2.07.2008

Election day in the Windy City

In Chicago - city of broad shoulders, hog butcher to the world, believer in lost causes (go Cubs!) - election shenanigans, in the words of the Sun-Times' Annie Sweeney, are no secret - they're a matter of civic pride.
Twenty voters at a Far North Side precinct who found their ink pens not working were told by election judges not to worry.

It's invisible ink, officials said. The scanner will count it....

"Part of me was thinking it does sound stupid enough to be true,'' said Amy Carlton, who had serious doubts but went ahead and voted anyway.

Chicagoans tend to take stupid in stride - the alderman's brother might own an invisible ink company, after all, and as Da Mare once said, "who do you want me to do business with? Strangers?" But listen up, Bunky - sometimes things are just so dumb they're just plain, well, dumb. Even on the Far North Side.

Tsk, tsk.

(Thanks to Spiiderweb™)

Later: And if Chicago voting's not your style, try New Mexico.
The huge turnout in yesterday's Democratic Primary led to long lines, voters who found they were no longer on the registration rolls for some still-unexplained reason, 17,000 votes had to be cast on provisional ballots which remain uncounted today, and now it's being reported --- incredibly --- that at least three ballot boxes were kept overnight last night, uncounted, at the home of a Democratic County Party Chairwoman.

What makes it all worse, as if all that is not troubling enough, is that the current razor-thin margin between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the caucus stands at just 217 votes out of 136 thousand ballots cast.

(Brad Blog)

No comments: