Hey, seriously, Thanks for Voting!
Do you know what? I recognise where this was taken. It's Dean's HQ office in Vermont. Wow.
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Ah, my...no need to gild the lily. Hi, Howard!
ReplyDeleteSeems strange to have all this hulabaloo about voting nearly a month after I did. It seems downright foolish for candidates for local offices not to submit ballot statements, since that is all the information about them that prompt voters will see.
--Alan
Submit it to whom? In my town, there is no provision. One person from the Republican Party put campaign signs all over town and did a mass mailing to every household...hoping for Justice of the Peace. I jokingly commented to the woman I consider my mentor that my husband said he didn't know we were supposed to campaign. She said it would be considered very gouache by townspeople...and I believe she is correct. The JP role has no "views" anyway. All the related tasks are done from a neutral standpoint: election official, listener to land disputes, notary public duties and officiant at weddings and civil unions. So how do people choose? It's a small town and they either choose whom they trust or vote by party.
DeleteYes, Alan, it's kind of strange, isn't it, to be finished with voting weeks ago and yet today there's such a fuss. Makes a person feel just a little smug, doesn't it?
DeleteOut here candidates can have their statements (of limited but adequate length) printed in the sample ballot booklet. If they can get enough people (not a prohibitive number) to sign a petition it costs them nothing; if not, there is a fee (high enough to encourage a minor candidate to get signatures). This time I think there were five candidates for a seat on the board of the local junior college; only one submitted a ballot statement, and it showed she wasn't fit for the office--despite her apparent claim to be a college graduate, it was incoherent. Since there was no basis upon which to make a choice, I withheld my vote for the office. About three weeks later I received a rather uninformative flyer for one candidate--printed in and sent from another county! The local newspaper got around to endorsing candidates and propositions about three weeks after I voted, and this time the candidates for lesser offices didn't have web sites.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Wikipedia has a dandy article about Justices of the Peace.
--Alan
I don't think I've ever heard of us having sample ballots here. Smaller budgets, no doubt. If you want to see the ballot in advance, you go to the Town Clerk's office and ask. If you can't get to the Town Clerk's office, then you call and have an absentee ballot mailed to you. If you then decide to vote in person, you simply bring the absentee ballot in with you. You can fill it out at home and hand deliver it, or you can bring it back blank and fill out a regular ballot like most everyone else.
DeleteHere you can download a sample ballot form the County Clerk's web site. With links to the candidates' web sites, if any. It also appears that there are not-actual-samples of the optical scan ballots so people can practice filling them out. it seems that in one Chicago precinct those got handed out by mistake. People were rather bemused to discover that their presidential choices lay between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas while their next Senator would be either Everett Dirksen or Adlai Stevenson.
DeleteCongrats, listener -- been thinking about you this past week.
ReplyDeleteHEP has not been letting me on. Or if it does, it eats my post. ???????
I first heard the story about the mom and her boys on the radio, several nights ago. That was what I reported. Since then, a bunch of other reports, but all "iffy" sources. I think this one is broadly trustworthy, so: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/02/world/americas/sandy-staten-island-brothers/index.html
This is a terrible dilemma. at the same time, it's almost beyond comprehension for an American - this American anyway - that national and local government take the homeless problem so seriously and actually try to deal with it in an organized, humane way. There's a lesson here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/04/london-boroughs-housing-families-outside-capital?fb=native#_=_
My wife and son have voted. In contrast to the huge lines that HuffPost is reporting in many places, lines in our Oak Park precinct were short. Of course, they were out before the 5 pm rush. But I suspect early voting had something to do with it as well.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Vermont!
ReplyDeleteNBC News projects that Mit Romney will win Indianna and Kentucky, while Barack Obama will take Vermont.
Well, we just did all the math, and I did not pull off a win. Of 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans on the ballot only 12 could be elected. This turned out to be 9 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Since the 3 Republicans who won are all fine, well-known citizens, I do not feel bad at all. In fact, since one job of Justices of the Peace is to be Election Officials, we need some variety.
ReplyDeleteHoward Dean said you don't get an "A" in citizenship unless you run for office. So I got an "A", just not an A+.
I'm sorry, listener. You tried, and that's the main thing. Having no desire to run for elective office myself, I take my hat off to you.
DeleteDitto Cat's comment. There was a time when I thought I might someday run for school board or something, but by the time someday came I had realized it wasn't my thing.
DeleteIN MY LITTLE TOWN...
ReplyDeleteOBAMA . . 1976
ROMNEY . .1021
JOHNSON . . 34
ANDERSON . . 4
NO ONE . . . 8
WRITE-INS . 15
Right now, NBC is showing Romney ahead EV 88 to 64, ahead PV 51% to 48%.
ReplyDeleteOf course, polls haven't closed in the West yet...
Just updated to R: 153, O: 114.
ReplyDeleteR: 153, O: 148. And the PV has shifted to 50%/49.
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, nobody's here.
ReplyDeleteOh really? I check in every once in a while. But I'm mostly watching the returns on HuffPost. Noticing that so far the Dems have gained a net of two Senate seats. Can't really tell how the House is going.
DeleteAnd thinking about the fact there are a couple of other things I really should be doing. Yeah. Sure.
Root*Center*Son called and it was a necessarily long conversation.
DeleteI break for kids in need. :-)
One of the Illinois House seats the Dems hoped to flip doesn't look like it's going to happen. Trail by 5,000 votes with 92% of the votes counted. One of the others is clearly too close to call, but the remaining 4 look promising.
ReplyDeleteDems now have a net gain of 4 Senate seats. If Wisconsin comes back around and Missouri solidifies as expected, every state on or north of the Ohio and on or east of the Mississippi that elected a Senator this year will have elected a Democrat.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the Senate, I see that they have called Massachusetts for Warren and Indiana for Donnelly. Plus calling Ohio for Brown, which is a closely challenged hold. Election night is so far looking pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI just checked the Ohio presidential race. Obama has a 3 percentage point lead with 49% of the vote counted. BUT only 9% of the vote from Cuyqhoga county (Cleveland) has come in. Looks pretty good there, too.
ReplyDeleteOBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Pacific Coast has come in and they have called Ohio and Iowa for Obama. 275 electoral votes. One more term!
ReplyDeleteI went to post that, and found that my internet was down! Had to reboot. Wild timing!!
ReplyDeleteWild timing indeed!
DeleteSorry, Bill. Didn't mean to write you off. Much relieved Warren made it. I'm following the results on MSNBC.com. Had a computer crash, but when last I checked, Romney was up 163 EV to 162. I'm hoping things will look better when I re-open the page.
ReplyDeleteMSNBC is projecting the president with 274 to Romney's 203. They're still saying 49% to 50% PV, but that may improve slightly.
ReplyDeleteThe headline says Ohio did it!
YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!
I had given up on IL-08 because I thought there were too few votes left to be counted to change the result. But be darned if Brad Schneider hasn't pulled ahead by almost 2,000 votes with about 2-3,000 left to be counted. David Gill isn't making up any ground as votes continue to come in in IL-13, but it looks like we'll take 5 or the 6 closely contested seats. I believe flipping four of them.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Bill!
DeleteMSNBC shows Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and Alaska still to be projected. More blue on the map would be nice, but it's just frosting now.
ReplyDeleteNow tied at 49% all. May Romney continue to decrease!
ReplyDeleteMay get a partial post at some point. Don't know what happened (as usual). I'm very glad I voted by Absentee Ballot. It's been years since I've gotten sick, but I did get sick yesterday into today. I wouldn't have been able to go to the polls. My brother (same polling place) said he stood in line for over an hour. Just a bad cold coupled with allergies, nothing serious.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I'm sorry you're sick. Hope you get better soon! Very glad you voted absentee!
DeleteSusan, may you get well swiftly...and I suspect tonight's excellent news will help you along! :-)
DeleteIt is not looking like a good night for the GOP. Virginia and Florida still too close to call, but one can think about Obama winning them both. There will still be a lot of votes to count over days to come, all across the country. I have been following the reports mostly at talkingpointsmemo.com and politicalwire.com. Like Bill, thinking about the job I should be doing now instead of watching the returns. Michelle Bachman's lead in votes is looking really shaky at this point...
ReplyDelete--Alan
A whole lot of celebrating going on over on FB. One woman keeps posting nasty comments on my pro-Obama posts, but to make up for that, a friend(real friend not just the FB variety) posted a lovely, civilized and generous congratulations to all his Liberal/Democratic friends. Restores one's faith.
ReplyDeleteRomney will concede in 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteColorado and Virginia were called for President Obama.
ReplyDeleteYYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!
DeleteThe President is also still ahead in Florida...!
ReplyDeleteSounds good!
DeleteEnjoy--alan
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans Bet Everything and Obama Won
Jonathan Chait: "Republicans greeted Barack Obama's presidency with a calculated wave of total opposition. They would not cut a deal on health care or on the federal budget, each time accepting the risk of total defeat rather than settle for half-measures, like giving Democrats some kind of token health care reform or small tax increase."
"The gamble was that by denying Obama any support, they would render his presidency wholly partisan at best, and a dysfunctional failure at worst. They would increase their own chances of denying him a second term, and that their return to power would allow them to claim a full and absolute break with the past. They shoved all their chips onto tonight's election. When the networks called it at 11:15 pm, the totality of the right's failure was clear. And because they bid up the stakes as high as they could, their loss was unusually devastating."
Ah, "unusually devastating." Words to savor.
DeleteEnjoy some more;--Alan
ReplyDelete==============
Election Day Shows How Much Things Are Changing
By Amanda Marcotte
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 10:27 EST
Election Day! I continue to be a dork who loves it. After what is now years of build-up, you can’t help but be excited. This year is particularly exciting, with FiveThirtyEight upgrading the chances of an Obama win to 91.6%. Which isn’t absolute! As Nate Silver says, Romney’s chance of winning is the same as a poker player pulling an inside straight, but inside straights do happen. Romney’s people are cheating hardcore, too, which continues to be a point of concern. Still, the flip side of it is that the more aggressively Republicans imply, suggest, or even outright say that the votes of people of color, single women, urban professional whites shouldn’t count, the angrier people get. And that means something. The lines are long in part because people are determined to vote.
This race has been particularly difficult, because the ugly racism that still haunts this country and compels the voting choices of a majority of white people was particularly aggressive this time around. I’d say it was worse in 2008, because last time, I think conservatives simply found it implausible that Obama could win, polls aside. Now that they have proof that Americans will vote for a black President, their rage has spun out of control. After four years of conservatives trafficking in race-baiting conspiracy theories, the majority of white people are still on board with their agenda, which is beyond depressing. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make jokes at their expense:
The other story of conservative rage this election is one of gender. The unhinged fury at Sandra Fluke was a stand-in for a generalized conservative anger at women for embracing the gains of feminism. In a sense, her very ordinariness is what made so many right wingers so mad. There’s nothing unusual about a woman who is confident, ambitious, willing to acknowledge the existence of sex, and determined to get her career underway before she even considers getting married and having kids. That’s just how things are these days. Conservative pundits went deranged at the very mention of her because their usual put-downs for independent women just don’t work anymore. Slut? Bitch? Feminazi? It’s just laughable. The proper word for independent young women who believe they have the same rights as men is “normal”. The conservative expectation that a woman be too modest to admit in public even knowing what this “contraception” thing is sounds positively Victorian, and they know it. Thus, the impotent rage and ridiculous insistence that merely saying “contraception” in public makes someone the town pump. Clearly, they hope by saying it over and over, they can make it true, but that strategy just backfired.
Regardless of how this election turns out, the most interesting thing is how much conservatives really do seem to see the writing on the wall: Things are changing. At best, they can slow the rate, but they cannot stop it. Their intense focus on cheating through voter suppression this election shows that they know they couldn’t win in a fair fight. And that is something that gives me hope, even as I despair at how ugly things have gotten.
Very nice. Thanks, Alan.
DeleteLooks like Virginia has gone for Obama...
ReplyDelete--Alan
Obama leading but still not quite at 50% in Florida, with 98% of precincts reporting.
ReplyDelete--Alan
Romney concedes:
ReplyDeleteClick
--Alan
Happy Days Are Here Again!
DeleteOK, guys, going to bed, very much more content that I was earlier this evening.
ReplyDeleteLots of photos from the polls! Nice. Click
ReplyDelete--Alan
President Obama to speak in less than two minutes.
ReplyDeleteObama reaches 50% in Florida with 98.3% of precincts reporting.
ReplyDelete--alan
Glad you liked the column, Cat. I figured this night I could post the whole thing instead of a clip and a link. Me to bed too.
ReplyDelete--Alan
Wow, Alan. It's a new day.
ReplyDelete