Tag: Elections

NEW YORK (CNN) …[F]ormer “first daughter” Chelsea Clinton… turned up shortly after 6 a.m. at her polling site on West 20th Street — in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan — only to be told her name was not in the voter registration books there, a voting official said.

It turned out the registration book for her district had been mistakenly sent to the wrong location, said New York City Board of Elections Executive Director John Ravitz.

She filed an affidavit vote — a paper ballot that allows election workers to confirm that a voter is properly registered after their vote is cast. If the voter is not registered, the vote is not accepted.

As Stephanie Miller said, even voting machines recoil from Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio.

My friend Judy has a post up on her site titled, “The New Pandemic: Outrage Fatigue,” in which she expresses the feelings of millions of Americans who have grown exhausted by the daily outrages produced by the Bush Administration and their cronies in the 109th Congress over the past two years:

I am so tired of Bush and his gang ignoring evidence and feeding the American public only partial truths. I am tired of photos of our angry president on the front page, tired of his hollow swagger on the public stage, tired of 51 percent of Americans believing what he says.

I am exhausted by the damage he and his cronies have done to America in the eyes of the world. Even our allies are worn out from the the Bush team’s pretense that America is on the right track in our war against terrorism.

Tomorrow, we shall see if voting can cure outrage fatigue — or at least ameliorate it. As Judy says:

However, I am never too tired to vote. I will have the strength to vote against lies and half truths.

Amen to that.

The Class of ’94 might be only a memory after tomorrow, if some remaining Newt Gingrich Contractors with America get the boot. They are:

John Hostettler in Indiana, a leading voice for social conservatives who was among six House Republicans to vote against authorizing force in Iraq in 2002. He is all but certain to lose to Democrat Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff, in the district dubbed the “bloody eighth” for it’s razor-thin election victories.

Steve Chabot in Ohio, a lawyer from Cincinnati who is considered somewhat of a maverick in the party despite his conservative voting record. He faces a spirited challenge from John Cranley, a Cincinnati city councilman who failed to unseat Chabot in a challenge six years ago.

Barbara Cubin in Wyoming, a fifth-generation resident of the state and a conservative who champions its mining and agriculture industries. Wyoming hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress since 1976, and Cubin’s race against Democrat Gary Trauner, a businessman, only recently became competitive.

Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota, who has an occasional independent streak. In the late 1990s, he concluded that Gingrich as speaker had been “a disappointment to everybody” and that the GOP revolution had been exaggerated. Democrat Tim Walz, a high school teacher, is challenging him.

Charles Bass in New Hampshire, a moderate who has focused on the environment and opposed the Bush administration’s proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He is in a rematch with Democrat Paul Hodes, a lawyer who ran against Bass in 2004.

J.D. Hayworth in Arizona, a fierce critic of illegal immigration who advocates strong U.S. borders. He opposed the president’s proposal for an expanded guest-worker program until border controls are improved. Former state Sen. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat, is trying to unseat him.

Two of Newt’s disciplines are already gone — Bob Ney from Ohio and our own Mark Foley from Florida. Thank God and Greyhound.

Uh-oh:

Pew is out with their final pre-election poll and just like the ABC/Wash. Post poll, Pew shows Republicans with momentum. In the generic ballot, Dems lead by just 4 points. More importantly, the GOP has made significant cuts into the Dems once gigantic lead among indies.