nerds like me. so in honor of election day, i'm posting some of my most recent, favorite thoughts on elections. i am a member of the university of utah's MPA student association. nerdy? i know. but fun! at our recent halloween party/fall food drive kickoff (benefitting the Utah Food Bank), one of our activities was a mock election. now, i must give credit where credit is due--the idea was not mine, but rich's, and a great idea it was. i, however, was given charge over it. so below is my setup...
the polling place sign is great. i borrowed that from one of my professors who researches elections and so has all kinds of random election things lying around. i made the un-stuffable and completely fraud-proof ballot box (sorry we're not diebold. no DRE's, no optical scan ballots, not even an antique lever machine--we're clearly underfunded. write your representative!) for authenticity's sake
, i even had some old "i voted"stickers for people to wear around, which must have been left over from my days as a poll worker. we spared no expense, after all we wanted it to be a good experience--it's all about "voter confidence" these days. most importantly, i made the ballots. the ballots were sweet--they looked semi-professional, so much so that i had to include a disclaimer saying that they were "For MPASA Mock Election use Only. Not an Official Ballot." (but sorry again, no VVPAT). it was fun. we voted for 2 of the leading presidential candidates (old-school style, the first runner-up gets to be vice), as well as for the SLC mayor, and the current ballot referendum #1 which ha
s created all sorts of local debate about school vouchers.
the results...barack obama is our new president, with not one but TWO vice-presidents. that's right my girl hillary tied with none other than mitt romney himself. while rudy pulled in a few votes, actually tying jo
hn edwards, i am sorry to say mccain got none. i am not sorry to say that fred thompson got none, since he drives me crazy. my favorite though, is that stephen colbert got ONE redeeming vote, which of course was a write in. colbert is hilarious, and is claiming he WILL run. but only in his state of south carolina. he wants to run as a republican AND as a democrat, so that he can be the first person to lose both. you've gotta love that.
ralph becker-democrat, beat dave buhler-republican for mayor. and the school
voucher referendum #1 went down hard core. this is a good thing in my opinion, because even if you think vouchers may be good in some situations, this referendum allows everyone to get vouchers, even the wealthiest people who would send their kids to private school regardless. (that, by the way, is a unique utah twist on the voucher debate, and not an issue up for consideration in the national voucher debate.) in the real election today, the referendum is expected to lose 40-60, although there can be no doubt that we have not seen the last of the pro-voucher, milton friedman followers. 
my last point here is to plug one of my favorite blogs: Election Updates: "New research, analysis and commentary on election reform, voting technology, and election administration." i check it regularly. (nerd? i already told you--i know!) that same professor who gave me the polling place sign is one of the bloggers, along with a few colleagues. it's a lot of academic, technical talk, but here are two of my favorite postings recently. Photo ID Comment from Justice Dept. is about john tanner of the DOJ's embarrassing speech regarding minority disenfranchisement caused by voter ID laws (here's a link to the actual youtube video where he says "they die first...just the math, is such as that.") Be Careful What You Wish For discusses an article that absurdly links election machine manufacturers to big tobacco. it's funny news without intending to be, which is the best kind.
the polling place sign is great. i borrowed that from one of my professors who researches elections and so has all kinds of random election things lying around. i made the un-stuffable and completely fraud-proof ballot box (sorry we're not diebold. no DRE's, no optical scan ballots, not even an antique lever machine--we're clearly underfunded. write your representative!) for authenticity's sake
, i even had some old "i voted"stickers for people to wear around, which must have been left over from my days as a poll worker. we spared no expense, after all we wanted it to be a good experience--it's all about "voter confidence" these days. most importantly, i made the ballots. the ballots were sweet--they looked semi-professional, so much so that i had to include a disclaimer saying that they were "For MPASA Mock Election use Only. Not an Official Ballot." (but sorry again, no VVPAT). it was fun. we voted for 2 of the leading presidential candidates (old-school style, the first runner-up gets to be vice), as well as for the SLC mayor, and the current ballot referendum #1 which ha
s created all sorts of local debate about school vouchers.the results...barack obama is our new president, with not one but TWO vice-presidents. that's right my girl hillary tied with none other than mitt romney himself. while rudy pulled in a few votes, actually tying jo
hn edwards, i am sorry to say mccain got none. i am not sorry to say that fred thompson got none, since he drives me crazy. my favorite though, is that stephen colbert got ONE redeeming vote, which of course was a write in. colbert is hilarious, and is claiming he WILL run. but only in his state of south carolina. he wants to run as a republican AND as a democrat, so that he can be the first person to lose both. you've gotta love that.ralph becker-democrat, beat dave buhler-republican for mayor. and the school
voucher referendum #1 went down hard core. this is a good thing in my opinion, because even if you think vouchers may be good in some situations, this referendum allows everyone to get vouchers, even the wealthiest people who would send their kids to private school regardless. (that, by the way, is a unique utah twist on the voucher debate, and not an issue up for consideration in the national voucher debate.) in the real election today, the referendum is expected to lose 40-60, although there can be no doubt that we have not seen the last of the pro-voucher, milton friedman followers. 
my last point here is to plug one of my favorite blogs: Election Updates: "New research, analysis and commentary on election reform, voting technology, and election administration." i check it regularly. (nerd? i already told you--i know!) that same professor who gave me the polling place sign is one of the bloggers, along with a few colleagues. it's a lot of academic, technical talk, but here are two of my favorite postings recently. Photo ID Comment from Justice Dept. is about john tanner of the DOJ's embarrassing speech regarding minority disenfranchisement caused by voter ID laws (here's a link to the actual youtube video where he says "they die first...just the math, is such as that.") Be Careful What You Wish For discusses an article that absurdly links election machine manufacturers to big tobacco. it's funny news without intending to be, which is the best kind.
okay i'm done...go vote! me and my kids did, and afterwards as we picked up the other two kids we carpool to school with, joshua asked them "do you guys vote?" and proceeded to tell them all about it, while proudly wearing his "i voted" sticker. so don't be outdone by a 4-year-old. elections may be for nerds, but according to joshua "voting's really cool."
3 comments:
i'm surprised that obama won. i find it kind of fascinating that mitt being a mormon hasn't been more of a pull on the mormons themselves. i find myself wanting to support him soley because he's mormon--he's so comfortable to me. and i feel a sense of loyalty, too, like i SHOULD. but, ultimately, i'm still waffling.
what a fun organization you are in. so awesome that you're so involved (although, i wouldn't have expected anything different).
Nerd? Hardly! I'm a big political geek too. When I was in high school, we had a mock election in 1988. I was proud that Michael Dukakis won the majority vote in my class (the Juniors) and the Faculty. The other grades went for Bush (senior).
In 1998, I was a poll worker at some precinct in SLC. Did you volunteer for that too? It was a lot of fun.
I agree with you on Fred Thompson. He's way overhyped. Last night, I went to a book signing and lecture that had a comedian give an opening act. He had some good zingers in there, like saying of Fred Thompson: "His three words are a noun, a verb, and a nap." And of Ann Coulter, he said: "She's half German, half Shepherd."
I'm also surprised Barack Obama won in lily white Utah. I thought Mitt would be the winner in your mock election. But, SLC is the liberal hotbed in that red state.
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