My mind, and the places it goes

If you are a registered voter in the United States, please go out and vote today. I am not going to tell you which side to vote for, who to choose, but I encourage you to go and exercise your franchise.

mabfan and I took our franchise out for a walk around the block this morning, and we were voters #200 and 201 at 8:20 AM.

Massachusetts has three statewide ballot questions (and some areas have more than that); Mass.gov has links to the questions and explanations. Not sure where to vote? Check Where Do I Vote MA (which I tend to pronounce as "Where do I vote, Ma?" as if lcmlc knows where my polling place is).

Democrat or Republican, Green Party or Dance Party, I don't care. Go vote.

(and this is the most patriotic icon I appear to have)

Dear Scott Brown,

Today you lost my vote.

Over the course of the past week, I have gotten no fewer than two calls per day from your campaign. The calls come at all hours -- many of which are during my six-month-old twin girls' nap times. I realize that as an unenrolled voter I am a prime target for your campaigning, but harassing me is not a way to get my vote.

I will be voting for one of your opponents on 19 January.

Sincerely,
A ticked-off mother in Brookline

This message was not paid for by anything other than my peace of mind.

Dear Elected Officials.

Stop it. Just... stop it. Corruption, accepting bribes, conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud... that's not why we elected you.

Stop. Now. Please.

Thank you.

-- A concerned citizen

Is it Tuesday yet?

mabfan and I intend to be at our polling place when they open tomorrow at 7 AM, be among the first in our precinct to cast our votes, and then head in to work.

I'm the first to admit it -- I have complete election fatigue. Twenty-two months is considerably too long for any campaign to run.

Whatever else you do tomorrow, if you are a registered voter in the United States and have not yet voted (I know some of you live in early-voting states), *please* go out and exercise your franchise. I'm not publicly endorsing any candidate or any stand on any of the three questions on the Massachusetts ballot. Just go vote. Please.

Scene: mabfan and gnomi are watching Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Bill Clinton: ...What about the assault on science and the defense of torch...*

gnomi: "What about the assault on science and the defense of Torchwood?"

*The word, upon running back via the TiVo, was "torture."

Is it wrong of me to vote against someone/something because there's an extraneous apostrophe in the signs supporting it?

(This question brought to you on account of today's town election in Brookline.)

There are two or three women whom I tend to see on the bus or waiting for the bus in the morning. One of them was commuting with me this morning, so we got to talking about all sorts of things. And about two minutes before her stop came up, she asked me this morning, "So, can you explain to me what Question 4 is all about?"

Well, Brookline's ballot question 4 is all about the Community Preservation Act (the CPA). In May, Brookline Town Meeting approved bringing the CPA in front of the town's citizens (a vote required in order to be eligible for the CPA money). And so I explained -- while attempting to be as neutral on the issue as possible -- what the CPA was, why it was on the ballot, and where people could get more information. I concluded my shpiel just as the bus got to her stop, so she thanked me for the information, said she'd probably ask me to explain it again next time we see each other (probably some time later this week), and then she got off the bus.

Almost immediately, the woman sitting in the seat in front of me turned around and asked me to explain the CPA again. So I did, and this woman thanked me, saying that everything she'd seen about the CPA had confused her, and now she had a better idea of what the question was about. Almost immediatly, a guy sitting across the bus aisle from me leaned over. "So what's the deal with Question 2?" he asked.

Question 2 (a statewide question) deals with cross endorsement. In other words, a candidate could appear on the ballot under more than one party's endorsement (for example, under the Democratic Party and under a third party, such as the Green-Rainbow party). This type of voting exists in New York and Connecticut already. So I gave him a quick overview of the issue.

As I finished up the explanation, the bus pulled into the final stop, and we all headed our separate ways. I hope that these folks -- and a couple others, who looked as if they were paying attention to my explanations -- research the issues further and go and vote on 7 November.