Democrat Kathleen Vinehout was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 2006. She defeated Republican incumbent Ron Brown; but she also had another Democratic challenger, Chris Danou. During the campaign there was a question of Ms. Vinehout, a devout Catholic, being anti-choice and even more worrisome, anti-birth control.

By 2001 the National Council on Disability noted:

4 million people of voting age who have a disability are unregistered voters
People with disabilities vote at a rate 11 percent lower than the general population
81 percent of voters who are blind or have visual impairments rely on others to mark their ballots
An estimated 20,000 of the nation’s 170,000 polling places are inaccessible to voters who use
wheelchairs"

More below, please...

My sister and I don't talk much, really, mainly because we're just about exact opposites. I'm 26, she's almost 40. She's got 5 kids and a farm. I've got an apartment and a cat. She's a registered nurse, turned housewife, I'm a retail minion. But I called her today, and I plan on calling the rest of my West Virginia relatives to see if I can scrape up some support for Obama tomorrow.  

I've been posting adaptations of scenes from Shakespeare lately, and fellow Kossack Seneca Doane joined the fun and posted their version. Prior to this, we had disagreed on a critical point, and I again engaged them on that point. A few weeks ago I had the same discussion (almost exactly) with good ol' ek hornbeck.

If you have time and feel like it, take a look at the brief back and forth, and make up your own mind.

Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd show you the polling place where I "voted early" today, at King City's (pop. 2500) City Hall:

More below the fold:

So, first off, I apologize if this diary is a bit long-winded or esoteric.  It's just something I have been thinking about for some time, particulary in light of the recent ugliness in the Democratic race, sniping from people in both the Clinton and Obama camps, and accusations thrown by supporters of each candidate about the supporters of the other.  It also comes after years of ranting, especially by myself, about how we don't focus enough on the "issues" while campaigning, voting, or electing public officials.  We blame the media. We blame candidates.  We blame the supporters of people who don't like our candidate, throwing around pejorative terms and accusations, or patronizingly think of them as "ignorant" or "uninformed" for voting against our interests, or what we perceive to be their interests.  At the end of the day, it may just be that people, more often than not, vote based upon emotion, or irrationality, and this is simply part of the democratic process that we will always have to deal with.

More after the jump...

I've wanted to do this for some time, but I didn't want to write something random that people would read and forget. I guess what I'm saying is that I wanted people to think; in this case I wanted them to think about the folks out there that are on the verge of changing their vote to our side for the first time in their lives, and maybe how to encourage them to do so. This is my first diary, so please be gentle.                                                          

Mr. Obama, I’m the last vote you’ll get. I’m the one that hasn’t made up their mind. I’m the one the pollster hasn’t counted. I’m the one that will surprise you on Election Day. I’m the one that will change a win into a landslide.

I’m the wife of that pompous professor who makes a living repeating Republican talking points for the media about the environment, or the economy, or culture, and I think about how different he is from the free-thinker I married as I step into the voting booth.

As the primary winds down, as it dawns on the MSM that Obama is our nominee, as we turn to the hard work of beating McSame in November, let us not forget HOW we are going to beat McSame.  We are going to beat McSame by registering new voters, GOTV drives, donating time and money and more.

But let us also not forget the less visible and well known need of working the polls on election day! This is a critical and often overlooked effort in making sure votes are counted and voting is executed well.

I became a pollworker in the 2006 election and what I experienced was truly frightening.

Follow me on the flip......

As Stephanie Mencimer points out, maybe I shouldn't complain about getting carded at CVS for my allergy meds. After all, the plight of people who could be negatively affected by the recent Supreme Court case upholding Indiana's voter ID law (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board) is really nothing to sneeze at.

Okay, that was a bit cheesy.

Last night's CNN late-night coverage of the Indiana primary was more than bad; it was the lamest, most assinine, petulant, and stupid cable news coverage in a primary season filled with lame and stupid coverage.  

Yes, the great state of Indiana has confronted and defeated the greatest threat to our way of life ever known, the prospect of nuns with insufficient identification papers voting.

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.

Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.

Thankfully, we have Sister Julie McGuire protecting us from the threat of penguin dominion.

BTW, a "hearty fuck" you to all the Democrats who voted for Roberts and Alito.

I was just thinking of this, in light of the Indiana voter ID issue.  I know that there are many objections to the use of ID to vote; I've never understood that since it seems that making sure the person voting is who they say they are makes perfect sense to me (but that is neither here nor there).  No, what I propose is a different solution.

A lot of the arguments against it are that lower income people cannot afford IDs with which to vote, that it is an unfair burden to place on them or they can't afford a copy of a birth certificate (which is required), or they have certain convictions or obligations that don't permit them to vote.

I'm not sure what we can do about people who owe the state they live in a lot of money.  That would be beyond the scope I envision, but why not create a fund to help poor people who can't afford documentation costs and IDs to purchase an ID to vote with (presuming their state doesn't give them out for free)?  In Florida, where I live, a regular ID is $3 bucks.  

It's just the germ of an idea, and I Googled it to see if there are similar programs out there.  If such a thing could help someone on a tight budget participate in the election, regardless of party affiliation, then I think it should be arranged.

Cross-posted at EENR Blog.

So I'm just sitting here, minding my own business, watching some news on MSNBC.  Then, all of a sudden, a commercial comes on the air.  I'm told that unions are trying to steal my right to a secret ballot.  That a crude Italian mafia stereotype is going to browbeat me into signing a card to join a union.  That all my co-workers will stare at me disapprovingly until I sign.  This was all brought to me by the friendly people at the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.  I'll tell you more about it after the jump.

 I had decided to wait until after work to go and Vote in NC today. I wanted to see what the talking heads and GOP and whatever had planned to day. There hasn't been many suprise talking to those I work and friends around town on how voting working. The only things I have really seen or heard was that one or two people of color had that were listed as Dems were not listed as GOP, and couldn't vote. (of course I don't have anything hard so I am saying this all I have SEEN so take it as hearsay.)
 So as I re-read one last time over the info I have filed and read in the past few weeks about the local contests, I wonder how those that don't have time feel about this, do they just "pick" and hope all is well. There has got to be a better way.

I may be a bit biased, but I think Tippecanoe County has it all over the rest of the state in terms of elections.  We went to the touch-screen system as of 2002, way before the mandate was passed.  

Hillary and her negative attacks, lack of transparency in reporting Bill's income, willingness to say anything, and well you get the point, has led me to the realization that she could steal this thing. So I have a proposal.

It's baaaaacck.  Time for another edition of "I voted," today celebrating those of you who voted in Indiana and North Carolina.

As always, tell us your voting experiences - where and when you voted, where there lines, signage, etc?   And if you don't mind, we'd love to know who you voted for.

And again, as always, an open plea for recommendation so that others can share their stories throughout the day and everyone gets a chance to read them.   Three cheers for democracy!

I'll be honest.  If Barack Obama was a Republican I'd vote for him.  I was brought up in a household that voted for the best candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, and yes I have voted for both.  My Grandmother on the other hand is a staunch Democrat.  She would vote for the devil himself if he were running as a Democrat.  That's a problem.