it’s election day. hooray.
Spokane County is a vote-by-mail county. Ballots are sent out about three weeks before the election and have to be postmarked by election day or dropped in one of the handy-dandy drop boxes by 8:00pm on election night. We completed our ballots about a week and a half ago and dropped them in the box at the Otis Orchards library, so we’ve been done for over a week.
Since Washington allows ballots to be mailed on election day, some ballots won’t arrive for several days. There was an article today in the news saying that King County (metro Seattle and then some –1.8 million people total) expects to have 40% of the ballots counted tonight and will have counted 97% by next Tuesday. We’ll likely know who the president is tonight, but the Washington governor’s race will probably take a week or more to decide. Forgive me if it’s a little anticlimactic.
The political ads, however, are still running. I was at the YMCA yesterday and the TV in front on my elliptical machine was running The View (talking about the election) interspersed with political ads. I don’t think there were any ads other than political ads. You would think they could have thrown a mesothelioma ad in there for variety.
Mindy is ready to be done with the phone calls. We’re also ready to be done with the political ads, but I have a better idea…
In 1992 the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place. I voted at my dining room table. All of the televisions in my house are within 100 feet of my dining room table, as are all of the telephones. The mail gets sorted on the kitchen counter, literally just feet away from where I voted.
Political ads on television? Too close to the polling place. Campaign calls to my telephone? Too close. And the Obama channel? You guessed it.
If I can’t wear a McCain shirt or an Obama button to a polling place, surely this blatant attempt to sway my vote within mere feet of my polling place must be stopped!