I don’t think I’m ever going to stop loving elections. It’s what happens when you grow up in a polling place. Even though my house hasn’t been a polling place for years, every night before an election I get a little tingly, thinking of the setup. Bringing in the polling booths, unfolding their legs, making …
Tag Archives: voting
How Fair and Free Are Our Elections?
Whenever a nation in the Global South is going to the polls, the headlines here in the United States usually make a point of mentioning the use of poll monitors to ensure the election is fair and free. Pundits and politicians alike in the United States talk about how important it is for true democracy …
Felony Disenfranchisement and Voting In Prisons
Many US states, almost half to be more precise, have restrictions on voting rights for prisoners, and in some cases ex-convicts as well. The nature of these regulations varies from state to state, but it’s telling that a flood of them came after 1977, indicating some sort of mass panic about prisoner voting occurred, and …
Vote In Local Elections. It Matters.
Every election year, people like to talk about not voting like it’s a point of pride and protest, to not participate in elections. Their objections are usually based on a national level—they don’t see how their votes matter in such a huge election, the electoral college decides these things anyway, it’s just not that important. …
Rocky Rodents
Lauren Daly at Pittsburgh City Paper: Keeping Watch: Wisconsin labor issues have Pa. unions on high alert Shea says that in Pennsylvania, both parties have legislators “who understood our issues and didn’t try to do away with the middle class.” Jesse Fruhwirth at Salt Lake City Weekly: Gov. Herbert: Veto the Legislature’s secrecy grab in …
Active Brains
Josh Rosenblatt at Austin Chronicle: Safety Net or Dead End? If there’s one thing I’ve learned covering Austin’s animal-welfare community this last year, it’s that animal-welfare people are both serious and quite willing to blur the lines of civility for their convictions. Staff at Boston Phoenix: Remembering Clif Garboden …by many means, and often not …
Warbling Axes
Daiana Feuer at LA Weekly: Ari Up: Punky Reggae Icon The Weekly here adds to the tribute by printing for the first time the entire interview contributor Daiana Feuer conducted with Ari in 2009, excerpts of which have appeared before in L.A. Record. Dave Mann at Texas Observer: Undoing Injustice If you ask attorney Walter …
Slimy Clogs
Lorin Mallorie at Mountain Xpress: Widespread fear, anger over election results Protests broke out just hours into voting, with accusations of ballot tampering by the current government and their favored candidate, Jude Celestine and his party. Joe Tone at The Pitch: The DREAM Act will pass over Kris Kobach’s lifeless, soulless body (video) What’s that? …
Glowing Brains
Dominic Holden at Slog: Video Shows Seattle Cop Kicking 17-Year-Old Boy in the Groin Even Though His Hands Were Up; SPD Begins Misconduct Investigation; KIRO Says SPD Had Video for Some Time But Did Nothing The youth reportedly fell to the floor and then the officer proceeded to kick him in the chest and face. …
Beyond the Two Party System
We are rapidly closing in on the election, and I’ve been mulling over a feature the New York Times ran a few months ago in my head. ‘Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats,’ the headline ran, implying that the Democrats’ traditionally young base is eroding. Of course, many of the voters interviewed said they …
