On art, music, books, movies, politics, life - sometimes with astrology thrown in.
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
Super Tuesday's Possible Dream
Super Tuesday : Democratic and Republican voters will go to the polls today in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. In Alaska, Republicans and in American Samoa Democrats will caucus today. Democrats living abroad will vote today too. Today will decide these states' choices of candidates to represent their political parties in November's General Election. Totals of delegates earned by each candidate during this process today will be added to totals earned from early primaries already held, and those still to come.
I remember posting a version of this, a favourite song of mine, at some point in 2007/8, in support of Dennis Kucinich. Senator Bernie Sanders has managed to reach further in the presidential campaign in 2016, because times, and the public's understanding of them, have changed somewhat - maybe even changed sufficiently. Should it happen that Bernie eventually comes up short (I'm hoping not), depend on it that there'll be another candidate in 2020 who will reach even further... and so on, until...at last....
Well, my deed is done. I skipped breakfast, cleaned-up, then walked over to my precinct. No huge lines, as I had imagined while showering, but I did have to wait about five minutes. My machine had a haze-out at the very bottom of the glass covering the electronic ballot, making the last line nearly impossible to read...I had to lean way inward, then look down to read that last candidate's name. I reported the problem after voting and was that they knew there was an issue. I told them the machine should be taken off-line. That was ignored, as the next person up was given that machine. Fortunately, Bernie's name was way above that haze-out.
I was taken off-guard with amendments that were new and unforeseen to me. I read the amendments, then voted on each. Often, these amendments sound wonderful when read, but obfuscate some bizarre round-about that I would never support, had I known the intent, so I hope I did right with each. Each one sounded a little too charming and supportive of an issue that I wouldn't think would even be an issue requiring voters' approval.
My voting place has separate check-in for Democratic or Republican voters. I was surprised that no Republican voters were evident, yet about five of us Democratic in line, with our three machines in use. Are the typical Republican voters going Democratic this year to escape the Republican dour offerings? That could push Hillary's numbers upward.
mike ~ We've just come back from voting (and doing some grocery shopping). It was quiet at our precinct, we walked straight in, showed our voting cards, signed in and voted. a couple of others came in after us. We had pink forms with just the names of all candidates, on both sides, and a box to fill in for our chosen one. No additional stuff this time - they must be saving that for the General - that voting paper usually looks like a school exam paper - I was astounded when I saw the first one in 2008!
We then trolled around Homeland supermarket with "I Voted' stickers on our lapels + my "Bernie" badge. I saw only one other "I voted" in the store - on an African American guy.
I hope Oklahoma's young voters get out and vote. They were well in evidence at OKC's rally on Sunday (crowd of 6,000 as reported), similar in Tulsa a few days earlier. If Bernie can out-do Hillary in Oklahoma that'll be something - if not a lot. The state will go Republican as always in the General; our votes will be completely useless, so this primary is really our only chance to make any meaningful contribution.
I'm at least glad we don't have the machines as you describe - those sound very iffy! We put our ballot papers into a machine, and that's bad enough. I'm all for rows of volunteers counting ballot papers...lol...that's how it was last time I voted in the UK. We civil servants had the option of assisting in the counting on voting day, though I never did.
Our local newspaper website has a poll thingie which indicates that Bernie and Hillary are just about neck and neck in our area, but Trump is way, way ahead of them and all others. :-(
Whether OK or TX goes predictably Republican is months away, but for now, it's voting for each parties' candidates. OK and TX are hybrid states regarding the primary. Here in TX, the Democratic candidate with 85% or greater of the primary votes is "winner take all". I doubt that Hillary will do that, so the delegates will be divided-up and Bernie will take his share. Each state has a peculiar method of assigning delegates. Remember Ohio? Hillary was a fraction of a percent ahead of Bernie, yet she was assigned disproportionately more delegates.
mike (again) ~ Yes, as long as Bernie receives a decent proportion of OK's delegates it'll help him. I'd really like to see him overtake Hillary here in actual votes though...just because!
"Greene was unemployed; virtually unknown. He had no campaign website, no volunteers, no campaign literature. He didn’t even own a computer or a phone. His opponent, the respected circuit judge and former state legislator Vic Rawl had raised hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars, appeared at 80 campaign events; had hundreds of volunteers.
The numbers were beyond absurd. Lancaster County paper absentee ballots went to Rawl 84% to 16%. The unverifiable touch-screens in the same county, however, said Rawl lost the it by 17%. Greene received more votes than were cast in 25 Spartanburg County precincts. The votes of 50 other precincts were missing from the final count. Statewide, the virtually unknown Greene somehow managed to captured 60% of the vote, according to the iVotronic DREs."
Bob ~ Yes - all very iffy indeed! This from your link also:
In “The Problem with Touch-Screens” …Dan Rather visited the Manila sweat shop where he witnessed the shoddy assembly of the ES&S iVotronic LED screens by $2.50/day workers. The company’s “quality control” process at the Filipino facility, on the rare occasions that it was applied, was to hold up one of these sensitive items of electronic equipment and shake it to determine whether there were any loose parts rattling around inside.
When he covered Rather’s documentary at The BRAD BLOG, the late John Gideon observed: “The machines made by ES&S may not have any screws loose, but the folks who think this is any way to run a democracy certainly do!”
That pretty much sums up the level of thinking in every jurisdiction which continues to employ these exorbitantly-priced pieces of unverifiable electronic junk.
It already has the Ides of March, St Patricks Day (got anything Green?), the spring equinox, and "March Madness". Sometimes Good Friday and Easter too!
It used to have inauguration day - on March 4 because that was the day the Constitution took effect.
Now it gets "March Madness II"? 35 states will hold Primaries or caucuses in march.
mike & Bob......YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so pleased he beat Clinton in OK - been willing him on all day! And Colorado - and Vermont and Minnesota!! I'm so pleased! (But Ted Cruz for OK....Dang!) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D
Well, my deed is done. I skipped breakfast, cleaned-up, then walked over to my precinct. No huge lines, as I had imagined while showering, but I did have to wait about five minutes. My machine had a haze-out at the very bottom of the glass covering the electronic ballot, making the last line nearly impossible to read...I had to lean way inward, then look down to read that last candidate's name. I reported the problem after voting and was that they knew there was an issue. I told them the machine should be taken off-line. That was ignored, as the next person up was given that machine. Fortunately, Bernie's name was way above that haze-out.
ReplyDeleteI was taken off-guard with amendments that were new and unforeseen to me. I read the amendments, then voted on each. Often, these amendments sound wonderful when read, but obfuscate some bizarre round-about that I would never support, had I known the intent, so I hope I did right with each. Each one sounded a little too charming and supportive of an issue that I wouldn't think would even be an issue requiring voters' approval.
My voting place has separate check-in for Democratic or Republican voters. I was surprised that no Republican voters were evident, yet about five of us Democratic in line, with our three machines in use. Are the typical Republican voters going Democratic this year to escape the Republican dour offerings? That could push Hillary's numbers upward.
mike ~ We've just come back from voting (and doing some grocery shopping). It was quiet at our precinct, we walked straight in, showed our voting cards, signed in and voted. a couple of others came in after us. We had pink forms with just the names of all candidates, on both sides, and a box to fill in for our chosen one. No additional stuff this time - they must be saving that for the General - that voting paper usually looks like a school exam paper - I was astounded when I saw the first one in 2008!
ReplyDeleteWe then trolled around Homeland supermarket with "I Voted' stickers on our lapels + my "Bernie" badge. I saw only one other "I voted" in the store - on an African American guy.
I hope Oklahoma's young voters get out and vote. They were well in evidence at OKC's rally on Sunday (crowd of 6,000 as reported), similar in Tulsa a few days earlier.
If Bernie can out-do Hillary in Oklahoma that'll be something - if not a lot. The state will go Republican as always in the General; our votes will be completely useless, so this primary is really our only chance to make any meaningful contribution.
I'm at least glad we don't have the machines as you describe - those sound very iffy!
We put our ballot papers into a machine, and that's bad enough. I'm all for rows of volunteers counting ballot papers...lol...that's how it was last time I voted in the UK. We civil servants had the option of assisting in the counting on voting day, though I never did.
Our local newspaper website has a poll thingie which indicates that Bernie and Hillary are just about neck and neck in our area, but Trump is way, way ahead of them and all others. :-(
Whether OK or TX goes predictably Republican is months away, but for now, it's voting for each parties' candidates. OK and TX are hybrid states regarding the primary. Here in TX, the Democratic candidate with 85% or greater of the primary votes is "winner take all". I doubt that Hillary will do that, so the delegates will be divided-up and Bernie will take his share. Each state has a peculiar method of assigning delegates. Remember Ohio? Hillary was a fraction of a percent ahead of Bernie, yet she was assigned disproportionately more delegates.
ReplyDeleteI should have asked, "Remember IOWA?"...Hillary received 49.9% and 23 delegates, Bernie with 49.6% and 21 delegates.
ReplyDeletemike (again) ~ Yes, as long as Bernie receives a decent proportion of OK's delegates it'll help him. I'd really like to see him overtake Hillary here in actual votes though...just because!
ReplyDeletehttp://vetsforbernie.org/2016/02/well-never-know-whether-voters-machines-source-clinton-landslide-south-carolina-win/
ReplyDelete"Greene was unemployed; virtually unknown. He had no campaign website, no volunteers, no campaign literature. He didn’t even own a computer or a phone. His opponent, the respected circuit judge and former state legislator Vic Rawl had raised hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars, appeared at 80 campaign events; had hundreds of volunteers.
The numbers were beyond absurd. Lancaster County paper absentee ballots went to Rawl 84% to 16%. The unverifiable touch-screens in the same county, however, said Rawl lost the it by 17%. Greene received more votes than were cast in 25 Spartanburg County precincts. The votes of 50 other precincts were missing from the final count. Statewide, the virtually unknown Greene somehow managed to captured 60% of the vote, according to the iVotronic DREs."
Bob ~ Yes - all very iffy indeed! This from your link also:
ReplyDeleteIn “The Problem with Touch-Screens” …Dan Rather visited the Manila sweat shop where he witnessed the shoddy assembly of the ES&S iVotronic LED screens by $2.50/day workers. The company’s “quality control” process at the Filipino facility, on the rare occasions that it was applied, was to hold up one of these sensitive items of electronic equipment and shake it to determine whether there were any loose parts rattling around inside.
When he covered Rather’s documentary at The BRAD BLOG, the late John Gideon observed: “The machines made by ES&S may not have any screws loose, but the folks who think this is any way to run a democracy certainly do!”
That pretty much sums up the level of thinking in every jurisdiction which continues to employ these exorbitantly-priced pieces of unverifiable electronic junk.
Why March?
ReplyDeleteIt already has the Ides of March, St Patricks Day (got anything Green?), the spring equinox, and "March Madness". Sometimes Good Friday and Easter too!
It used to have inauguration day - on March 4 because that was the day the Constitution took effect.
Now it gets "March Madness II"? 35 states will hold Primaries or caucuses in march.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqlhMEWA70
My goodness...OK Democrats want Bernie!
ReplyDeletemike & Bob......YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so pleased he beat Clinton in OK - been willing him on all day! And Colorado - and Vermont and Minnesota!! I'm so pleased! (But Ted Cruz for OK....Dang!)
ReplyDeleteYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:-D