I’ve already mentioned that there’s one Republican who I’ll be enthusiastically voting for next week – Lieutenant Governor candidate Marcia McCraw. But even if you don’t care much about drug policy (for which McCraw is the far superior candidate), there’s another reason to vote against incumbent Democrat Brad Owen. He’s the BIAW’s candidate in this race as well. It would be a damn shame if we worked so hard to keep BIAW influence out of the Governor’s office only to see Christine Gregoire find a position in a potential Obama Administration and have the BIAW-backed Lieutenant Governor take over. Please tell your friends to vote for Marcia McCraw so that we don’t end up in that situation.
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Lee,
I don’t like Brad Owen. Moreover, I’m not even sure why we have the Lt. Gov. position. On the other hand, I believe I am physically incapable of putting an X on a candidate’s name that has an R after it. Is it possible that a serious, thoughtful, responsible person still considers himself/herself a Republican? I think not.
Too late, I already voted. How would I know I shouldn’t vote a straight Democratic ticket in this, of all election years, when I’m surrounded by the made-in-GOP smoking wreckage of America?
Here we’ve spent 4 years telling the whole world it’s treason to vote for Republicans, and then you ask me to vote for a Republican after I’ve already voted? If she loses by 1 vote, I’m sorry, but tell her to change parties so it won’t happen again.
I wrote in “none” for Lt. Gov.
Besides, anyone who campaigns against school bullying can’t be all bad, although anyone endorsed by BIAW can’t be all good.
Roger Rabbit is a great example of why party association should not even be listed on the ballot. If you don’t know going in who is who, then you probably have not taken your right to vote seriously enough and should stay home.
@2
Here we’ve spent 4 years telling the whole world it’s treason to vote for Republicans, and then you ask me to vote for a Republican after I’ve already voted?
We? I’ve never once said that it’s treason to vote for Republicans. That’s just ridiculous.
This is a race where the Republican is far, far better than the Democrat. Maybe it’s rare, but it happens.
Bush Intervenes In Ohio Voter Registration Dispute After GOP Loses In Supreme Court
“President Bush is asking the Justice Department to look into whether 200,000 Buckeye State poll-goers must use provisional ballots on Election Day because their names do not match state databases. …
“In a letter dated on Friday, the House GOP leader wrote that with Election Day ‘less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is … crucial. … Unless action is taken by the Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of names whose information has not been verified through the HAVA procedures mandated by Congress will remain on voter rolls during the November 4, 2008 election ….’
The U.S. Supreme Court last Friday threw out a Republican-led effort in Ohio that would have required 200,000 voters to cast provisional ballots on Nov. 4 because of misspellings, incorrect addresses or other inconsistencies in their records.”
(Quoted from Roll Call under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: WTF? These assholes lost in the Supreme Court and Bush orders DOJ to force Ohio to purge these voters anyway? How can he get away with that?
Don’t ever let a party that works this hard to keep American citizens from voting in their own country tell you they send our soldiers to Iraq to bring democracy to the Iraqis. That’s absurd on its face.
@6 You mean there’s still a good Republican left? They sure fooled me.
@5 You’d love that, wouldn’t you? Hiding party affiliation so voters don’t know who (and what) they’re voting for. That’s what Republicans are reduced to now, trying to win by fooling people into thinking they’re Democrats. Not only should Republicans be identified on ballots, they should be branded so we can recognize them on the streets.*
* Just kidding! Ann Coulter humor, ha ha.
Lee
Hope this doe not discourage you from your choice but I also voted for Marcia McCraw.
Brad Owen is a prime example of why the state dem party needs reform. The job of LG should be made much more important and could be if the guv showed the nec. leadership.
I would love to see an initiative to change the LG into a joint position with the Guv. Problem is, how ould one do that in a top two? Maybe this would force the parties to act more l,ike parties and nominate real tickets in the primary? OTOH this would prevent whoever comes in second in primary from running as LG.
@11
Don’t worry, I figured out long ago that there’s no logical basis underlying your voting choices or your political views. Just voting the opposite of you all the time would actually be giving you more credit as a rational thinker than you deserve.
No Taxation Without Representation
“ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — College senior Kyla Berry was looking forward to voting in her first presidential election …. But about two weeks ago, Berry got disturbing news from local election officials.
“‘This office has received notification from the state of Georgia that you are not a citizen of the United States and therefore, not eligible to vote,’ a letter from the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections said. But Berry is a U.S. citizen, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a passport and a birth certificate to prove it.
“The letter, which was dated October 2, gave her a week from the time it was dated to prove her citizenship. There was a problem, though — the letter was postmarked October 9. …
“Berry is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been ‘flagged’ because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote. Experts say lists of people with mismatches are often systematically cut, or ‘purged,’ from voter rolls. It’s a scenario that’s being repeated all across the country, with cases like Berry’s raising fears of potential vote suppression in crucial swing states.
“Such allegations have flared up across the United States during this election cycle, most notably in Ohio, where a recent lawsuit has already gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. …
“In Wisconsin, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sued the state’s election board after it voted against a proposal to implement a ‘no-match’ policy. The board conducted an audit of its voter rolls and found a 22 percent match failure rate — including for four of the six members of the board. …
“A lawsuit has been filed over Georgia’s mismatch system …. One of the lawyers … says Georgia is violating a federal law that prohibits widespread voter purges within 90 days of the election …
“‘People are being targeted, and people are being told they are non-citizens, including both naturalized citizens and U.S.-born citizens,’ said … another plaintiff in the Georgia lawsuit. ‘They’re being told they’re not eligible to vote, based on information in a database that … has flaws in it.’
“Georgia’s Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican who began working on purging voter rolls since she was elected in 2006, … says she is not worried the verification process will prevent eligible voters from casting a ballot. ‘In this state … there’s a process to ensure … they will vote either provisional or challenge ballot …,’ she said. Handel denied the efforts to verify the vote are suppression. …
“Kyla Berry will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot when she votes, but it’s up to county election officials whether those ballots would actually count. Berry says she will try to vote, but she’s not confident it will count. ‘ … I cannot believe it’s happening to me,’ she said. ‘If I weren’t allowed to vote, … that would be … like the worst thing ever — a travesty.'”
(Quoted from CNN under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: After we get in, let’s pass a law that says anyone entitled to vote who isn’t allowed to vote is excused from paying taxes.
Roger Rabbit’s Election Reform Proposal
To expand on the foregoing, and make it revenue neutral, I propose the following:
1. When anyone entitled to vote is prevented from voting by a challenge, the challenger has to pay the voter’s taxes.
2. If an election official purges eligible voters from registration lists, that official’s party has to pay the taxes of every wrongly purged voter.
3. Anyone entitled to vote who is prevented from voting is automatically entitled to $25,000 compensation from whoever prevented him/her from voting.
4. If more than one person prevented him/her from voting, he/she is entitled to $25,000 from each and every person who participated in preventing him/her from voting.
5. No one can be purged from a registration roll or challenged less than 90 days before the election.
6. Each political party is limited to 100 challenges per state.
7. A $25,000 bond has to be posted for each challenge.
Voter Disqualification Epidemic Sweeps Thru Battleground States
“Thousands of voters across the country must reestablish their eligibility in the next three weeks in order for their votes to count on Nov. 4, a result of new state registration systems that are incorrectly rejecting them.
“The challenges have led to a dozen lawsuits, testy arguments among state officials and escalating partisan battles. …
“The scramble to verify voter registrations is happening as states switch from locally managed lists of voters to statewide databases … in the transition, the systems are questioning the registrations of many voters when discrepancies surface between their registration information and other official records, often because of errors outside voters’ control. …
“It is impossible to know how many voters are affected nationwide. … [T]he trouble is cropping up in many states. In Alabama, scores of voters are being labeled as convicted felons on the basis of incorrect lists. Michigan must restore thousands of names it illegally removed from voter rolls over residency questions, a judge ruled this week. Tens of thousands of voters could be affected in Wisconsin. ….
“As the gateway to voting, … registration lists have become the focus of attention from … voting rights advocates, officials concerned about fraud and political campaigns looking for an advantage. It is ‘this season’s big issue,’ said Wendy R. Weiser, who directs voting rights projects for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, noting that efforts to keep names off the lists are ‘a new trend, not in the majority of states but in the battleground states.’ …
“Several of the battles over registration lists have taken on a partisan tinge, including in Montana, where a state GOP official challenged nearly 6,000 voters over apparent discrepancies in their addresses. … The Republicans filed the case ‘with the express intent to disenfranchise voters,’ a federal judge said. …
“In Georgia, the database has so far labeled 2,600 people as noncitizens. That nearly cost American-born Nelson Tyler, a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, his vote. The system mistakenly tagged Tyler when a Social Security number popped up belonging to a noncitizen. After receiving a letter … saying he had to prove his citizenship, Tyler protested and resubmitted his number. Within days, he got an e-mail apologizing for the mix-up. … Tyler cast his absentee ballot, but he said in an interview that the experience was unsettling. The closer the elections get, he said by e-mail, ‘the more these types of disqualifying tactics begin to rear their ugly heads.'”
(Quoted from Washington Post under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: You can bet your sweet bippy these problems are concentrated in states where Republicans control the election offices.
Seattle Jew @ 11 says:
“Brad Owen is a prime example of why the state dem party needs reform. The job of LG should be made much more important and could be if the guv showed the nec. leadership.”
Read the State Constitution, you moron, and quit thrusting your ignorance on those of us who know better.
@16
Read the State Constitution, you moron, and quit thrusting your ignorance on those of us who know better.
You’d have more luck trying to ride a bicycle to Mars.
The Lt. Gov. presides over the state senate.
The Lt. Gov. serves as Governor when the Governor is unable to perform their duties.
Brad is a conservative Democrat. He doesn’t write laws, and can only suggest legislation. The biggest one I can remember is the presentation of “Teekah’s Law” back in ’99, to better streamline the communication between law enforcement.
Conservative on drug laws? Sure. But he’s moved beyond that into being an ambassador for economic development.
I would be more worried about keeping Terrorist out of the White House.
I undertand under obama the chapel will be removed and replaced with a Gold Dome.
Lee, no matter what conundrum you place in front of us, and how much I despise the BIAW, I can’t vote for a Republican – – – ever, ever, ever again. (I used to be a REAL born and bred Washington State Independent voter. That was before George W. Bush and the Eight-Year-Bushite-Catastrophe of lies and ineptitude, not to mention the current Rossi lies and ineptitude being foisted off on Washington State as some kind of change.)
Roger Rabbit may be kidding about branding the r-words so the rest of us good citizens can cross the street when we encounter one, but I’d rather just hang them on the nearest light pole–and I’m NOT kidding.
By the way, Roger, why do you use the “r” in your name?
I notice that the BIAW’s and the MBA’s endorsements are so “valuable” they don’t publish their full lists for this year (at least, not that I’ve been able to find).
Yet more Republican anti-business, anti-liberty, Star Chamber muckraking. Those who “need to know” know, and the dirty public and electorate can just abide their secrecy… at least as far as the Republicans are concerned.
Oh, teddy, you’re very funny, I bet that is how you look — very funny. The only terrorists there are in politics today are the r-words and obviously you’re one!
I worked with Brad Owen in the Legislature. Trust me on this, he is an idiot. I love that he lists on his bio. an Honorary doctorate as his only education. Jeez, I played a doctor once, does that count?
There are some good Republicans around; during the last election Sec. of State Sam Reed did his job, followed the law, and thus kept Dino Rossi out of the governor’s mansion. I voted for Reed this time.
As for Lt. Gov.. (sigh) can’t we just get John Cherberg back for another 30 years?