Polls are looking good. Fingers crossed.

I have my ballot ready to deliver by hand to the elections offices downtown on Monday. It took me nearly a half a month to wade through all the political construals that were provided in what seems to have been a tome of information.

And, like so many of us here, I am deeply concerned about the outcome of the current presidential election.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12505...ults-for-weeks

The Columbus Dispatch reported on Thursday that a data-sharing glitch and mistakes by election officials have caused thousands of absentee ballot requests to be rejected. While Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted maintains that this was a computer error, the Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates found an abnormally high rate of rejected absentee ballot requests in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Cleveland. The Cuyahoga Board of Elections determined that 865 ballot requests had been erroneously thrown out.

canvas ohio?....

I know? the debt...but, they depend on us to buy from them.
China needs the US for their exports....we buy tons from them. That is our leverage.
The exports to china from US has risen...finally...

http://www.ustr.gov/countries-regions/china
https://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html

Saturday, November 3, 2012 6:45 PM
Hey, can you spare some time between now and Tuesday to get out the vote for Barack?

Our campaign's strength has always been in our grassroots organization. But that neighbor-to-neighbor outreach doesn't just happen -- it's driven by people like you.

And over these last few days, we're counting on you. Can you help out by making some calls using our online call tool?

I can't stress enough how much Barack needs you. Our actions over those last three days -- how many calls we make, how many doors we knock, how many voters we get to the polls -- will decide this election.

I've met volunteers all around the country over the past year and a half who have been organizing so hard they've practically worn out the soles of their shoes just to get us to this moment.

If you're one of them, thank you. And if you're joining in for these last days, thank you, too. That's what it takes to move our country forward. And that's what's going to give us four more years to finish what we started.

So sign up now to get out the vote by making calls to voters, on Election Day and before:

http://www.barackobama.com/call/time...0121103_mo_ct2

http://my.barackobama.com/Call-Tool-Shifts

Or start calling right now:

http://my.barackobama.com/Start-Calling-Now

https://login.barackobama.com/login

This couldn't matter more.

Michelle Obama

Anxiety level from 1-10 about election:

985793887538956709349850932458730946853094583094+

reporting from FL
 

The Miami Herald endorsing Obama, Orlando Sentinel endorsing Romney.

I will look at this thread to see if there is any , however is there a poll somewhere based on races and their choice for President? In FL, there is a wide variety of hispanics and latin people and I believe they may lean towards Obama. When I was early voting the other day, a caravan of hispanics came through where we waiting in line in cars decked out with "Hispanics for Obama" honking. Later some came by walking with drums chanting "Obama" I also saw a tv news show about Asians also being divided between the two candidates and how the Asian population has grown so much in the U.S. These two candidates are focusing some of their ads to these two races for votes, they would be crazy not to!

As for endorsing, I kinda like Starbucks take on that. On their Facebook page they said,

" We respect and value the many things that make our customers and partners diverse, including different political beliefs. As a company, Starbucks has not endorsed or financially supported any presidential candidate or political party. Howard's political views are his own as a private citizen. He believes that voting is a personal choice and one of the most fundamental expressions of American citizenship that we have. He wants everyone to go to the polls on November 6 no matter who they support. "

the key states to win :

PA and OH

...just finished reading some encouraging articles on HP--dare I get my hopes up? :vigil:

something to keep in mind..

Not sure about other states but I know here in FL some absentee ballots were thrown out because people's signatures had changed from when they registered to vote to when they signed their ballot and mailed it out. Some people changed their signature in that time so those ballots got thrown out and those were sent a letter in the mail to redo it. :confused:

More than 400,000 voters in Central Florida have already voted, nearly a quarter of them.

The Fl Democratic Party had to sue to get a judge to extend the hours for early voting since the governor wasn't budging!! Also a cooler had to be denonated for fear of a bomb, closing one early voting site for hours, but turned out to be nothing.

I got a call from Pat Boone yesterday.


He was calling on behalf of Linda McMahon (running in CT). I called her branch office immediately and asked them if Linda was aware that Pat Boone is a bigot who said that homosexuals are worse than terrorists.

The man who answered apologized and said he'd had no idea and that Linda McMahon supports the gay community.

Having an asshole like Pat Boone call is real supportive, right? :|

Well, here we are, less than 48 hrs away from hearing the verdict.




Side note: I have yet to be called by anyone. But this probably has to do with me setting the parameters on who gets to call me. I don't like calls, so that probably figures in respectively to my own parameters being respectfully held in place. However, I have had a number of people who have paid visits to me at home. Each time a volunteer worker came to my house, usually late in the evening and fortunately I was home, I found them to be very respectful in their presentation of information and I always made a concerted effort to thank them for coming to my house and checking up on me and sharing with me items of relevancy. I plan to write to each respective candidate office and share positive feedback with them on each visit made on my behalf and to advocate this approach again, if necessary in up-coming voter elections issues. I find that grass roots organizational approaches are probably the best single method available, in organizing positive voter turnout; with voters being much more informed by having a personal conversation with people who are well versed on voter issues, rather than a call or being assailed by non-sustainable practices (mailbox full of pamphets, flyers, etc).

Leaving less of a carbon footprint is always better.

He's also a birther.

I got an email from Kiefer Sutherland. *swoon* He wants me to vote for Prop 34 to end the death penalty in California. I was going to anyway, but I might have changed my mind for him. He is one of the very few men I would do.

Mmm. Jack Bauer. I would email him back, but unfortunately his email address is info@voteyeson34.org

Okay, Rachel is scaring me. Why did she need to get on on a Sunday night just to scare me?

It's about the long lines and all the ways that Republicans have managed to discourage voting.

How About Those Loopholes Romney
 

Why Romney hasn't released his tax returns: He's been using a tax loophole (now defunct charitable remainder unitrust with old users grandfathered in) where he essentially uses a "charity" (in his case the Mormon church) for tax deferement, still gets annual payments from the trust, and the charity gets very little in return.

This doesn't seem to be getting much coverage- maybe because the story broke during Hurricane Sandy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...donations.html


"Setting up the trust, worth between $750,000 and $1.25 million in 2001, enabled Romney to take an upfront deduction for his charitable donation to the trust, while also earning annual payments worth 8 percent of the trust's assets. Unlike much of his own portfolio, Romney's charitable trust investments have been very conservative. (It's now just all cash.) As a result, according to Bloomberg, the trust earned only $48 last year, while paying out nearly $37,000 to the Romneys. Meanwhile, the principal, which goes to the charity upon Romney's death, has been dwindling as a result of those payouts, down to $421,000 in 2011."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...ery-charitable

I thought it was Florida and Ohio?

Thanks Corkey! That caught my eye because I had just read about FL and OH this morning. Thought perhaps I missed something. :)

The first thing I will watch for is Virginia. Polls close at 7 pm EST. If Obama wins VA he can win without either OH or FL. Obama seems to have a small lead in the polls in VA. If he won VA, he would also need Wisconsin, Nevada and Iowa or NH- very doable. That is of course assuming he still gets PA, MI and MN and other expected blue states which shouldn't be a problem.

I think Obama will win OH. I hope he wins FL as a victory for democracy, but he can win without it. Salute to all the voters waiting in long lines to vote and standing up against voter suppression efforts in FL, Ohio and elsewhere.

Obama can still definitely win without VA, but if he does it could avoid everything hinging on Ohio and FL where if it is very close it will get ugly with all the Republican shenanigans, counting of provisional ballots, and potential recounts and lawsuits. Then again there is a good chance Obama will win a clear if still close margin in Ohio and avoid all that.

I do think Obama is going to win but I'm still a nervous wreck!

Well, I just got back from my morning of errands:
first on the list was drop the ballot off downtown.

And let me tell you, things were all too quiet downtown.

I have to say, Bully, when I read your post just now about Romney, I can't help but think of the latest headline news were Apple paid less than 2% in taxes on their international accts. I'm all for taking down poorly written law pertaining to corporate law and tax law. But I take heart that faceless corporations are not really faceless. I can think of two perpetrators who sit side by side in my mind:

The Steve Jobs empire and the so-called empire of Romney.

Luke Skywalker, where are you???

What we need is the Empire of the People to strike back and send a very large, impossible to ignore, message that white-collar crime of this nature will not be tolerated any more. Period.

i would keep her markers, ... find her construction paper (she knows she has got some.) and glitter (she knows she has got some.), ... and tell her i had to make victory posters and confetti!

speaking of michelle. my niece said that she voted for obama at school because of his wife. she's all over nickelodeon.

Makes note to tune in to channel Bulldog tomorrow for up to date info on the ins and outs of the election returns. Is there an app to get text updates?

:blink:

Tell Ohio's Secretary of State: Count every vote
 

Credo petition...85% there...http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...787607-sXER1Sx
Tell Ohio's Secretary of State: Count every vote

With razor thin margins predicted in Ohio, the state's Republican Secretary of State took steps this weekend to modify vote counting procedures in a way that could invalidate thousands of provisional ballots.1

Previously, it was the responsibility of trained election workers to record identification information presented by voters who submit provisional ballots. But now Secretary of State John Husted has put that burden on voters to record this information (which can often be confusing to identify) on their provisional ballots -- paving the way for a significant number of ballots to be thrown out due to recording errors even though the voter presented a valid ID that was accepted by the pollworker.

Tell Ohio's Secretary of State: Count every vote -- rescind your administrative orders aimed at suppressing the vote in Ohio.

Husted, a Republican, has already been working to suppress the vote in his state. Many workers who have trouble getting to the polls during regular business hours on a Tuesday traditionally favor weekend early voting. Husted tried to end weekend early voting in Ohio by reducing the state's five weekends of early voting to zero. In response, the courts ordered him to maintain access to one weekend of early voting -- the weekend before the election -- open to Ohio voters, though allowing him to cancel the previous four weekends of access. As a result, voters at many early vote locations had to wait outside in the cold, in lines stretching outside the buildings and around city blocks.

And now, as the election in Ohio is reportedly a dead heat, and it's clear the state's 18 electoral votes could very well decide the presidency, Husted is taking additional steps to suppress the votes of Ohio citizens.

Republicans have a long tradition of partisan Secretaries of State like Ohio's Ken Blackwell and Florida's Katherine Harris who cared more about delivering their state's elections to Republicans than ensuring their state's citizens could cast a ballot that counts.

We cannot let John Husted join their ranks and use his position as the chief of elections in Ohio to swing his state's electoral votes to Mitt Romney.

Tell Ohio's Secretary of State: Stop the shenanigans and count every vote.

1. Andrew Cohen, "Ohio's Provisional Ballot Order: The Biggest Legal Story of the Weekend," The Atlantic, November 4, 2012.

This voter intimidation shit they are pulling in Florida is about to make me bust a fucking vein.

If I weren't so dog tired from a long hard day edgeekating the next generation, I would be losing my fucking mind.

Bully, do you tweet?

Great Rachel quote: "Clean socks are a courtesy to everyone."

lol and her encouraging us to take fruit rollups and a space blanket to the polls. lol. I am so chuckling.

Second great quote: "CARBS! . . . pasta, people, pasta!"

I had a Twitter account set up but haven't used it. Sounds fun! I am JulesWright1 at Twitter.

Based on Rachel's recommendation we are having pasta for dinner tomorrow night. :D