Posted on 11/02/2012 7:50:12 PM PDT by morethanright
By Mr. Curmudgeon:
Fox News was televising a Wisconsin campaign rally, with Mitt Romney speaking to an enthusiastic crowd. At one point, the throng of supporters interrupted his speech with chants of, "Four more days, four more days," referring to the waning hours of the Obama administration.
A local news report said that early voting might account for 40% of election 2012's national tally and that early voters in Florida's Dade County waited four hours to exercise their franchise. Worse still, they said Tuesdays' voting crowds might be the largest in U.S. history.
That's when I grabbed my hat, a bottle of water and headed to the polls.
I thought of Alexis de Tocqueville's 1835 book Democracy in America as I stood in a long line Friday to participate in early voting where I live in Florida. "The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe," he wrote.
Tocqueville noted that American politicians "must haunt the taverns, drink and argue with the mob; that is what is called Electioneering in America."
And that was certainly the case while I waited in line to vote: candidates for mayor, school board and clerk of the county court moved down the line, pressing the flesh.
A forest of political signs advocating on behalf of candidates for all offices and from all parties, surrounded the building. The signs for Romney/Ryan were plentiful. Those for Obama/Biden were pitiful - I counted only two.
The women electioneering on behalf of Mitt Romney were confident and beaming, sitting at their table with brochures and a bulletin board showing Romney's lead in early voting around the nation.
The two men at President Obama's table looked sour and crestfallen - and no one walked over to them ... even to ask the time. That the men in question looked like gruff union goons might explain the public's reluctance to speak with them ... or make eye contact.
It took me nearly an hour to make it into the building that mostly serves as a public library. The crowd, which was friendly and talkative, became silent and reverent as they waited their turn to present identification to precinct workers before receiving their ballot and entering the voting booth.
The late columnist for the Kansas City Star, Bill Vaughan, once wrote, "A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election."
It's too bad Vaughan isn't here to witness the heroic acts of freedom-loving individuals determined to end a corrupt and destructive presidency so as to preserve a system of liberty and justice worth dying for.
Article shared using the Free Republish tool on Tea Party Tribune.
Friend posted a picture of people waiting to vote in nearby town in Indiana....Went all the way down the block. There were a dozen in line yesterday when we stopped at the Court House....Record number of voters it appears.
I live in a rural county. Took longer to walk from the parking lot than it did to vote. 6 minutes max.
I keep seeing these reports of machines being pre-programmed to change Mitt votes to obama votes. Is this bunk, or is it happening?
I guess I was lucky. I live in a rural town and went to an even smaller place to vote. I was in and out in 5 minutes.
Early voting should be repealed - everywhere. Election Day voting and absentee ballots only.
Or, if early voting is allowed, it should be for a confined period of time - maybe over a weekend.
In any case, NO voting should occur BEFORE the last debate.
I have about 9 friends in other states who voted prior to the debates. NOW they are whining that they have been “disenfranchised” and want to change their vote.
I told them “tough noogies” - you shouldn’t have voted early. I have no idea which candidate they voted for.
What a bunch of maroons ...
Hope they’re all Republicans!
Hi onyx. Getting excited yet?
I live in a liberal part of Texas and Obama was pretty much hated. But that’s “liberal” in terms of our locality. :)
The DNC tossing out God was big here. Followed by the government taking on the banning the freedom of religion in mandating the feminazi sex agenda. The idea of changing the meaning of marriage to homo wasn’t big. All that was a bit to obvious for the Christian/Catholic Dems here, especially citizens who have come from South of the border.
I have not met one Black person who is not supporting Obama.
Hispanics here are socially conservative. However, that has a lot to do with our schools teaching the ideals behind American government and freedom in public schools. They believe in wealth transfer but not so much in pure evil.
Now that the margin in Oregon is only 6 points, I’m no longer ashamed to admit I live here. We have a few smart things that other states might do well to imitate.
One is we have no polling booths, no polling places, no lines, no crowds. It’s all vote by mail. It’s exactly like what many states have as an “absentee” ballot, but applied to the entire electorate. There is a secret sealed envelope that goes in another with your signature outside to verify. The registrar mails ONE ballot to each registered voter a month or so in advance. You can mail in or just use a convenient drive-by drop box. This saves lots of money and also there are no hanging chads or electronic glitches to cause confusion.
The second great thing we have is full service gas stations. It’s illegal for people to exit their car at the pump. An attendant pumps the gas, and I’ve never had a rude one. This is much safer and cleaner, especially for ladies (I hate that last drip from the nozzle and it reminds you of you-know-what). 20,000 jobs per year are generated, yet our gas prices remain in line with this part of the country. Only 2 states have this law, I believe.
Because it is stupid. If I couldn’t gas my go-cart in the 70’s I would have been pissed.
I know that New Jersey also does not allow self-service gas stations - never heard anything about not exiting the car, I often get out and talk with the attendants. Gas in New Jersey, without self-service, is cheaper than self-service gas in New York, and is in fact some of the least expensive in the nation. Such is the result of differences in tax policy...
Voted early in GA today, and spent 4 1/2 hours on the line. I have never seen anything like it, but then again I have never voted early before! There was a local news network truck and helicopter when I arrived, and when I got home and checked the website for the coverage, sure enough I found myself on the video (reminding me to lay off the Halloween candy, lol!). I kept trying to “read the tea leaves” about the motivations/political bent of my fellow voters, but it seemed like a mixed bag (mostly middle/upper middle class suburban types, very friendly! But also a handful here and there of people who were a little harder to decipher, and less apt to mingle with their line neighbors). A few people got fed up and left the line after 15-20 minutes, muttering something about waiting until Tuesday. Thing is, Tuesday we are forecast for chilly and rainy weather (today was pure perfection for being outside for hours) It will be interesting to see how things pan out here!
Are you serious? No self service at all in the state of New Jersey?
when we went for poll training the local clerk explained that the new voting machines were not the ones originally ordered. The Indiana SoS had notified them that those machines had NOT be certified for use by the state. When the information came out about the Ohio machines casting incorrect votes she researched on line. Sure enough the same company/machines were involved.
I’m in S. MS and it is also usual to have a lively Republican table with bright and friendly folks and a dead Dem table with lonely looking sourpusses. We had a recent mullett/music festival and there was a Republican booth pushing Romney and giving out yard signs and bumber stickers. Even a goodly number of Blacks were walking around with Romney signs to take home. The Dims had no booth. God I love S. MS!
Be of good cheer y'all !
A huge turnout is historically a protest vote. Don't let anyone tell you differently.
And you can bet your bottom deflated dollar that folks aren't turning out en masse all over the country just to be protesting Romney!
Leni
You betcha!
The second great thing we have is full service gas stations. It’s illegal for people to exit their car at the pump.
I lived in OR for years, and hated having to WAIT for the geek to pump my gas. I love being able to drive up- pay, pump, and drive away. And to pay less.
No one is forced to pay for a service. There is no fee and the gas prices are the same as Washington and lower than California. As for lines, I’ve never had to wait, and yet I’ve been in California many times (my family is there and I’m from there) and have to wait in a SELF-serve station because that state, at least in the urban areas now has just too darn many people in it.
Also, either way you are “forced to pay without a choice” because there are almost no gas stations left that offer a choice. If you’re in California you MUST pump your own gas, you could be elderly, handicapped, etc, so what. There is no “full service option”. In Oregon you MUST let an employee of the gas station, or in one case I have here, even the owner of the station, pump it.
Either way you have no choice. At least one option is more helpful and more safe. If we had to “pay a fee” heck yes, I’d agree with you.
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