The Grand Election Thread

[garbon]

Is there a high incidence of children of illegal immigrants finishing high school at all?

I wonder if it is like what California did:

The bill, dubbed the California Dream Act, passed the state Legislature earlier this month and aims at helping illegal immigrants who earned a diploma after attending at least three years of high school in the state.

But yeah I wonder how many actually take advantage of this.

[Caliga]

I'm not sure I understand the point of legislation like that.  Sure, it's nice to earn a college degree, but don't most employers screen for citizenship and therefore will not hire you if you're an illegal immigrant?

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/philadelphia-election-official-looking-obama-mural-complaint-174758326.html

Judge orders Obama mural covered in Philadelphia polling station

A judge has ordered that a mural of President Barack Obama be covered up at a Philadelphia polling place after Republicans complained, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Republican National Committee official Tim Miller complained on Twitter that the polling place set up voting booths right next to a mural of Obama. The location of the polling site is 35th ward-D18 Franklin School, according to the Weekly Standard. Miller wrote that the Pennsylvania GOP has filed a complaint.

Electioneering is not allowed within 10 feet of a polling place.

[Caliga]

  Yeah, cause Romney has a REAL shot of winning Philadelphia County if that pesky mural gets covered up.

[Razgovory]

Apparently there was a clusterfuck in Madison, Wisconsin.  My sis went to her polling place, and they told her she wasn't registered.  Fortunately they had same day voter registration.  She said the whole place was filled with people filling out the paperwork for that because the polling places didn't have accurate lists.

[Ed Anger]

I just took my pre election coverage dump.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Massachusetts voting -- got to love the overtime-collecting cop stationed in the firehouse, playing with her iPhone.   

Voted for the Native American for Senator, some "unaffiliated" challengers for other spots, and an Armenian for Sheriff.  Voted "yes" on medical MJ, "yes" on assisted suicide for the terminally ill, and "no" on some car parts consumer protection bill.   

Yeah.  Cop at my place was awake and mostly alert.  Probably because it was a school.  I voted for the auto parts thing since AAA recommended it. 

[OttoVonBismarck]

Apparently there was a clusterfuck in Madison, Wisconsin.  My sis went to her polling place, and they told her she wasn't registered.  Fortunately they had same day voter registration.  She said the whole place was filled with people filling out the paperwork for that because the polling places didn't have accurate lists.

Wasn't very convenient voting for me today either. I think there probably isn't a lot of malfeasance going on or anything, but the simple truth is all the large scale changes to voter registration procedures, identification requirements etc have added a layer of bureaucracy to the process. As a long time bureaucrat I'll tell you bureaucracy muddles things and introduces many points of failure. I think a lot more people than usual will be inconvenienced at the polls today, not through maliciousness at the polling place level or even higher up, but just because the new regulations are creating a clusterfuck. Now, that's most likely what the highest levels of State government that pushed these regulations wanted, but I don't think they're taking a direct hand. I think they basically knew they were going to make things messy.

[crazy canuck]

I enjoy your state of denial as the economic order you hold dear is falling apart in front of our very eyes.

I take it that Hungarian news reporting of the economic health of Canada is as incompetant as the Hungarian problem itself.

[crazy canuck]

I just took my pre election coverage dump.

did it lean to the left or the right.

[CountDeMoney]

Wasn't very convenient voting for me today either. I think there probably isn't a lot of malfeasance going on or anything, but the simple truth is all the large scale changes to voter registration procedures, identification requirements etc have added a layer of bureaucracy to the process. As a long time bureaucrat I'll tell you bureaucracy muddles things and introduces many points of failure. I think a lot more people than usual will be inconvenienced at the polls today, not through maliciousness at the polling place level or even higher up, but just because the new regulations are creating a clusterfuck. Now, that's most likely what the highest levels of State government that pushed these regulations wanted, but I don't think they're taking a direct hand. I think they basically knew they were going to make things messy.

I call bullshit.  They all know, and have known, exactly what they were doing, what was going to happen, and what they wanted to accomplish.  It's more than just bureaucracy being bureaucracy:  it's bureaucracy as political weapon.

[Ed Anger]

Mary Matalin has had a facelift. Or its the hairstyle.

[crazy canuck]

Wasn't very convenient voting for me today either. I think there probably isn't a lot of malfeasance going on or anything, but the simple truth is all the large scale changes to voter registration procedures, identification requirements etc have added a layer of bureaucracy to the process. As a long time bureaucrat I'll tell you bureaucracy muddles things and introduces many points of failure. I think a lot more people than usual will be inconvenienced at the polls today, not through maliciousness at the polling place level or even higher up, but just because the new regulations are creating a clusterfuck. Now, that's most likely what the highest levels of State government that pushed these regulations wanted, but I don't think they're taking a direct hand. I think they basically knew they were going to make things messy.

I call bullshit.  They all know, and have known, exactly what they were doing, what was going to happen, and what they wanted to accomplish.  It's more than just bureaucracy being bureaucracy:  it's bureaucracy as political weapon.

What are you talking about.  What party could possibly benefit from poor marginalized people being prevented from voting.

[OttoVonBismarck]

So i was reflecting on something. I do not believe in my lifetime I've ever been surprised at the results of an election.

I was too young to really follow Reagan-Carter, that may have been one that would have shocked me as the polls were very close and Reagan beat Carter like Simon Legree's overseers beat Uncle Tom.

But the elections I followed since (was old enough to at least notice an election in '84 despite being too young to vote) I pretty much knew the outcomes that happened were either likely or strongly possible. I knew Reagan and Bush I were gonna kill their opponents in 84, 88. In '92 I thought Bush had a good chance to hold on but knew Clinton had a chance to beat him with the Perot insurgency and Clinton turning out to be a much better folksy and spirited campaigner than the Patrician Bush. I don't know that anyone took Dole's candidacy seriously, even though I thought him a great man and patriot and someone who would have been a fine President. I knew 2000 would be close, and I suspected Bush would win in a close election in '04. I knew McCain was toast long before election day, and this year while I lean towards thinking Obama wins neither result would surprise me.

The only thing that would surprise me this year would be a landslide win by either candidate. For that matter I guess I can say I was surprised in 2000 not by the close result or the winner, but I never would've expected it to drag on for a month and end up in the SCOTUS.

[crazy canuck]

The thing that would shock me is if Mittens won.  Has there ever been a candidate that no one really liked who won the Presidency.

In Canada we had the phenomenon occur once (Joe Clarke) but that is the only time I can recall it happening.