Author: Jack
I retired in 2008 and so I have more time now to devote to several of my interests The blog here is mainly for my interests in some current events but may have the occasional rant on other subjects. I have also decided to keep my genealogy posts and book reviews here instead of 2 additional blogs (and so simplify my life a little).

Voter-ID and Provisional Ballots in Pennsylvania

Voter-ID and Provisional Ballots in Pennsylvania

Posted on by Jack

Now that the Voter-ID law has been upheld in Pennsylvania, a provision in the law has good news and bad news for those who show up at the polls without an acceptable ID.

The good news in that you can vote with provisional ballot. And your vote will be counted if you meet the requirements of the law. This good news if you are a registered voter and you do have acceptable ID but just forgot to bring it to the polls.

But bad news if you are one of those without an acceptable ID and there are thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands in that group. The Philadephia Inquirer has had a good series of articles on the difficulties of getting the ID that some people experience and the legal battles.

But back to the law. Here is a quote from the state of Pennsylvania website .

Voters who forget to bring ID to the polls in the November 2012 General Election can vote by provisional ballot. Their vote will be counted, as long as the voter returns a copy of their acceptable ID and affirmation letter to their county within 6 calendar days. Affirmations and copies of ID may be returned to the county in person, by mail, fax, or via email.

So if you have an acceptable ID already, just get it to the county ofices in the next few days and your vote will be counted. If you do not have an acceptable ID but can get one in the next few days, again your vote will be counted. But if you are one of those people who can’t get one in the months before the election, does it seem at all likely that you will be able to get one in the next few days?

So to prevent voter impersonation which does happen but seems to very rare, we are spending millions of dollars and disenfranchising thousands of voters.

Just the facts

Just the facts

Posted on by Jack

Since this is shaping up to be a very negative campaign, you might want to check out some of the very questionable facts in the political ads. Two of my favorites sites for this are Politifact and FactCheck.org.

I especially like Politifact’s “Pants-on-Fire” section which explores some of the biggest whoppers.

Parties or People

Parties or People

Posted on by Jack

We the people are theoretically in charge yet the people we elect are busy posturing and refuse to compromise and so are unable to govern and solve our country’s problems.  The obvious conclusion is that there is just too much partisanship.

Nearly everyone would agree with that but very few have any ideas about fixing the problem

Mickey Edwards expressed these ideas and suggested a few solutions in the  Atlantic .

Then he expanded these ideas into a book, The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans.  Mickey Edwards had been a congressman and then a professor of government so he knows what he is talking about. 

The overriding theme is that we have given up too much of our control to the 2 major political parties.   This is done on several levels. 

Parties limit our choices to a few candidates.  This is particularly true in states where ballot access is limited and/or primaries are open only to members of a political party.

Once one of these candidates is “in”, he or she is then beholden to the party for both current power in office (example committee assignments in Congress) and the chance to be re-elected.