Demockrasee

I just got back from voting. Yay, me.

The library that I went to obviously wasn't prepared for today. I wouldn't say there was chaos, but the line wound around the library in a really ridiculous fashion, and when you finally got to the room with the voting machines, everything was a mess. Still, I waited patiently (glad I brought a book) for two hours, and cast my vote.

Electronic voting machine.

Ugh.

The little paper printout on the side reassured me a little bit, but I just have too much mistrust for these things to feel completely relaxed. However, upon returning to my office, Melissa had sent me this link that made me feel better.

Yesterday we posted a quick round-up of the various voter-suppression schemes being pushed by Republicans in swing states around the country. And after looking at the list, one thing quickly becomes clear: most of the efforts have failed.

It's a nice little list of various vote suppression schemes that aren't working, so if you need a little pick-me-up, check it out. This isn't to say, of course, that all of them are failing, so we must remain alert and ready to stop this whenever it happens. Examples:

• In Nevada, Secretary of State Ross Miller denied a request from the state GOP to require voters to cast provisional ballots if they fixed mistakes in their voting information at the polls.

• In Colorado, a bid by Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman -- who himself is running for a seat in the U.S. House -- to purge 14,000 voters from the rolls was only partially successful. After voting-rights groups sued, a settlement was reached yesterday allowing the voters to cast provisional ballots. According to the Rocky Mountain News, those ballots would "be presumed to be valid unless state and county officials prove otherwise." A lawyer for the voting-rights groups called the deal "a win-win."

Meanwhile, hilariously, Michelle Malkin (no link, you know where to find her if you must) is continuing to gripe about voter fraud, but her big issue is this evil, sinister, horrible, vote suppressing button available at The Gap:


This button, by the way, was designed by John Waters.

Sometimes life is beautiful.

Update: I just looked at some of the comments on Malkin's post about this button, and I started laughing so hard at this one that I had to step out of my office for a moment:

Did anyone else notice that there is red on the top of the button and many stars as well? Perhaps i’m off on a limb, but is it possible they are sending subconscious communist propaganda?

I wish I could buy John Waters a drink, right now.