on the upcoming election...

[balmofgilead]

I'm taping Meet The Press as per my mother's request. This morning it features a debate between Michael Steele and Ben Cardin. Personally, I'm pretty sure I'll be voting for Cardin, but...*shrug* My mother does things differently than I do, I guess. (I'm not too fond of Steele's positions on...war, stem cells, gay marriage...anything, really. Even if he *does* like puppies. I suppose I should still investigate throughly, though.) edit: more importantly, he avoids answering questions about his feelings about Roe v. Wade and where he stands. Not Cool.

Anyway, I also finally hunted down links to streaming video of the two debates between O'Malley and Ehrlich. In case anyone else is interested:
WJZ's debate
MPT/WBAL's debate
Both were about two weeks ago. I'm not sure if/when there will be more.

Looking at candidates' websites makes me remember why and how much I abhor politics. So many pictures of candidate X shaking hands with people, grinning...it's all empty, really.

Also, I am officially the worst Jew ever: I'm in the mood for Christmas music and it's not even November yet, never mind Thanksgiving. Hahah.

Comments

[toastie.livejournal.com]

Re: the Maryland Senate race, I heard one African-American woman being interviewed who said she'd vote for Steele, because "it was would be nice to have one of us representing us for the first time". I don't profess to know the specific positions of Steele and Cardin, and maybe it's almost as bad that I, knowing nothing else, would vote based on party affiliation, but this statement still made me cringe.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

Race has definitely been brought up a lot in this election, if not by Steele himself than by other people, some who support him and even some who don't (specifically Kweisi Mfume, who ran against Cardin in the Democratic primaries). I think Mfume's son has endorsed Steele.

I would applaud her reasoning if she were explaining her decision to vote for Mfume over Cardin (who ran a pretty friendly race against each other, and are both good candidates), but Steele's politics are pretty different from Cardin's...

[toastie.livejournal.com]

Do the Maryland machines have photos of the candidates? It would be interesting study to have a mock election where different study groups only see one of the following:
- Name
- Party affiliation
- Photo
- Candidate personal statement

Actually, it would be very useful if, with these eVoting machines, you could have a link to a candidate personal statement. Of course, that would really hold up the lines. And you'd need large-print handouts and braille handouts and Spanish handouts...

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that any machines had pictures of the candidates! A mock election like that would be quite interesting, though.

The voting machines have large-print settings and an audio adaptation with a touchpad, but no Spanish. Someone brought htat up at the election judge training. Personally, while I'm not against having some things in multiple languages, I think it's fair that ballots are only in English--that's a fairly basic level of English proficiency, and voting *is* limited to citizens, not just residents.

I think I'm in favor of trying to get information to the people -before- they get to the polls, though, so they can actually mull over their decisions...like the quick guide that the League of Women Voters publishes. I'm not sure if anyone hands those out outside the polls, though that would be good.

[13927.livejournal.com]

Oregon mails out big fat booklets on the measures (with statements in support/opposition by anybody with $500 to burn) and the candidates. It's very good.

[toastie.livejournal.com]

Good summary article. I guess I can kind of understand why an uninformed black voter would say, "Great, another old white guy who's just pretending to care about us," and vote for Steele.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092701358.html)