A Wisconsin conservative Christian writes about, well, whatever I feel like
Just browsing election returns in Minnesota.
Here we find in Maplewood P-06 that the total number of voters, those who signed in on election day, those who registered on election day, military ballots and absentee ballots is 1396.
The final recount totals (PDF file p. 66 has the results) for that precinct have Coleman 596, Franken 719 and others 249, totalling [mumble, mumble, carry the 3, um, unintelligible, divide by 2] 1564 votes.
Hmmm.
Our favorite free liberal paper asks.
I can answer.
No.
Why not?
Well, it depends on which side you’re on.
If you’re a Republican, you’re convinced every one’s dead grandmother, felons, illegal immigrants and more are going to be casting a vote. It’s the Democratic game plan.
It you’re a Democrat, you just know that voters will be prevented from voting, ballots will be lost, machines will be rigged and more. It’s the Republican game plan.
New technologies are invented because the old technologies were suspect. Longer lines from having to learn how to use these new methods of voting.
“Fraud. Fraud,” greets each new story of some irregularity. ACORN and Diebold, registrations and restrictions, machinations about machines, Photo ID and same day registration, everyone’s got their villain or villains.
And all this happened because of a few hanging chads in southeast Florida.
Cindy Kilkenny at Fairly Conservative pointed out that Obama’s campaign was urging people to take Tuesday off and work for the campaign.
Sen. Mary Lazich told us at Conservatively Speaking that Wisconsin employers are required to give their employees three hours off so they can vote,
6.76 Time off for voting.
(1) Any person entitled to vote at an election is entitled to be absent from work while the polls are open for a period not to exceed 3 successive hours to vote. The elector shall notify the affected employer before election day of the intended absence. The employer may designate the time of day for the absence.
(2) No penalty, other than a deduction for time lost, may be imposed upon an elector by his or her employer by reason of the absence authorized by this section.
(3) This section applies to all employers including the state and all political subdivisions of the state and their employees, but does not affect the employees’ right to holidays existing on June 28, 1945, or established after that date.
History: 1977 c. 394; 1991 a. 316.
And I found out that Wisconsin is not alone among the states in this.
Then I came across this initiative that asks employers to give their employees an hour off to vote.
I think it should be a national holiday. And in that I see I agree with this particularly brilliant writer,
One solution suggested by some is to make election day a holiday. Would people be more likely to vote then? Perhaps. In this day of incentives, an alternative may be to give businesses incentives to allow employees time to vote.
It’s all done. They had a bit of trouble finding my record. I have a hard enough time finding it myself. But the final piece of information was my birthdate.
She found it and didn’t need to see my ID 😦
It probably would have made everything so much easier.
James Wigderson names his political idiot of the week.
I go to two posts of Jeff over at Five Points. On voter ID he gives some doable common sense ways to avoid disenfrancising voters and says, if these were put in place,
The only people it would disenfranchise are the lazy people who refuse to get their ass down to the DMV to get a state-issued ID.
I agree that what he suggests should be put in place before we even think about instituting voter ID.
Jeff also gives his thoughts on the Great Lakes Compact. Good points here also, for example,
I think that Michigan is going to be the state that is going to be a thorn in everyone’s side because they have nothing to lose. The entire state falls within the Great Lakes Basin so they need permission from nobody. Illinois is also a concern because they have an exemption in place that allows them a very large daily diversion via the Chicago River.
I’m looking forward to John Schoenknecht’s column’s in the Freeman. I, too, have his Spring’s book and history fascinates me.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to Indiana’s voter identification law, in a timely case that sets up a confrontation between officials who claim such laws prevent voter fraud and challengers who say ID requirements keep some people from the polls.
The Indiana law requires voters to show a government photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, to qualify to vote. Last January, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected claims by the state Democratic party that the law infringes on the voting rights of people without easy access to such IDs, particularly the poor.
The Court will also hear a case on lethal injection as criminal punishment.
Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative 