Voter Turnout – Too Little Expectation?

Yesterday’s turnout for Knox County election was approximately 52,000 or so, which is between 20-25% of the ~244,000 registered voters in this county.  R. Neal says that while it’s high for Knox County, it’s still low for an election with as much as stake as this one had.

What’s interesting to me is that, as I said yesterday at 7:30 there was a line out the door of the gym to vote and it took me 40 minutes to finally get all the way through.  And all 9 voting machines were in heavy use.  There was no way they could’ve expanded their resources to cover more voters.  What if turnout had been 40%?  60%?  God help us, 80%?  What would the polling places have done then?  They couldn’t order out for more machines…. the wait time would’ve been interminable.

Just because historical precedent suggests 20-25% turnout, that doesn’t mean a much higher percentage shouldn’t be prepared for.

Whither Frist?

With the possible successors to Sen. Bill Frist’s Senate seat narrowed to two, <a href=”" target=”_blank”><b>Tish</b></a> waxes melodic about the good doctor’s legacy and virtues:
<blockquote><i>I say all this just to prepare you for a few thoughts I’d like to share – thoughts on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. I have an incredible admiration for this man. In fact, I blogged about him once before. His accomplishments in the medical field and in politics make him one of the most influential men in recent history – at least in my book.</i></blockquote>She goes on to list a number of these accomplishments, all of which are indeed noteworthy.  I commented on my evaluation of Senator Frist and his legacy, and repeat it here for discussion.

<span style=”font-style:italic;”>Everything I’ve seen of him since after he was elected tells me he’s become a career politician all the way and replaced medicine as his passion and career.

I know he’s not running for Senate, but 1) he’s filling a campaign promise and b) he’s setting up for a presidential run. I believe he’s angling everything that’s going on in his professional career for political gain.

The fact that he rose so fast from a Freshman Senator that nobody’d ever heard of (but with a “hook”, that he was an MD) to gaining popularity by using his medical skills while in office, to suddenly rising to Senate Majority Leader? The ascension was too sudden to be simply a testement to his leadership and integrity – there had to be way too much politickin’, and that’s not good for anyone, especially his constituents in Tennessee.

When a person decides to become a physician he needs to dedicate his life to medicine and healing others. Frist did so for a while, then saw a better deal in politics and for all intents and purposes turned his back on being a physician. To so easily from such a noble calling to a way of life that wallows in dishoner strikes me as very suspect.

Now, if he’s actually retired from public life and returns to the private sector as a regular doc or even an administrator, I’ll glady admit I was wrong. I hope I am. But I think we’ll forget Senator Frist was ever Dr. Frist as he attempts to become President Frist.</span>

Election Day Report

Me: "I'd like a paper ballot, please."

Lady Election Worker: "Ok, follow me…"

follow, follow, follow…

Lady Election Worker: "All right, you can take this ballot and fill it out and one of our many elaborate and secure voting cubicles (indicates cafeteria table with dividers made from cut-out cardboard boxes). When you're finished, dip your finger in the purple ink and you're all done!"

Heh. At least some folks have a sense of humor about all this…

Fellow Knox Countian – did you vote?

Just a Hypothetical Question…

I've got a hypothetical question about immigration. I'm not for this idea, nor against it necessarily – I'm just curious what you think the effect would be.

What would the effect be on America, our ideals, our law, or citizens or our immigrants if the "citizen by birth" statute were abolished? What if, instead, you had to be the child of a native or naturalized citizen to be considered an American citizen if you are born on U.S. soil?

I've heard it said many illegal immigrant use the fact that they have children that are born here in the U.S. as a tool to keep themselves in the country. What if that tie was no longer an option? Would that help/hurt/hinder the process of immigration and naturalization of citizenship in America?

Just curious. What do you think?

Term Limit Madness

A lot of Knoxville and Knox County bloggers have been covering the ongoing debacle of elected officials here in town. I've refrained from really posting anything, because most everything of substance has been said or hashed out.

Almost.

If you don't live in Knoxville and Knox County, consider yourself lucky you don't live in an area as politically and procedurally primitive as ours.

Consider:

1) We can't get people to even read and understand the actual county charter that was voted on an implemented several years ago. Apparently the charter doesn't make provisions for some of the elected offices the previous government allowed for, but no one noticed this so they kept the offices anyway. Oops!

2) We have a variety of elected county commissioners who, knowing full well the Knox County voters decided to amend the charter a few years ago and implemented term limits, have decided the will of the people is invalid and have attacked the charter itself. Until this point, no one considered the charter in any way invalid – until their lawsuits that is. Now apparently only because a lawsuit was filed, the charter may be invalid.

In related news: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and the ghost of Ronald Reagan recently filed suit in the Supreme Court alledging the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights are invalid – the dissolution of which would remove the pesky 2-term-limit for presidents.

Yes folks, that's the equivalent comparison. Scorched earth – if you're getting kicked out of the sandbox, then blow it up behind you.

And what's even more interesting… of the dozen or so incumbent County Commissioners who – by vote of the residents – are not allowed to run for another term, a number of the others not even involved in the lawsuit have refused to actually remove themselves from the ballot. Therefore, if the charter validity is upheld and term limits are allowed to continue, several of the commissioners who should not be running will still be on the ballot!

And in which case, if they are actually elected by a populace dumb enough to vote for them, they will not be able to serve and their local party office will decide who takes their place! Which means if Commissioner John Griess – a Republican incument term-limited commissioner from my district who has not removed his name from the ballot – is actually reelected to his seat, the local Republican party would nominate his successor. And that person would assume the Commission seat.

At least that's how I understand it. Corrections are welcome.

I would like to point out that Commissioner Wandy Moody (3rd district) is a friend of mine and attends my church. She is term-limited and decided early on to remove her name from the ballot. Good for her – she's one of the few.

All that means I will not under any circumstance vote for any term-limited incumbent still on the ballot. And even if for some strange reason the charter is declared invalid, term limits are stricken from the law, and the whole situation goes to higgly-piggly, I will still not vote for a commissioner who would have been term-limited.

Because those who decided to continue to run are thumbing their noses at the people who a) elected them in the first place, and 2) decided correctly to enact term-limits.

And if you live in Knox County, I would suggest you do the same.

Doin’ the Curly Shuffle

(For some reason I keep reporting on the Today show this week)

This morning Matt Lauer asked Chris Matthews (of "Hardball") how important this presidential leak story was on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Barely a Blip on the Radar, and 10 being–

"10, Matt.. 10. Above 10," Matthews broke in excitedly. Gleefully. "Super 10, Matt. Mega Major Colossal 10 – An Ultra Massive 10 on the Global Universal Scale of 10's, Matt."

Then he started drooling, dropped to the floor and spun around while lying down like Curly going "Whoop whoop whoop whoop!!!"

Ok, maybe he didn't do all that, but you could tell that's what he would have liked to say. He was so happy Bush was involved in some kind of scandal he would've given it an 11 if he could count that high.

Which means, of course, it's about a 5.

(See Republicans, 1998, Monica Lewinsky hearings)

A word of advice for all Democrats happy about this non-development (Rich explains it well) – when the Republican party put Bill Clinton through the impeachment ringer for no good reason, it distracted the country for two years and kept the administration from concentrating on the important business of the country. Business such as…I don't know…hunting down terrorists? And a year after the 2000 election we had 9/11. Keep that in mind.

Score One for the Good Politicians (and the cable companies)

The West Wing runs again tonight on BRAVO

"Last night's "Election Day" episode of The West Wing was interrupted locally by WBIR's Tornado Warning coverage. The same episode will air tonight, Monday, April 3rd, at 8:00 PM EDT on the BRAVO network."

And if you haven't watched in a while, stay tuned until the very end as things begin to get very sad…

Query of the Day

Bob Corker's GOP rivals say he's not a "loyal Republican"

Senate candidate Bob Corker's Republican rivals say his vote in two Democratic primaries make his GOP credentials questionable.

I'm sorry but isn't "GOP credentials" a contradiction in terms?