Tonight’s question, greetings, and banter here. (More)
As Sandy creeps toward the eastern seaboard, the Weather Channel offers five reasons the storm could be very dangerous, including Sandy joining a winter system from the Great Lakes to form “Frankenstorm.” Meanwhile, climate scientists say our warming climate may have made Sandy more intense. Along with power outages and other storm damage, Sandy could affect tens of millions of voters and pollsters trying to track changes in the final days. Should more states allow early voting, so turnout is less keyed to election day weather?
October 27, 2012 at 6:01 pm
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October 27, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Yes! Not just more but all of them should allow early voting and/or vote by mail.
After my comment a couple of days ago, I sent off an email to our Governor and Secretary of State (both D’s) asking them to put it in the state of the State and hopefully present it to a newly D controlled legislature. I used Sandy and the MN Halloween blizzard of 1991 as reasons why it made sense.
October 27, 2012 at 6:09 pm
I’m not sure it would do any good, since the storm looks to be affecting early voting, and should be (I hope) over by the formal Election Day.
October 27, 2012 at 6:13 pm
In the chatter category, I drove through a Burger King and the young black woman giving me my food asked, based on the buttons on my vest, if I was voting for Obama. “Absolutely,” I replied, “would you like a button?” Big grin from her as she held her hand out while I retrieved a few from my purse. She gave me an extra scoop of onion rings too.
October 27, 2012 at 8:55 pm
October 27, 2012 at 6:23 pm
I think all states need both early voting and “no excuse” vote by mail. We have that in FL, and it doesn’t cause any undue problems, but it’s one way to be sure you can vote.
October 27, 2012 at 6:32 pm
We still don’t know what the weather will be like on November 7th, but Sandy is hardly the only late-October or early-November storm in history and history shows that bad election day weather lowers turnout. As that can change the outcome of an election, and as early voting and voting by mail have proved to be easy to implement … it seems ridiculous to leave elections up to the whims of weather.
October 27, 2012 at 7:02 pm
But..But..BUT.. Low turnout helps Republicans. We need to elect Democrats first. When the Republican party withers we may be able to get early voting and vote by mail.
October 27, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Here in Illinois, nothing stops us from voting, not even the coroner!