Candidate Update

Well, I hit the two contested county elections and am having trouble with both. As far as I can tell, Larry Kesterbaum and Peggy Haines (county clerk) are both wonderful people, disagree very little, and have a great deal of respect for each other. The one spot they disagree, I tend to side with him, but it seems more a spot where current policy could be improved, not that she really opposes it. Also, she's the incumbant in a position where I think experience really is a significant factor.

The county prosecutor candidates, Brian Mackie and John Stanowski, both seem like rather impressive creeps. Stanowski seems to have done some shady things to be eligible to run and has gone through a few too many jobs for my comfort. He seems to have sensible policies on drugs, but seems quite soft on domestic violence. OTOH, Mackie seems to prosecute people for ridiculous "crimes" and may or may not have an ongoing feud with the local police. One source says he tramples civil rights, another suggests that the police feud is because he stood up for them. I'd really like a third candidate. Anyone know any lawyers in Washtenaw County that I can write in?

Obsessively following results

Some interesting notes.

In Ohio, according to MSNBC, a judge has ordered that people waiting in really, really long lines (2-4 hours) be given paper ballots to fill in now. Interesting -- I like the idea, but it worries me they'll be challenged later.

I've been following www.slate.com 's Election Scorecard for weeks. They've been tracking polls and listing who's likely to win electoral votes based on that. There are three categories they list for each candidate: solid, likely, and iffy (the REAL swing states). According to this, the real swing states are Florida and Ohio (which they've been moving back and forth the last few days); Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; then possible upsets in Hawaii, New Hampshire and New Mexico. All the "likely" states could also change, but are somewhat less likely to. I've got my own tracking list based on this, plus my own little map that I'm coloring in because it makes me feel like I'm doing something; it's no different than the ones I'm getting my info from. It also makes me feel like I'm in elementary school, but that's beside the point.

They're being very cautious about giving results in states where differences are close, which is a very good choice. However, it's still sort of amusing that the ones that are *not* close are being declared, with the vote totals (official reported) as 0-0. OTOH, there are lots of others that look like it's very lopsided, but 1-15% of precincts are reporting. Since that's hardly a random sample, those results may not be remotely representative of state results, but you still look at it and go, wow, that isn't close at all.

Ballot Proposals, my votes

Floridians are an interesting crowd! MSNBC just showed a graphic for a ballot proposal there. The caption on it read "Teen Pregnancy" -- 65% were voting yes.

Of course, the proposal is to require parental notification for teen abortions, but that's beside the point, isn't it?

There are a pathetic 11 states voting on constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. I read them earlier today; some have far nastier wording than the Michigan one does. I know I just talked about not trusting early precinct results, but all of them with any results thus far, the amendments are passing, and it isn't close. One state's early results show 89% yes. That's really depressing.

( local election things most people don't care about and my result )

Why you should think twice before voting for a minor candidate

The current CNN numbers have 49% of precincts reporting in NH -- no idea how representative those are. As of 10:33, there are 2059 votes for Nader. Bush is currently ahead of Kerry by 9 votes.