2004 election

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lance
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Battleground state update

Post by lance » Aug 21st 2004, 2:48 pm

News from Nevada:

A contact at the Board of Elections informed me that last weekend they registered 20,000 new voters.

Also according to the local Democratic Campaign HQ there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain issue is really pissing people off out here. Bush promised to oppose the nationwide nuclear dumping project in 2000 and then...wait for it...broke his promise by approving this plan.

Nevadans by and large are upset by this and Kerry is getting some traction by opposing the Yucca Mountain project.

-LanceMan

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lance
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news

Post by lance » Aug 29th 2004, 4:21 pm

More news from Nevada:

Nevada like other states, has early elections. This means that voters can vote up to two weeks before the actual election date. More on this later.

Unlike other states, Nevada has backup paper ballots. According to KNPR reporting (8/27/04) Nevada Secretary of State officals have received mixed reactions from other states. Representatives from nine other states are currently on hand to witness voting here in Las Vegas. NSS officals further report receiving anger crank calls from members of other states' Secretary of State offices.

:shock:

These members were upset that Nevada was making them look bad by having back up paper ballots.

So yesterday I went to early for the September 7th primary. I was seriously impressed. It was held in a local grocery store. The poll workers had brand new Dell laptops. You walked up showed your voter registration card and ID. The poll worker then printed out a label with your name, address and voter # and then you signed.

I was given an electronic card and went to the voting machine. I put the card in, selected the language preference and then went through seven screens of canidates. I made my selection using the touch screen. At the end of my voting, the machine asked me to verify my choices. I had the opportunity to make changes. Then it asked if I wanted to make a paper back up copy, I said yes. It printed a receipt with my name and the choices I had made. The receipt was behing a plastic screen so you didn't get to take it with you but it was cool seeing the backup copy in print.

Ohio does not have early voting and has decided to remain with paper punch card ballots for the general election. I give credit to the Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for refusing to install Diebold machines.

Does anybody else have the option to vote early for either primaries or the general election? How does voting work in the UK or Germany or Austrailia?

-LanceMan

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TomSpeed
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Post by TomSpeed » Aug 29th 2004, 8:48 pm

I know if I like the idea of my name being printed on a vote receipt. Our votes are supposed to be kept secret. That seems weird.
TomSpeed

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lance
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Post by lance » Aug 29th 2004, 10:48 pm

TomSpeed wrote:I know if I like the idea of my name being printed on a vote receipt. Our votes are supposed to be kept secret. That seems weird.
Yeah,

A bit creepy I agree. Given what happened in 2000 though, it's a sacrifice I am prepared to make for a back up paper ballot.

-LanceMan

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starbug
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Post by starbug » Sep 1st 2004, 7:44 am

Ah-nold backs Bush for re-election.

And, in Patty tone: 'well, that eases my mind'.

An extract from today's Guardian:
But the Governator was never an ordinary American immigrant: he was already a body building champion when he arrived in the late 1960s and decided, on hearing Nixon speak, that Republicanism was the way to satisfy his voracious ambitions.

In June the governor revived the whiff of unbridled sexism that pervaded the final few weeks of his run for the California governorship last year by referring to California's Democratic legislators as a bunch of "girlie men" during state budget negotiations.

Last night the phrase won a self-deprecating reprise, to the delight of the crowd: "To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: 'Don't be economic girlie men.'"
...
America's power was limitless, he said, and should not be curtailed by any carping voices: "If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world, then you are a Republican ... If you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism, then you are a Republican."
:shock: :roll: the bold is mine.

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Nothingman
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Post by Nothingman » Sep 1st 2004, 10:31 am

Arnold aslo mentioned that "the gov't should be accountable to the people, not the people to the gov't". Nice thought, but this is not what I think about when I think out the Bush administration. This administration is not accessible at all by the people, their doors are closed and they have a very "we know best" attititude. They feed us selected information through FOX news to ensure they have majority backing, but by no means are they openly accountable to the people. I believe Arnold left out a few words in his speach, it should have read "If you believe that the gov't should be accountable to the people with what information the gov't chooses to censor to the people, and not the people to the gov't. Then you are a republican."
"To come to your senses, you must first go out of your mind." - Alan Watts

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lance
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Post by lance » Sep 2nd 2004, 9:37 pm

Nothingman wrote:Arnold aslo mentioned that "the gov't should be accountable to the people, not the people to the gov't". Nice thought, but this is not what I think about when I think out the Bush administration. This administration is not accessible at all by the people, their doors are closed and they have a very "we know best" attititude. They feed us selected information through FOX news to ensure they have majority backing, but by no means are they openly accountable to the people. I believe Arnold left out a few words in his speach, it should have read "If you believe that the gov't should be accountable to the people with what information the gov't chooses to censor to the people, and not the people to the gov't. Then you are a republican."
Word.

Lately I have been working at an office where all day long all they play is Fox News. :evil:

So far I have managed to avoid driving a nail into my head, but it has been very, very close.

(Deep Sigh)

Here is a link showing Kerry's reaction to Cheney's speech and Zell Miller's meltdown at the RNC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 4Sep2.html

"Kerry responded to the rhetorical assault on him at the convention by accusing the Republicans of attacking "my fitness to serve as commander-in-chief. Well, here's my answer: I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."

Ahh yes, Cheney's, FIVE deferments.

:D

-LanceMan

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lance
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Post by lance » Sep 2nd 2004, 9:40 pm

Hi all,

According to http://www.bartcop.com and http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/ ... ex_np.html
Ben Barnes, the man who helped get Bush his nice National Guard assignment during the Vietnam War, will be on 60 minutes this Sunday.

-LanceMan

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Post by lance » Sep 4th 2004, 6:10 pm

News from Ohio:

My mom attended the Kerry rally at midnight Friday morning in Springfield, Ohio. She said that the place was packed. Many college students and union guys. Edwards opened up the speech saying that didn't know whether Bush's speech was over or not since they hadn't seen it.

A guy from the back called out, "You didn't miss much."

-LanceMan

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Post by fnordboy » Sep 5th 2004, 12:00 am

lance wrote:A guy from the back called out, "You didn't miss much."
:lol: That is the truth. I thought it was a very weak speech overall. Though most of the speeches at the RNC were weak (from what I saw). Bush looked extremely uncomfortable for the majority of the speech, only near the last 1/4 did he seem to come into his own.

Glad to see Kerry/Edwards hitting Ohio so hard that is a state I think they can take come election day. I am going to be biting my nails all day Nov. 2. If that day doesn't give me an ulcer I don't know what will :lol:

Now we wait for the debates. They should be interesting.

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Post by lance » Sep 6th 2004, 6:34 pm

fnordboy wrote:
lance wrote:A guy from the back called out, "You didn't miss much."
:lol: That is the truth. I thought it was a very weak speech overall. Though most of the speeches at the RNC were weak (from what I saw). Bush looked extremely uncomfortable for the majority of the speech, only near the last 1/4 did he seem to come into his own.

Glad to see Kerry/Edwards hitting Ohio so hard that is a state I think they can take come election day. I am going to be biting my nails all day Nov. 2. If that day doesn't give me an ulcer I don't know what will :lol:

Now we wait for the debates. They should be interesting.
Hey all,

I worked a convention for the Democrats yesterday. A local politico told me a couple of interesting things.

1) That the first debate should be around 9/30, will see if that pans out.

2) That several Vegas democrats spoke with one Wade Sanders back in August, who served with Kerry and also commanded a Swift boat. He told the democrats that he hopes that Kerry is 11 points behind heading into September because that will light a fire under Kerry. Kerry will get seriously fired up and that the Bush people have no idea of what's coming or how challenging an opponent Kerry can be.

You can read more about Wade Sanders here:

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=4859

and here:

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index ... 309800.xml

-LanceMan

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lance
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elections and Iraq

Post by lance » Sep 20th 2004, 11:48 pm

My brother's friend just got back from a year in Iraq. He was already stopped lossed once, extending his service beyond his initial contract and may yet be stopped lossed again.

He had to do a side trip to Germany to testify against a Sergeant who was alleged to have committed an illegal killing. His feeling is that while the Department of Defense led by Rumsfeld has not done a stellar job in dealing with cases of abuse, the Army is at least trying.

He told my brother that come December the Pentagon will announce a major, major call up of reserve officers. This leaves my brother with a interesting problem. My brother's reserve status expires, theoretically, in March. So he can either wait to get called up or he can resign his commission. He hasn't decided what to do yet.

Kerry did mention this upcoming call up in a speech a couple of days ago.

Meantime my brother's friend is doing campaign work in Tennessee for Kerry.

-LanceMan

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Post by lance » Oct 14th 2004, 10:03 pm

News from Ohio:

My mom, who is working on several campaigns, got an interesting call. She received a live call from Texas Democrats. They said that while their vote won't count they urged mom to get out and work for Kerry. Mom said she was way ahead of them and couldn't wait for November 2nd.

-LanceMan

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Post by lance » Oct 18th 2004, 10:34 pm

News from Nevada:

Saturday I voted!

:D :D :D :D :D

Felt damn, damn good. Early voting in Nevada runs from October 16th to 29th. I would have shared my good news early except that my brother's modem is perpetually on the blink :evil: Oh well.

Last Friday night My brothers family and me went to see Michael Moore at UNLV. [spoiler] It was an amazing evening. Moore has been criticized by many on the right as being a crazy ego maniac. Perhaps he is, but he certainly wasn't on Friday night. He was very self effacing, humble and extremely well spoken. He was also exhausted. Friday night was the 28th city on his 60 city tour all before the election.

He made some jokes about the debates and the election. He read excerpts from Bill O' Reilly's new O'Reilly Factor for kids :rofl: He read some touching letters from soliders serving in Iraq and from family members who have lost loved ones there.

We saw a series of campaign commericals that Michael Moore put together for the Bush/Cheney campaign. "58,000 Americans died in Vietnam but John Kerry didn't. If John Kerry loved his country he would have died, Bush/Cheney 2004....In Vietnam when the bullets were flying what did John Kerry do, he ducked, Bush Cheney 2004...(picture of Senator Max Cleland in his wheel chair) Max Cleland says he loves his country but he lost only three limbs. If he truly loved his country he would have lost all four limbs. Do we want a man like this hanging out in the White House?, Bush Cheney 2004."

He talked about his plans for his next film on the Drug and HMO companies. He shared a "secret" memo from a disgruntled Pfzier employeed cautioning employees to notify managment if approached by Michael Moore. Pfzier said they were unsure of Moore's stance on the Drug Companies. Moore shared with us Pzfier's Michael Moore hotline number in New York. He urged us to call Pzfier and say, "(in whispered voice)He's here, he's in the building, he's coming closer, send reinforcements, no, no, ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

A member of the Rage against the Machine did a couple of songs for us. I am not familiar with his work but the crowd loved him. Between 7,000 and 8,000 people were at the Thomas & Mack Center, pretty good for a Vegas Friday night.

Moore urged us not to vote for Raplh Nader. He said he had spoken to Nader last winter urging him not to run. He told Nader that 8 out the 9 democratic canidates were to the left of the 2000 Democratic Party ticket, that even Al Gore was more liberal than the Al Gore of 2000. Nader's message had been accepted and thus no reason for Nader to run.

He told us that in the voting booth we would be there with Ralph. Oh Ralph is so pure, so progressive noone would know if you voted for Ralph. Just you and Ralph, the urge for vote progressive and look down upon the foolish democrats is strong. Moore said you can still criticize politicans and Democrats for their failings, you can still be a green but in this election vote for Kerry. [/spoiler]

Sunday I went canvassing at apartment buildings urging people to go out and vote. We gave rides to 2 or 3 people to the polls. Very satisfying.

-LanceMan

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Post by lance » Oct 25th 2004, 10:49 pm

Hey all,

What a weekend. 350 Californians came to Las Vegas to go door to door to urge Kerry voters to go and early vote. And for two days I drove a group of 6 of them around Vegas.

We had a blast. My group was from Los Angeles. I made a couple of friends and got several invitees to go and see LA. We did some of Henderson, very white, very conservative and to the south. We also did central and part of Western Vegas. A much more diverse population and more democratic. We knocked on over 400 doors, I lost count after that. We met a lot of Bush supporters and plenty of Kerry supporters. Most people were nice and some were thrilled to see us.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated with a buffet at the Mirage. Very nice, excellent sushi.

So next weekend the Californians will be out here again and I will be there to drive some of them around.

Latest Las Vegas Sun poll shows the race tightening to a dead heat, 48% to 48%. All within the margin of error but looks like Kerry is doing better here in Nevada.

-LanceMan

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