What's in your ballot?

[chrisinhouston]

Yes I think I heard Wendy Davis (Democrat running for Governor) had a problem.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by chrisinhouston

snip--

Also, we had to show photo ID under the new stupid law designed to stop non existent voter ID fraud! We chose to use our US Passports which say nothing about us living in Texas or anywhere for that matter. The volunteer ladies that run our little precinct were very nice and impressed and asked us if we travel a lot because none of them have ever had or seen a passport, and they explained that my county voter registration only has my middle initial and both my passport and data supplied to them from the Department of motor vehicles have my middle name as Brian. So technically my ID did not match but they checked the box that said they accepted me as the registered voter and I had to initial that it was incorrect. My wife also had an issue because when she registered to vote here 20 some years ago women were required to list their maiden name if they had one so her registration shows it as her middle name and she has no ID with that on it. Same story for her. So what the fuck did that solve? We used ID with no Texas address and slightly mismatching names and still voted. If we had voted absentee we would have not had to show anyone any ID! I am hopeful in a few years we will get a Democrat for a governor and a Democrat controlled legislature and they can scrap the stupid ID thing.

at the risk of asking you to incriminate yourself, would you say that you committed voter fraud by not having the proper ID and voting anyhow?

[BigV]

and in other news, the minimum wage in SeaTac, the small city south of Seattle, the location of the airport, has passed Proposition 1, raising the minimum wage in the city of SeaTac to $15.00/hour.

whoa.

[Stormieweather]

Our Aquarium (actually, Winter's aquarium) will get a new home.

Good news is that St. Pete has a new mayor.

[chrisinhouston]

Originally Posted by BigV

at the risk of asking you to incriminate yourself, would you say that you committed voter fraud by not having the proper ID and voting anyhow?

No not at all, the US Passport is one of the allowable ID's such as a Texas DL or concealed gun permit (college IDs even if from a state college are no longer valid) so our ID was fine. And the poll worker accepted our ID as valid, she just had to indicate that it did not match perfectly and I initialed that I agreed but we were allowed to vote and have our ballot counted. It just saddens me that the GOP in power here and in other states keep trying to game the system to keep their party in power. The voter ID as an election security issue is as false making abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges is for the safety of women.

Oh and one other funny thing. My area's TX legislator kept saying the ID issue was no different than having ID to get past the TSA for a flight. Well at the airport I can use my Global Entry card and my wife can use her TWIC card which are both valid federally issued ID but Texas does not recognize them for voting!

[BigV]

Thanks Chris. I'm a little less ignorant and a little more discouraged by your story.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Glad we dodged a bullet in Virginia. It was much closer than it should have been.

I just saw that the race for Attorney General is real close. Only 55 votes difference. That will cause a recount.

NYT exit poll says 53% of white women voted for Cuccinelli.

[glatt]

Article in this morning's Washington Post said that a district in heavily Democratic Fairfax County VA seems to have misplaced about 4,000 absentee ballots. This is a big deal, because the race for Attorney General is so close. Only 770 votes difference.

They did a statistical analysis of ballot requests. In virtually all Virginia districts, the absentee ballot return rate is something like 95%, and in the two other Fairfax districts it is about 95%, but in this particular district, it's only 50%. Not cool, election officials.

They are investigating.

[classicman]

"They" are the problem.

[glatt]

Maybe.

"They" in this instance are Democrats who noticed the bizarre anomaly. The election board is made of both Democrats and Republicans and even the Republican on the election board says "I am convinced now too that there is an issue."

The board is investigating. It would be very unusual for 50% of the people who went through the trouble of requesting absentee ballots to not bother casting them.

[Undertoad]

I did not vote this year and two Borough Council candidates are tied at 357. It looks like it's going to be decided on a coin flip. My vote would have made the difference...



... and since I knew nothing about them, my vote would have been as thoughtful as a coin flip. I could have given Borough level power to someone for no particular reason at all. I could have elected someone absolutely wrong for the job, who might then have made terrible decisions for my area.

[BigV]

since you're already playin shoulda coulda woulda why don't you add I could have read up on each of the candidates and chosen the one that you liked best?

[Undertoad]

I read the basic information, printed in the same local news website that reported the results. I don't think I could remember any of them, but they did give information, such as how many children they have, and which local church they go to, and which local organizations they do things for.

And that they want to be on Council because they Care Very Hard About Collegeville. OMG the Caring. It's universal in local candidates. I'm sure you've seen that kind of bullshit summary before.

"Liked best" in this context is pretty much exactly the wrong reason to vote for someone, which is why they do it in that style. It's fine that they were Boy Scout troop leaders, or whatever, improves the probability that they are decent people. But it doesn't speak to what they would do on Council, or whether they have interests in line with Stalin. But that's why people vote for Council people, because they go to similar churches and are joiners who like to run Scouting troops.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah but you could have made two bucks.

[BigV]

UT, I read your post and understood you to mean that the reason you didn't vote is because you didn't know enough ("nothing") to make an informed choice about which candidate to choose. I'm not suggesting "like" is the basis for choosing a candidate (you can if you want, your choice); I was suggesting that not knowing is a curable condition.

It's clear I'm a big fan of voting. I proselytize *every chance I get*. If your standards for earning your vote is to have a good idea about what they'd do on Council, then I encourage you to do what it takes to learn that. Then vote. That's my only message.

An aside--tha's also one of the reasons I find the ANTI-VOTING measures like reducing early voting windows, reducing polling places, onerous voter id requirements, shit like that that has the effect of driving down turnout---I fucking hate that crap. I don't support voter fraud, duh. But let the people fucking vote. Goooooddddaaammmmit I hate that shit. Not you, I like you. Even if you didn't vote. I just like it when people vote. Mkay?