Voting Turn-out HUGE!

My wife just called - at 6:02, the line was around the corner, almost to Rockhill Road at the St. Peter's Legacy Center. In my 20 years of voting in this precinct, I've never seen a line out the door.

(Yes, she'll wait.)

Republicans Attacking the Rural Areas?

This is kind of funny in a not-funny way. Voter ID has always been a scam designed to suppress voting by the poor and elderly, and pushed by Republicans as a way to restrict suffrage under the cover of solving the virtually non-existent problem of voter fraud.

Over at Show-Me Progress, though, Clark did a little analysis of the potentially disenfranchised, and it turns out that the rural areas have a much higher percentage of the targeted population than the urban areas. Not only are the rural areas hurt worse by percentages, they represent a higher absolute number, as well.

It appears that voter ID laws may actually be beneficial to Democrats. But don't go looking to see this analysis sway the Dems to start favoring efforts to restrict the right to vote. For Dems, some values are more important than self-interest. Like the right to vote.

I appreciate Clark's work on the issue, and hope that it another attack on poor and elderly suffrage in the next Missouri General Assembly. The Republicans should oppose it for self-interest, and the Democrats will oppose it because we are the true party of values.

Would You Sell Your Vote?

A survey of NYU undergraduate students shows that 20% would trade their right to vote in the next Presidential election for an iPod Touch. "66 percent said they'd forfeit their vote for a free ride to NYU. And half said they'd give up the right to vote forever for $1 million."

Ironically, these students are aware of the value of a vote. "70.5 percent said they believe that one vote can make a difference - including 70 percent of the students who said they'd give up their vote for free tuition."

At first, these numbers surprised me, but further thought on the matter puts it into a more understandable light. Over one third of voters relinquished their right to vote in the most recent Presidential election. If you were going to relinquish that right for nothing, why not pick up an iPod Touch for the lack of effort?

Student explanations of the results varied. One pointed out that none of the likely candidates closely reflected his views, anyhow. The obverse of that point was made by a young woman who observed that New York would remain a blue state without her vote. None of these students pointed to the Supreme Court's overriding the election process in 2000 as ground for their electoral nihilism, but they were mostly under 15 at the time.

Personally, I'd enjoy an iPod a lot more than I enjoyed the results of the last two presidential elections . . .