be a Democratic month in November.
I never imagined I would vote for a Democrat for President, but it sure was fun. Still waiting on the check from Soros and the virgins, damnit.
*** Update ***
Why, Oliver? Why?
MikeJ
Re the virgins: offer not valid after the victory party on the 4th. I doubt there will be many left.
paradox
What’s the big deal with an unopposed candidate?
r€nato
Congratulations on taking a walk on the wild side. The GOP likely will learn next to nothing from the coming electoral tsunami; I’m sure that your inner curmudgeon will have plenty of GOP stupidity to gripe about for years to come, and let’s all hope that the inevitable Democratic stupidity will be confined to shit that doesn’t rape the Constitution, bankrupt even further our treasury, or involve us in even more pointless wars.
I’m thinking they’ll have their hands so full fixing all the shit the GOP has busted, they won’t have time to flirt with Congressional pages and work up printed bribery menus for lobbyists.
scott
Your cherry’s been popped. Congrats…I think.
Like you, I don’t vote for unopposed candidates. Unlike you, I don’t think we need more parties, that is unless we change to a parliamentary system of gubmint.
At the nauseating local level, I will vote for Repups since at my bumfuck, 13,000 people-county level, both Dems and Repups are equally dumb shits and incompentent.
paradox
Niiiiiiiiice, I haven’t left a comment since the re-design and there’s five minutes to edit a comment! Far out!
Sorry to wander off-topic, but I wanted you to know that video via Andrew Sullivan of the soldier greeting his dogs after 14 months in Iraq moved me deeply, I really don’t know why.
Ever since then I make sure to give our cats and dog a special moment or period of attention every day. I didn’t know dogs could miss and grieve like that.
It seems stupid, they’re just pets, but it’s the way I am.
John Cole
@scott: Ironic spelling fail.
The Moar You Know
Gotta agree with you, John. I get out of work reasonably early, so I always head down to my polling station (right down the street) afterwards, and stand in line and vote. I know it’s anachronistic in this day and age, when you can early vote, or do the absentee ballot, but in San Diego it’s always nice weather and it’s fun to stand around, meet the neighbors, and do your civic duty.
Not My Fault
I voted by mail a few days ago. I went to permanent absentee status the year I had a last minute business trip and didn’t get to vote.
While I really like the convenience, it is the loss of the secret ballot that bugs me. My ballot is clearly marked as mine. If it weren’t for that problem, I’d say that the states should push vote by mail as a way not to have a didaster at the polls.
The last time I voted in person (using tek-know-lo-GEE!), there seemed to be barcodes on everything that could conceivably be marking my ballot as mine. Maybe the secret ballot is dead all over.
jake 4 that 1
CHEATER!1eleventy
/Palinoid
Actually, I envy you. If I could get it over with now, I would.
Unless fReichtards come to my neighborhood on the 4th to start some shit. I’d hate to miss that.
PeakVT
there is still a part of me that really enjoys waking up on election day, having my coffee, going to my polling station and hanging around talking to people while waiting for my turn to vote.
As do many other America-hating liberals, I think election day should be a national holiday. Maybe it will happen if the Dems reach 60 in the Senate.
carsick
I’m in Ohio and beyond the virgins, Soros offered us actual gold bars (the dollar’s value fluctuates too much these days) so I took the option that only offered 7 virgins because it included more gold. At 45, without the little blue pill, I wasn’t sure of the value of more virgins. He said they’d all be hot – though I’ve only seen Tuesday. He assures me Friday and Saturday will be just as good looking as she is though.
Bet you wish you were in a battle ground state now!
Notorious P.A.T.
I hear ya, except for the coffee part. But look at it this way: the earlier you vote, the more chance you have to find out if some Republican ratfcuker is trying to disenfranchise you, and correct it.
Davebo
Did you just admit that your mother took you to vote???
comrade scott
scott above is me, comrade scott. wtf happened? It’s in my "leave a reply" name. Most likely, operator error. I miss the days when we could blame everything on wordpress.
I can’t spel. Six years of college even.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
If I have to choose between secret and paper trail, I’m going with paper trail.
flyerhawk
I loved that Oliver Willis vid.
"How long until we nuke Iran? Experts say it could be as early Saturday around lunchtime"
Awesome.
cleek
i voted yesterday, and had the pleasure of being able to vote for someone that i actually knew before she ran for office (before she was a judge, she was a lawyer, and she represented my S-Corp in a couple of things). it turns out she’s actually a good choice for judge, too.
so, if anyone in Wake Co, NC is looking for someone to vote for in the Wake Co district court race, allow me to recommend Judge Christine Walczyk.
comrade scott
We shouldn’t hafta choose.
We can build nukelar submarines, send a vehicle to space and return it to Earth and send it up again and yet, our voting system remains mired in the 19th century.
EddieInCA
The Oliver Willis video should have it’s own post, John.
It’s.
That.
Good.
Far Left American Hater Incertus
I’m also a fan of the tradition of voting on election day, but I’ve gotten spooked by voting problems. I stood in line for four hours on the first day of early voting because I figured if something went wrong, I could get it worked out in two weeks. I like that option.
Krista
Good for you, John!
And regarding voting, I’m still a fan of the good old paper ballot, counted by hand. It tends to work well. But in a country where electoral fraud seems to be a big issue, I can definitely see the value of having a receipt of sorts, confirming your vote.
SamFromUtah
Still waiting on the check from Soros and the virgins, damnit.
Why do the virgins owe you money?
The Grand Panjandrum
The Army eliminated my desire to stand in any line ever again. It’s been early voting or absentee for me for many years. Standing in line with my neighbors and talking to them? No thanks. Its time that could be well spent snarking in comments at Balloon Juice or getting drunk.
On election day I will be driving people to the polls so they can vote. (Only way to vote early here is by absentee, which is exactly what I did.)
mannemalon
Matthews skewers Pfotenhauer over Palin
Stuck in the Funhouse
Well, you can still do that if there’s early voting. The lines might be a little shorter but the coffee should be fresher. Voting Day should always remain for those who wish to experience it, but the more people who vote the better and I would like to see more mail in voting allowed in states, and better trained persons to avoid so many screwups. Something is very wrong when people have to wait in line for 8 or 10 hours on election day like last time in Ohio, with similar waits occurring now in FLA, and for early voting no less.
Notorious P.A.T.
Heh heh. I’m thinking of the kinds of things you stand in line for in the Army, and I don’t blame you.
Ted
For the judgeship votes I know nothing about, I always vote against the men and for the women on the ballot. I figure the state judiciary surely still needs to be balanced out in that regard, at least in my state.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Hurry up and wait, the eternal Army conundrum.
Comrade Jake
OT, but check out Chris Matthews take Nancy Poopyhead to the woodshed. FTW!
C
I’d be more comfortable with that if the candidates weren’t up for putting creationism into local schools, or allowing pharmacists to refuse to distribute birth controll pills, regardless of the reason for use.
I want to see them fail on the local and national level over and over until they get their act together, or a viable third-party option shows up.
DougJ
Still waiting on the check from Soros and the virgins, damnit.
You’re in the wrong party, pal.
Cris v.3.1
I also agree that the decorum and the ritual of Election Day is a pleasure. I made a point of taking my two-year-old son to the polls with me during the primary, and will do the same in two weeks.
I’m not too worried about showing up to find my name was scratched from the voter rolls, because I’m in a Republican-leaning county in a Republican-leaning state.
Comrade Jake
Just posted over at TPM:
All I can say is, BUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
r€nato
you *did* remember to specify the sex of the virgins… right? ‘Cause otherwise you might be in for a rude surprise on Nov. 5th.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Too funny, Lawrence O’donnell just spanked Buchanan into chunk of blabbering jello on the whole socialism garbage.
r€nato
how mavericky of McCain to blame Palin for McCain making a completely last-minute, unvetted, ‘from-the-gut’ choice of a running mate.
Oh wait… blaming everybody but yourself, that’s SOP for the GOP.
The stock market may be tanking but I have this bit of sound investment advice: go long on popcorn. The GOP is going to spend the next few years devouring itself.
Conservatively Liberal
In Oregon we have a paper trail, a secret ballot and mail in voting. The state sends us a ballot, a ‘secrecy envelope’ to put the marked ballot in, and an envelope to put the ballot/secrecy envelope in which has your name, address and a line for your signature.
We got our ballots a few days ago (wife, daughter and self) and we are going to mark them and then lay them out to take a picture of before sending them in. I want a picture of the marked ballots because this is a historical election and I want a record of our vote to put with the other Obama/Biden stuff that I have collected.
I like that early voting/mail voting screws with any party trying to influence the election a day or two before it happens by dropping some bomb on the other candidate and not giving them time to fight back.
Dennis - SGMM
I was aghast at Palin’s answer. The "in charge of the Senate" part revealed that she had absolutely no idea of our government works. I shudder to think what her answer would be to "What is the job of the president?"
I have been disappointed by politics over the years but the fact that this vacuous, ignorant, zealot should be the candidate of any American political party is in the first rank of disappointments. It’s obvious at this point that no one is in charge of the Republicans.
r€nato
in light of all the manufactured hullabaloo about voter fraud, you know what’s screwy about mail-in balloting? It makes it VERY easy to exchange money for votes! I’m not saying it happens, but it is VERY possible. At least with the polling place, the secret ballot is strictly enforced. Mail-in ballots have no secrecy whatsoever. Where’s the GOP outrage over that?
In my state at least, the way the Voter ID laws are written you can hand-carry your mail-in ballot into any polling place in the county on Election Day, without the need to show ID!!! Where’s the GOP concern for the integrity of the election on that one?
you know what’s even more disappointing? The number of people who are not completely insulted by the Palin pick. True, a lot of people have seen Palin for what she is, but there’s still a substantial number of GOP voters who apparently don’t understand how stupid their party leaders think they are.
jake 4 that 1
@r€nato: Maybe he’s trying to appeal to the TalEvans. "That wicked temptress made me pick her for Vice President!"
If he gets on teevee and starts blubbing "Ah have seeeeyund!" I will need oxygen.
John S.
That was absolutely brutal, though well deserved.
Word to the wise, Nancy: When somebody says that the VP is "in charge of the Senate", there is no defending them without being mocked and ridiculed.
Tsulagi
I do the same. A bonus is at least it speeds it up a little not having to spend any Google time in advance seeing who two different candidates are running for a council seat, dogcatcher, or whatever. Even for minor offices I refuse to vote for someone I know nothing about or blindly vote a straight party ticket.
Have my ballot, but I’ll still wait until the 4th before turning it in.
To be Top Maverick! Duh. To look at all those buttons you’re itching to push and think “what would a maverick do?!.” Then do that.
Soylent Green
Plainly she got as far as the part in her copy of The U.S. Government for Dummies where it says the VP is President of the Senate, put the book down, and thought "cool, I get to boss the Senate around, then when the old fart croaks, the whole country."
Conservatively Liberal
I agree with that but we don’t have that kind of problem in our house. I have no idea what penalties are imposed on someone paying (or being forced by threat of job loss) for votes, but I would like it if it was something like 10-20 years in prison (per offense). Hanging a penalty like that over someones head (voter or employer) would make it far less attractive.
I like vote-by-mail and as long as the mailing envelope is opened and the secrecy envelope tossed in a pile to open later, our votes remain private.
HumboldtBlue
Umm, didn’t Reagan win a presidential race or two?
Soylent Green
Yes, and Bush the elder was on the ticket.
HumboldtBlue
Oh, and what about Eisenhower?
HumboldtBlue
OK, I got it, on the ticket, misread it.
Soylent Green
The ticket includes the VP.
cain
@Conservatively Liberal:
Are you voting for prop 61 regarding the whole tougher incarceration stuff? i’m totally rejecting it. It’ll cost me a shitload of money in taxes. Grow the damn prison system and then add nothing to reduce the load? FAIL,. I don’t even have to be a weepy liberal, I’ll look at it as a guy who has to pay taxes.
That fuckhead Bill Sizemore is also at it again. May a thousand fleas molest his shithole.
cain
tavella
Me too. California has early voting, but I’ll do it election day because of the buzz it gives me.
I even liked when I was a little kid — my mom would take me down to the polls and then usually leave me with our local precinct head so that I could run around and hand out literature (staying 40 feet from the entrance, of course!)
The Moar You Know
More of this, please.
Fulcanelli
@mannemalon: Where was Tweety’s passion for a strict, literal interpretation of the any part of the constitution when Bush and especially Cheney used it for toilet paper?
First, by giving "Ava" Bachmann enough rope to hang herself, and then pwning Pfotenhauer with the "Palinization" of the constitution… He mght earn back enough mojo to legitimately call his show Hardball. Better late than never.
He must be have had a visit from the ghost of Tip O’Neill.
gbear
@Ted:
Oooh, Ted, I hope you don’t live in MN. There are a LOT of women like Michelle Bachman running for lower level offices around here. Total batshit wackos.
I have to admit that one of my methods of choosing judges is to vote for the candidate who’s signs are in the front yard of people who also have Obama and Franken signs. The community newspaper will also have a good voter’s guide.
Pastafarian
I voted yesterday in a suburb of Dallas. Wait was about an hour at lunchtime. Everything ran pretty smooth and the line moved slowly but consistently. My county uses both the electronic machines and the scanners with paper ballots. The thing I like about the scanners is that there’s still a paper record in case of a recount.
I voted the Straight Dem party line except where there was no Dem running, and then I voted Libertarian. The unopposed Repubs I left blank, because fuck them. Like John Cole, I’m a reformed Republican that Bush, Cheney, and Rove drove out of the party. The major difference is that the rush to war in Iraq drove me out about three years earlier than John. I voted for my first Democrat ever in 2002, Ron Kirk for Senate (lost to Bush’s crony Cornyn) and haven’t looked back since.
jcricket
There are so many reasons that, for right now, all-vote-by–mail is the best system. No long lines, no broken machines, no touch-screens, no fake roadblocks, no checks on your clothing, no voting line intimidation. Drastically reduces the power of the smears/robocalls that the police will be there to arrest you (when "there" is your house). If it’s "all" voting by mail it reduces the system complexity of having to set up, staff & maintain all the polling places. If you implement the central counting system correctly you have transparency, oversight, etc. Oh yea, optical scan ballots are paper trail built-in, human-readable, and so on. You can also read your favorite pamphlets or web sites while you are voting if you need more info on the issue. Plus the convenience seems to increase turnout. Reduces the power of last minute ad blitzes (which I like). Is distributed (by the nature of the mail system) – which reduces the power of someone to steal a whole large batch of votes.
And it has the added benefit of frustrating the networks who can’t do easy "exit polling" :-)
Out of all the available systems now, it seems like the best, short of 100% secure Internet-based voting.
To me the biggest problem is the optical scan ballots themselves have a high spoilage rate (relatively). Spoilage being accidental over or under-voting, stray marks causing unreadability, etc. This can largely be solved if people could "print" a "perfect" ballot at home via a web site. It could still use the sooper-sekret security envelope, but if you could just go to a web site (that didn’t keep your data stored anywhere), fill out the ballot and check for "errors" ("did you mean to leave the Presidential vote blank?"), and then print something that’s both human and machine readable, you’d eliminate that problem.
BTW – the whole "people can buy your votes" thing seems a bit far fetched. Sure, theoretically it could happen, but there is no evidence it is, lots of evidence it isn’t and distributed vote fraud (having to contact all these people, watch them fill out their ballots or ask for copies, etc.) seems pretty silly to me.
Couple the all-vote-by-mail system with some other common sense election system reforms (better statewide voting databases, higher penalties for bogus/false registration challenges, easier registration) and you’re 90% of the way to the perfect system.
The GOP has been fighting efforts to make voting easier and more accessible for 60 years. If, at some point, we’re all "vote by mail" and the GOP finds some way to corrupt that system, then maybe we’ll make some changes.
jcricket
I did this, for the first time ever. I don’t generally vote Republican, but there were a couple I made exceptions for (supposed moderates in the WA state AG and SoS positions). No more. Anyone who is "moderate" who remains a Republican is simply providing cover for the hatred that drives the Republican party. Even in WA state (GOP is tame compared to Texas) the GOP is officially (by the party platform) anti-environmental, reflexively anti-tax and anti-choice.
When the GOP party platform stops being so odious, perhaps I’ll reconsider my blanket ban.
zhak
Good to know that Matthews is either still in the tank for the Republicans, or totally suppressing certain Republican presidents. There was Eisenhower, who was hardly chopped liver (the last good Republican president). & Reagan.
John Cole
@zhak: You might want to check into who served as Ike’s VP.
dmsilev
"On the ticket" includes the Veep, so Nixon and Bush I eliminate Ike and Reagan respectively. Hoover is correct.
-dms
MMM
Jesse Johnson will surprise you – he will be the next Governor of the great state of West Virginia.
WVU can give former Governor Manchin an honorary degree as a going away present; hell, give his daughter one as well.
NonyNony
@jcricket:
Yeah. I used to vote the candidate regardless of party. But I’ve been voting straight-ticket Dem ever since the Republicans decided to go insane in 2000. When W won the primary it was a giant "forget it – until this party cleans its act up I’m not voting for another GOP candidate for dog catcher" moment for me. For some reason, W getting the nomination was as insulting and crazy to me as the Palin nomination seems to be this year for a lot of people.
It doesn’t hurt that the Republicans have made it very, very easy to vote against them lately. There wasn’t a single Republican worth voting for on my ballot this year. They were all either anti-tax nutjobs that infest this state or they were religious weirdos.
Delia
With the Oregon ballot you sign the outside envelope — the one that you mail. When you register to vote they put your signature on record, so they check the signature on the outside envelope against that signature, so election officials know who sent the ballot in. There’s also an inner "secrecy" envelope that"s optional. You can use that one to protect the anonymity of your ballot. I choose to do it.
I voted today. I dropped mine off at one of the secure ballot boxes around town. I voted against all the idiot Sizemore initiatives and the prison initiative. Now I won’t get phone calls from the Democratic Party reminding me to turn in my ballot.
Chuck Butcher
As an Oregonian I wonder why it is that the rest of you spend so much time thrashing about trying to solve something we’ve shown how to solve. I’ll spend as much time filling out my ballot as I choose and inconvenience no one. I will have my secrecy and a paper trail. When the County Clerk gets my envelope my name will be stricken from the SoS list of voters not yet voted and the commercial and party buyers of that list will leave me alone.
I know that the list is updated daily except weekends since I have full access to it due to various political positions and no, my usage is strictly for explicit purposes.
I don’t like 57 or 61 but political reality is that one will pass and I’d rather 57 so I vote for it and hopefully out poll 61. Freaking Sizemore and Mannix assholes.
comrade scott
I agree. At least here in East Anklescratch, Misery, the local pols aren’t of that ilk. We elect them to see who can least mismanage the county gubmint–no social agenda even tho I live in pro-birth single-issue ghettoland.
To date, all of em have sucked–it’s just how much suckitude each one demonstrates.
r€nato
I agree that this is likely not happening in the real world; however, neither is the ‘vote fraud’ which the GOP is manufacturing outrage over. There is a lot more potential for abuse in the mail-in ballot system than there is with ACORN paying poor people to register voters, which sometimes leads to fradulent voter registrations.
This also begs the question – if the GOP truly believes ACORN is trying to commit voter fraud… would it not be much more effective to actually pay poor people to hand over their mail-in ballots, fill them out for them and mail them in? This would be a lot more effective than voter registration fraud, which seldom if ever leads to an actual fraudulent vote being cast.
Conservatively Liberal
@cain:
We are all voting for the first two measures and no on everything else, most of them with Sizemore’s fingerprints all over them. Sizemore can get fucked in the ass with a dry corncob smothered in Icy Hot.
jcricket
In WA state they sort of "fixed" that by having a flap you seal over your signature (which is still on the outside envelope, not the inner, secret envelope).
More blue states need to go no-fault absentee voting, which is the first step in all-vote-by mail. People will "vote" their preference by signing up absentee in large numbers, which eventually pushes the state to move to all-mail voting. Or all male-voting. I forget which :-)
SamFromUtah
@NonyNony: For some reason, W getting the nomination was as insulting and crazy to me as the Palin nomination seems to be this year for a lot of people.
That’s probably because it was insulting and crazy. It should have been to everyone.
jcricket
It’s not about what’s effective or what’s real for the GOP. It’s all about how can they can disenfranchise people, especially poor & minorities.
Whether it’s raising questions about voter registration, setting up police blockades, sending our smear letters with false claims about voting day/rules/traffic tickets – it’s all about suppressing the vote.
When more people vote, Democrats benefit, so Republicans have used the same wedge politics BS to manufacturer an issue where there shouldn’t be one (i.e. people who honestly care about voting integrity do not give a rats ass about ACORN or whether you wear an Obama t-shirt).
Again, this is why Democrats need to drastically reduce the ability of Republicans to use their vote suppression tactics. Don’t make it a central part of their first 100 days or anything, but don’t wait around for the next election either. There are a zillion structural things that Democrats can do, with majorities in blue states, that increase voter turnout, decrease suppression and increase true accountability and oversight. This kind of thing could reap even bigger rewards for Democrats than any other kind of reform I could imagine.
Left Coast Tom
The first part, of course, is personal preference. The second part is a proscription as to what others ought to do, as well as how they ought to do it. I treasure my vote. I mailed it in a couple days ago…no excuse permanent absentee (CA).
Tom.
r€nato
A friend who is well-tuned-in to the way our county runs elections, says it is totally FUBAR. Everyone there has been there way too long, including the woman at the top who has been County Recorder for like 20 years and keeps getting re-elected because she is GOP, she keeps her mouth shut and nobody knows what is really going on there. The voter rolls are chock-full of people who no longer live in our state or are dead, in prison, mentally incapacitated, etc. We are a Voter ID state, yet the training they give poll workers is a joke. She told me they spent a lot of time training poll workers on what to do if a voter faints while in line, and no time whatsoever telling them how to help a voter cast a provisional ballot, which is required if a voter does not have proper ID. They spent very little time training them in the basic ins-and-outs of when ID is required to vote, and when it is not. Apparently there have been instances of poll workers demanding ID for early voting and it’s not required for that.
Ideally we would just overhaul our voting system. There would be same-day registration; you should be able to register to vote when you do basic things which people do when they move to a new address, like turning on the power or getting a phone line. There are probably other ideas out there. Voter registration would not be left up to ACORN and political campaigns. All vote-counting machines would be required to have a paper trail; no e-voting without a receipt!
Unfortunately, the opportunities for shenanigans by self-interested parties would be fairly great so I don’t see that happening anytime soon, if ever.
r€nato
We all know what it’s really about; I’m just pointing out how silly the GOP’s manufactured outrage would seem, if only more people would stop to think about it (especially those in the media who interview douchebags like John Fund and treat them like they really are genuinely concerned about vote fraud).
Matt
I voted at the old Walmart on Monday. I wanted to go rollerskating in there. In front of me were two guys who were loudly talking to each other about how they couldn’t wait to get a new administration in power. Then the guy behind me in line couldn’t help himself and started talking to me about how he couldn’t wait to vote for Obama and said that his older brother (this guy was in his forties) registered to vote for the first time just so he could vote for Obama. As this was going on an older woman was skipping away from the voting machines proclaiming how she’s never been so excited to vote. It was a surreal experience in Morgantown.
Oh, I voted for Jesse Johnson as well. Went to the Gubernatorial debate at South Middle School on Tuesday night. He seemed like a nice guy who was a bit out of his depth, definitely didn’t look like a politician next to Manchin.
cain
Cheers! I join you in that opinion that Sizemore can fuck himself. Every time I see his name, I get enraged.
cain
cain
@jcricket:
Here’s the thing, there is nothing stopping me from taking your money to change my vote and still vote the same way I wanted. It would be like getting money for free. It would be a double fraud!
cain
cain
Yeah, no on sizemore crap and i was leaning towards 57 only because it has something for reforming prisoners. Otherwise, I think both of them crap. But I agree it might be that one of them will pass…
cain
theturtlemoves
@Conservatively Liberal: How about Measure 56? I guess I don’t see an issue with punishing people with higher property taxes who can’t be bothered to actually mail in the ballot to vote against them. Or is there some hidden evil to that measure of which I am unaware?
Mr Furious
That’s what the Obama volunteer that came to my door tonite said—go vote early because people are being purged right and left. A guy that always voted on Election Day went early so he could volunteer Nov 4 and even though he had voted in the primary in May he came up as "not registered." If he waited til Nov he’d be SOL.
Hemi
The SoS vote was a great choice. The Dem candidate for SoS is batshit. One of my buddies who works for a Dem candidate basically told me that he would never in his life vote for him. That, and that alone, got me to cast a vote for Sam Reed. In general, I’ve been unhappy with Reed’s reforms in state, but given that the Dem apparently come from Cindy Sheehan land, I decided that fixing the primary system could wait.
I, personally, think that the Rep. AG is an incompetent, and so I voted against him. Fact is, he really hasn’t done his job.
theturtlemoves
@theturtlemoves: I’ll reply to myself. Just referred to my handy voter guide and Mr. Sizemore is opposed to measure 56. So, I shall be in favor. Was leaning that way anyway, since I don’t think you should need a 50% turnout and then 50% of those on tax initiatives in a state that all you have to do is mail your damn ballot…
Zuzu's Petals
@Delia:
Attention California absentee voters:
DON’T FORGET TO USE TWO STAMPS – 59c WORTH – ON YOUR ENVELOPE ! ! ! !
Delia
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Yeah, the local instructions here say you need 59c, but the local news stories say they’ve been getting through to the registrar on regular postage. But Eugene is a smallish town, or acts like one, anyhow.
I left California before the accursed machines came in. My polling place there was okay — never a problem with lines or voter intimidation. Those are all other good reasons for going with vote by mail if you have the option.
Conservatively Liberal
We had this same problem in Washington state when I lived there (grew up there). Turnout for levies is low between elections (having to physically go vote, not mail it in) and the powers that be would schedule huge levies to occur between elections because more people tended to go out and vote for it than not. Eventually the people got fed up with it and mandated that a majority of a majority of the voters had to come out and support it. This put the brakes on the between election levies, and the levies that were proposed were not loaded with junk. At first they tried to ram through the SOS but eventually they figured out that if they wanted money then they better put something together that the voters would support.
Same thing with 56, I do not want to set up a situation where a majority of the minority of voters can pass legislation. Sizemore is probably against it because it does make it easier for local jurisdictions to pass levies, thus increasing property taxes. I am against it for similar reasons, but more for a concern of fairness and keeping levies lean and clean so the majority will support them.
I am not against levies at all, they serve a useful purpose as long as they are not bloated with crap. I would rather have a measure tailored to appeal the majority of the majority than a majority of the minority.
Plus it keeps them from having "special levies" and keeps elections and ballot measures together.
Comrade jvill
This point doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
How can we be told voting is one of the most important expressions of Americana available to mortals, yet not have this one day off every two years?
It’s so important it needs to be wedged between running to work or running home to make a late dinner. Long lines, machine breakdowns, bad weather, etc.
We already work as much as any other industrialized nation, and have lower voter turn out than most. The two major pillars of America are Democracy and capitalism. We all support capitalism plenty. Can’t we pay homage to Democracy at least once every two years without unnecessary distraction? Macy’s can even have a sale.
mikethedealer
I must say the early voting in Las Vegas was pretty active. I early voted in 06 and there was maybe 20 odd people there, this time there was two rows of machines full of people, and I ended up being second in line to vote. Once I finished voting I went out to my car to go home, only it broke down, so I called my friend and he came in and early voted to and then gave me a ride home, place was busy the whole time I stayed waiting, so far the early returns say way more Dems are early voting in Nevada then GOP’ers, hopefully this holds up.
jcricket
Maybe Sizemore and Eyman can be secretly tailed so we can see them fucking themselves while watching each other in the mirror. That’s about what I’d expect.
Only California is worse than OR and WA when it comes to politics by initiative.
jcricket
BTW – WTF with requiring a stamp at all? We have taxes for all sorts of crazy stuff, can we not afford to cover the bulk postage rate for absentee/mail-in ballots?
I know, in KC they have some drop-in boxes now (no stamp required at all), and $0.42 is not going to break my bank, but it seems like this core feature of Democracy ought to be covered by our tax dollars.
liberal
@Not My Fault:
I agree 100%. I don’t understand why people who rave about vote-by-mail don’t get this.
liberal
@Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin:
But there’s no such forced choice. There’s no reason not to use paper ballots. Or at least optical scan.
liberal
@Krista:
What good would that do? It just shows you who you voted for. It doesn’t do any good at all for recounts and related verification.
And if the receipt shows who you voted for, it also allows your boss to see who you voted for.
liberal
@r€nato:
I agree. I don’t understand this enthusiasm for absentee/mail-in voting at all.
liberal
@Conservatively Liberal:
Yes, but in any policing regime, there’s two elements: (1) penalties, (2) the likelihood catching the bad guys.
You can have all the stiff penalties you want, but if e.g. right-wing employers come up with ways to force their employees to vote Republican and maintain plausible deniability (of the he-said-she-said variety)…
liberal
@Chuck Butcher:
There’s no secrecy, because someone can watch you fill it out and mail it.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Election Day should be a national holiday, frankly. Yes people still work on holidays, but a lot fewer of them would, and those that have to could still vote early or absentee. Anything that encourages turnout is a good thing.
zhak
I know who Eisenhower’s VP was. I wasn’t alive at the time, but from all I’ve read Nixon was a pretty good VP (& it’s important, I think, to keep in mind that at that time, the VP had little real power except for those rare occasions when he had all the power, which I think happened a few times during Eisenhower’s presidency).
& speaking of VPs & the like, I had completely forgotten about another Republican president that wasn’t named Nixon or Bush — Ford.
MH
Ford wasn’t elected, though. Matthews’ comment stands.
jcricket
Uh, convenience (vote at your own speed, read what you want while voting), ability to prevent lots of proven Republican vote suppression tactics, paper trail, etc.
Since I live in reality, I compare it to other realities available to me, and all-vote-by-mail wins by a mile right now.
All you’ve got against it is the suggestion that it won’t be secret, which could theoretically be true if people allow themselves to be watched. But as I said, there’s no evidence that is happening, and I for one wouldn’t allow that to happen to me.
Again, distributed voter fraud like that would be really difficult and expensive to pull off, which is why Republicans have instead focused on suppressing votes in a "central" way (shutting down polling stations, reducing the ability to register, mass challenges of voter registrations, etc).
Can you show me your concern is anything other than theoretical?
Wally Curtis
Way back when, I lived in Kentucky where the banks, state offices and I believe federal offices were closed on election day.
As a young banker, It was nice to vote, and then watch the results for the remainder of the day.
It was the way it should be.
Republimorons
Say, not that I am looking into it or anything, just, ya know curious….what does the fine print say on the awarding of virgins? Does Obama have this election in the bag and if so, is there Republican reciprocity for a life-long Dem voting Rep? Just curious man…gotta look out for number 1.
eyelessgame
@nonynony 62 –
Ever since Ford denied the existence of the Iron Curtain on national television, the Republicans have put a dunce on the ticket – Reagan, Quayle, W, and now Palin. (I could almost add Kemp to that, except he was merely a celebrity football player. He did admit publicly he wasn’t smart enough to be president, though. But he also wasn’t stupid enough to help his ticket win the election.)
Seriously. What is it with Republicans and idiots? They tell us we’re watching Mr. Smith Goes To Washington when we’re really watching Being There. Whatever it is it’s been happening for a long time.
zhak
@MH:
Except that Matthews is wrong, yes, his comments still stand.
Jon Rohan
John Cole wrote:
Then either you heard it wrong or Matthews took too much Xanax that morning.
Eisenhower? Reagan? Hello?
Kind of hard to miss – they were both two-term Presidents.
If you only mean VPs on the ticket, then you both forgot Quayle and Agnew (also kind of hard to miss – for totally different reasons).
Most people would retract such a blatantly incorrect statement. But instead, I’m guessing instead I’m going to be flamed by your yes-men for being the only one to point out your ignorance.
Have a nice day anyway.
Comrade Tax Analyst
Just mailed in my application for an absentee ballot a couple days ago. I’ll probably get it in the early-to-mid part of next week and proudly/happily mark Senator Obama’s checkbox and mail it back it before the weekend. I THINK this is gonna be the first General Election in this Century where I’m gonna enjoy watching the results roll in on Election Night. I’m ALMOST hoping for a slow count in the states so I can savor the evening, but shit, the reality is that after 8 years of Bush and ANY possible prospect of old, sick & stupid John McCain somehow winning – with wingnut fembot Sarah Palin drooling all over the Constitution in the wings while she thumbs through high-priced fashion catalogues to pick out the swearing-in outfit we’ll all be buying for her quickly disabuses me of any desire for drama or tension on the evening of November 4th. Vote, wait until the polls are closed everywhere and then have one of our trusted Network Anchor Clowns tell me at 8:01 Pacific Time that Barack Obama is going to be the 44th President of the United States of America. Every moment until that point is just a continued burr in my ass when I think of how thoroughly Dubyah and crew have trashed every fucking thing they’ve even LOOKED at in these past 7+ years.
I know we can’t do the "head on a platter" thing to the vanquished loser and the departing tyrant, but couldn’t we just maybe whack off part of their pinkie-fingers or something? You know, do that, and then have Nancy Pelosi cheerfully ask them to hold still while she sticks it up their respective noses.
Zuzu's Petals
@jcricket:
Well, as 5 million mail-in ballots were sent out for this election, it would add a couple million bucks onto the cost of the election. Add to that the cost of primary ballots, local elections, etc. … and it can be a burden.
Zuzu's Petals
@jcricket:
Well, as 5 million mail-in ballots were sent out (in California) for this election, it would add a couple million bucks onto the cost of the election. Add to that the cost of primary ballots, local elections, etc. … and it can be a burden.
rapier
I knew they should have put Jeb in as VP, or Tricia.
BladeZero
What I thought was weird in my area was there was not really anyone doing voter registrations leading up the election. Just people selling military hats in front of Wal-Mart. Petitions against gay-marriage at Target.
The only guy I saw with voter registrations was one black guy in front of a grocery store who was being questioned by 3 police officers.