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Voting — 39 Comments

1. Pat Caddell unloads on Obama. Wow. Look at the last sentence.

   http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/14/pat-caddell-furious-over-%E2%80%98hypocrites-in-the-white-house-unloads-on-obama/

   Neo, I like going to the polls also. I’m not sure when I’ll ever do absentee. Probably if I’ll be out of town like you.

2. Your vote will never count. They’ll ‘mysteriously’ find it in the trash or accounted (an oversight, I’m sure-ahem) as for the Democrat.

   And the Republicans will betray us again and start spending wildly when the Tea Party is officially banned by this regime.

3. Just simply having the ability to vote entices me to be diligent about voting.

   I have to admit it is sometimes difficult not to fall into the “why bother, my vote essentially counts for nothing” mentality – especially when you can see the swell of votes by those uninformed, misinformed, easily misled voters – or your choice is literally trying to choose between the lesser of two bad choices. Still, not voting – even in the face of the latter case is equivalent to admitting you just do not care one way or the other what the outcome is…and it happens I do care even if the outcome doesn’t swing in my favor.

   Here in Oregon we’ve had mail-in ballots for several years so I can’t really remember the last time I physically walked into a voting booth. I don’t know whether having mail-in ballots has made any change in the percentage of people who will vote in any particular election…my guess is there isn’t much change in the statistics.

   These mid-terms will prove to be interesting if nothing else. With the number of career Democratic politicians looking at possibly being out of a job after the elections one would hope that even if they manage to hold on to their office by the thinnest of margins they will take a hint. But then you would have to assume they have a grasp of reality, and that they actually care.

4. I like people watching at the polls. Studying them and guessing who they’re likely voting for. Having to listen to the ones in line with big mouths that leave no doubt who they’re voting for. A unique experience in a community for sure.

5. I liked voting more when they had the massive old mechanical machines. There was something particularly appealing about the noise of the votes being registered as I drew the lever to open the drapes that enclosed the voter as I left the booth. Now in Florida we fill bubbles on a paper ballot.

   The local Supervisor of Elections will now send an Absentee Ballot to me by default.

   I am very tempted to go to the polls this year however; along with my trusty little video camera “just in case”.

6. I once met somebody who looked like a hippie… but was a conservative.

   She was married to a leftist who was had spent 20 years trying to get his PHd.

   She left him. He produced nothing. She grew. He didn’t.

7. At least you have the choice. Here in Washington state, only one county (Pierce) still has voting at the polls, so even though I love voting in person, I can’t. (Technically, I could go down to the county election office and vote, I suppose, but that just wouldn’t be the same.)

   Not so incidentally, most vote fraud in this country is committed with absentee ballots. And, when Britain introduced widespread use of absentee ballots (which they call postal ballots), they had an immediate explosion of vote fraud. (And, in some heavily Muslim areas, intimidation of women voters.)

8. Yes – stepping into the old mechanical booth with my mother as a child, the kerthunk of the big metal arm. The little ratchet-like indicators. All these adults in my grade school gymnasium.

   Here in Israel even mechanical machines are not trusted. I was given a set of envelopes and directed to a table with a 3-panel screen. Pick a slip of paper, put it in an envelope. Step out and put it in a padlocked box.

   Then move to next table full of slips to vote on a referendum or for a local post.

   The method is different, but the tone – cordial, friendly, familiar faces somehow more formal – is the same.

9. Naturally, in Slovakia, it will be absentee; mostly Rep, but with a few Libertarians (known as friends from long ago).

   Neo, here’s a link to a blog you should be interested in:
   http://socialpathology.blogspot.com/

   He’s looking at psychology of women in a June series, with the note that most women are hard-wired to be more social, more peer conscious.
   I think if you talk to your Dem friends about “how many women are voting, and running, as Reps”, and how Feminist great that is, it might be interesting to see their reactions.

10. When I lived in NY, going to the polls was pretty depressing. The wait times were usually long, and because I lived on the Upper West Side I knew I was wasting my time voting for the Republican. But I did it anyway.

    I felt much the same way when I lived in NJ. And look what happened now that I’m no longer living there – they elected a Republican governor.

    So, no matter how much of an underdog the candidate you want to vote for seems to be, you should always vote. Chris Christie and Scott Brown should have made that lesson clear for everyone.

11. Bravo, Neo! Love how you voted!

    I never did like the long lines I had to endure in Houston when I lived there…presidential elections were especially bad.

    I LOVE voting in rural Texas…never a line and the poll watchers are people I know personally. I just walk into a little church a few miles from my house. And here, even early voting is done via a terminal.

    I also get a warm feeling when I vote.

    Couple of notes:

    Kaba, be careful with your little video camera. Here in Texas, it’s illegal to take a video or audio recording device into a polling place.

    Ben David, when I was spending a lot of time in Trinidad, there was a HUGE protest against voting machines. People thought they encouraged voting fraud. And if we think we have racist issues HERE in the USA, it was worse in Trinidad. There were two parties there: Blacks and East Indians. There were so few Caucasians and non-Indian Asians, they didn’t matter.

12. Good for you. This year I’d vote for a dirty sock if it was running on the Republican ticket. The only thing that will get the Dems attention is massive losses.

13. Did anyone see the temper tantrum on The View today? Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar (natch) walked off the set in a snit when Bill O’Reilly had the temerity to say that Muslims attacked us on Sept. 11th, therefore the mosque at Ground Zero was a bad idea.

    Whoopi: “Muslims attacked us? What bullshit!!” and stormed off the stage with Behar. O’Reilly asked their retreating backs if they were saying Muslims didn’t attack us on 9/11.

    Unreal. They must be deranged, and I mean that clinically. How do they work it in their alleged minds that every enemy of America is a “civil rights victim?”

14. I think we’re still using the huge mechanical beasties in our polling stations in New York City (did in 2008), tho Nanny Bloomerberg was complaining that they were old-fashioned. Never mind that they’re built like Mack trucks, almost never break down, and are real hard to mess with.

    And, of course, we’re Rolling in Dough to replace them. Just like we have all this money for turning streets into “plazas,” and replacing Walk/Don’t Walk signs with red hand/white walker versions. (Foreigners apparently couldn’t see that red meant stop and green meant go, so we spent millions on the overhaul.) Nothing stops government spending in a socialist monopoly state. Nothing.

15. There will be some RINOs who just do not get it. The tea party movement will continue to grow and take over the Republican Party, minimizing the role of the RINOs.

16. Some of you may find this interesting: In the presidential election of 2004 I served as a volunteer to help Jay Cost track the election results for 17 counties in the Florida Panhandle. Mr. Cost had previously compiled all of the election results from those same counties and provided a spreadsheet detailing those results. My responsibility was to monitor election returns from those counties and report those results along with any obvious trends.

    Mr Cost monitored the changes in Florida as well as six other swing states and managed from the data to make a very early and accurate call as to the final election result.

    Bush won 15 of the 17 counties I was monitoring that night. In most cases he won by a significantly higher margin than he had in the 2000 election.

    My own county gave Bush almost 78% of the vote that day. And my precinct gave Bush better than 89% of the vote. So I live in the most conservative precinct of the most conservative county in Florida.

17. I just did the same, neo, and for the same reason, but here in California the ballot does not include the party affiliation below state level. As a consequence I’ve had to spend time rooting through the pablum (aka election statements) to sniff out which candidates are undercover Reds. Fortunately, they often tip their hands by endorsements from outfits with names like “Concerned Gay Hispanic Working Mothers for Peace, Justice, and Equality and Fighting Oppression” who in their turn profess their “solidarity” with the DPRK or something.

    One endorsement from an obvious communist front group such as that, any fellow travelers (e.g., the Sierra Club), or any union whatsoever, and I cross off that candidate as a possibility.

18. Whoopi: “Muslims attacked us? What bullshit!!” and stormed off the stage with Behar.

    Has anyone ever figured out how the Whoopmeister ever got a career as an actress? She has the approximate IQ of a potted plant, she has no acting talent whatever, and she could scare dogs off the back of a meat truck. Was her choice the result of some bet, something on the order of “I bet I can take this Wal-Mart cashier and make her a movie star?”

    I’ve never figured this out.

19. I work 25 miles (30 minutes) away. Too many times I would be late for work, if I voted before work, and lines way too long if voting after work. I think the poll workers miss me, I used to bring donuts in the AM. It is just easier to vote absentee.

20. I think absentee and mail voting has gotten way out of hand, and makes vote fraud much easier. It should be severely restricted to people who are physically unable to go to their polling place due to disability or travel (as in Neo’s case).

    It should not be used for the sake of convenience. And I can’t imagine working for an employer who would criticize me for being late because I was voting. It’s only two days a year, for crying out loud. If I tell my boss, “I may be late tomorrow, but I’ll make up the time”, that should be enough to satisfy him.

21. DIRTY SOCKS ’12

    I have been trying to prescreen my city council candidates but they are all so vague in their descriptions. I know that a party affiliation can be both an asset and a liability, depending upon who is reading the bio. So I am reduced to trying to read too much into the few sentences.

    For example, should I vote for the retiree or the young guy who appears to be a Repub? The retiree is probably less idealistic but no guarantees.

    Should I vote for the newcomer or the 30-year veteran? I have no complaints against the veteran but if the City is doing pretty crappy now, that does not speak well of his record.

    I am most definitely not voting for the old lady wearing men’s clothes and a close-cropped gray hairstyle. I know that type, run the other way, fast.

22. Occam’s Beard: Whoopi has done a lot of crappy stuff in her career, but she is actually very, very talented. She was fabulous in “Ghost,” for example—absolutely hysterical and also quite moving towards the end. And when she was first starting out, she had a one-woman show that was excellent, too. She did a lot of unusual and distinctive characters and voices, and I believe wrote her own material.

23. Occam’s Beard,
    I think Whoopi did ok in Star Trek. But in real life, I dont like her political outlook.

24. I too love going to the polls and I always take my son. We talk about what a great priviledge it is. He’s 9 and can’t wait to vote.

    I already voted absentee also, as I’m going to be out of state on election day. I haven’t done that since I was a Navy wife 25 years ago. I hope our current military has the same chance, although it looks like the libs are fighting it in several states.

25. It will be the straight GOP lever for me too, and I’ve never done that before in my life.

    Desperate times, desperate measures and all that.

26. Doughnuts for the poll workers — what a great idea!

    I agree that Whoopi Goldberg has some serious talent (although she’s coasted through several roles, as many actors do). Jumping Jack Flash remains one of my favorites; Clara’s Heart is also well worth watching.

    Politically, I can’t stand to listen to her. It’s not just her views (which I think are ridiculous), but her attitude that of course Republicans are all evil and stupid and worthy of the full force of her scorn, every last one… and that anyone who disagrees with her might as well be one of them.

    I was done taking her seriously, as a person, when she defended Roman Polanski’s statutory rape of a drugged 13-year-old — “it wasn’t rape rape”, Whoopi said. Whatever you say, Whoopi… but keep your friends far away from my girls.

    And yeah, I’d be interested to hear what religion she thinks the 9-11 attackers practiced; does she think they were Quakers?

    cheers,
    DiB

27. Beverly,
    I think the machines are out; they have replaced them with a highly suspicious “check the box in your paper” concept. At least that’s the campaign slogans I see on the train in the morning…

28. Early voting started here in IL officially on Monday. Since it was a holiday, I went on Tues in the early afternoon. I had to wait 10 minutes to actually get a ballot- they told me they had to get more – they had run out of them.

    I doubt it was the Dems voting so soon. I just couldn’t wait.

29. Re Occam’s comment 7:18 . . .

    This election made it easy to cull through the names since any candidate who talks about “green” jobs goes directly into the “idiot” bin. (I have three garbage cans: recyling, garbage, and idiot.)

30. There was a time that I could have voted in several places in Indiana. Lousy Hoosiers and their crafty id voting system.
    It was scary to see my name on voter registration documents, years after I had left.
    Whoopi is what Spike Lee calls a Magic Negro, that is to say, she is present to give words of wisdom to all who ask. I remember her giving a quite spiritual defense of East Germany when the wall fell. People with money always seem to go for the seemingly oppressed, as long as their own money isn’t involved.

31. I’m hoping for a Republican landslide. And then I’m hoping the winners do right by the hope we have invested in them. I say “hope,” because it’s certainly not trust.

    ZING!

32. Politics is local, especially in midterm elections. Normally I vote straight R but not this year.

    Locally there are several R’s that promote more development in our rural county to the point where they wish to ‘regionalize’ with three other neighboring counties in Northwest Indiana, one suffering from residual rust belt blight.

    In doing so they propose creating a regional authority with the power to tax. This is meant to raise the enough local capital in order to gain federal matching funds to build railroads, highways, parks and greenways that eventually lead to strip malls, auto dealers and ticky-tacky subdivisions.

    As we all know a regional taxing authority starts out by asking for only .25%. Once the government tax tick is under the skin it wants more blood and raises it to 1%, then 1.5%, then 3% and on and on to support a never ending cash sinkhole. A government tax tick is impossible to extract.

    Some local D opponents want to manage all development in order to maintain our rural way of life separated by a county line.

    So my ticket will split for about three local D candidates who strongly oppose a regional development tax authority. Who knew? This is why doing your political homework is so important.

    Isn’t this the essence of the tea party movement?

    There are DINO’s as well as RINO’S especially at the local level.

    Local politicians aren’t necessarily aligned with the national party ideologues. Everyone should do their homework and research the candidates in order to make your vote really count.

    Lower taxes, smaller government, strict adherence to the Constitution. We can make it happen and it starts at the local level.

    I repeat. Do your homework before you punch only one hole.

33. I’ve also already voted at the County Election Office here in TN. Now my question is….where is the ‘off’ switch to cut all the mud-slinging ads on my TV? Too late to try and influence me now so can I just skip through them? BTW….no Dems on my vote but no incumbants either no matter what letter they are sporting!

34. Beverly,

    New machines at my precinct in Queens for the primary. You mark a paper ballot at a series of small podia with small height visual barriers on three sides. Then you go to what looks like a copier and feed your ballot in. The votes are recorded and the paper ballot retained in the base of the unit. Supposedly, you get a paper reciept, but I did not get a paper receipt when I voted in the primary. I only found out about that receipt the next day reading about some new machine fiascos in Manhattan.

35. I have to wonder about the social aspects for you. Having been a liberal, a hard one, and then having changed affiliations and further come out of the political closet, I would think the social aspect might be a bit sour.

    My change, probably more severe than yours, happened before I could legally vote, so there was no ramifications or social intrigue involved. By the time I cast my first ballot I was known as a soldier of conservative values… If too, as the young always are, a bit idealistic about it. (No way around that, I think… even having functionally decided my political leanings through excessive reading of the left first, then the right, then about conservativism.)

    You know these people, knew them as a liberal, and are now known as… what, a traitor? That would be tight for me. Maybe you have serious stones, or lack a proper fear?

36. I voted absentee since I will be out of state, but I am glad I sent for one since there were 11 state questions on the ballot.

    The funny point about this election is that one of the questions dealt with requiring photo id to vote, which is a good idea since when the polling place changed one year, I got the voter cards for the previous owners. I could have given the cards to someone and they could have voted.

    However, in order to mail in my ballot, I have to fill it out, place it in envelope A, put that envelope in a second one, which has to be notorized. Finally, the ballot goes into a third envelope for mailing. Of course, to get anything notorozed, you have to show a picture id!!!!

    Crazy…

37. Doom: I’ve written a lot about the ostracism and disapproval I’ve experienced from some people. Going to the polls, though, I don’t tend to meet people who know my politics. And the ballot, of course, is secret.

38. Neo, I just want to second everything you wrote about voting in person on election day. I have always loved it and felt patriotic and grateful; however, this year I have to do early voting here in Colorado since one of my cousins literally is in the final stages of her life. I am afraid to wait until November 2. At least, I will be voting by the same kind of machines used on Nov. 2.

39. I mailed my absentee ballot two weeks ago. For me, it’s necessary since I live outside the U.S. I’d love to vote in person, but living 10,000 miles away from my polling place makes that somewhat inconvenient. So absentee it is.

    I find the partisan portion of the ballot easy–researching the candidates’ positions is a piece of cake in the internet age–but the nonpartisan candidates and ballot referenda take some work. For an elected judge, say, how closely do the two private practice attorneys running on the nonpartisan ballot reflect my views on judicial behavior and temperament? It’s not always easy to find out, especially if the candidates in question have a sparse paper trail.

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