I voted


An hour or so ago, I voted for Bernie Sanders in the Ohio Democratic primary. I went to my usual polling place near my home and there was no line at all though people were there voting. It is hard for me to compare the turnout based on my own experience since normally I voted early in the day before going to work. This time, taking advantage of my retired status, I went in the middle of the day.

Also, my neighborhood precinct rarely has lines because it is in a fairly well-to-do city and we know that those precincts tend to be well-equipped and well-staffed, unlike poorer communities where people often have complained of long lines and waits.

Will Sanders be able to pull off more upset wins like he did last week in Michigan? While I like to think that he could, the odds are against him, despite evidence of a late surge of strong enthusiasm for him.

Comments

  1. doublereed says

    Well it’s an open primary, so I assume that he’s going to dramatically beat the polling like he did in Michigan. The polls have him better off than Michigan, so I think Bernie’s going to win by a considerable margin. I guess we’ll find out tonight.

  2. lorn says

    I voted.

    I voted for Ben Carson simply because being being black, sleepy and incoherent (with absolutely no chance of becoming the GOP nomination, and even less chance of becoming president) made him slightly more attractive than any of the other candidates.

    I was going to vote for Kaisich but I figured it might promote a trend toward calm, polite “stealth” ideologues. I absolutely will not countenance Cruz. He is everything wrong with GOP with an extra serving of Christian sanctimony and dominionism. Rubio is the money class GOP candidate and entirely operable as a drone. Trump is a joker and bully. I almost could see voting for him as the best of the worse but, even though he may be the only candidate likely to color outside the GOP doctrinaire box, and it seems certain to be anything but boring, there is just too much on the line.

    Which left Droopy the Dog Carson.

  3. Nathan says

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  4. anat says

    Nathan, FtB has no control of the ads. If you can use an adblocker your experience will improve immensely, though I’m afraid the site might suffer.

  5. says

    I do not see ads because I am a subscriber. http://freethoughtblogs.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=noadsub

    I voted around 7PM here in Cleveland and it was fairly busy. Glad to see that. In Cuyahoga county there was also a primary for county prosecutor, a defacto final elections since the GOP may not have a candidate or they would be unlikely to win. I voted essentially against current prosecutor, Tim McGinty, the prosecutor in charge of the Tamir Rice case. In addition, our GOP Senator is up for re-election, so there were two Democratic candidates to choose from for the fall election. The Dems have a chance to take back a seat in the Senate. If it’s Strickland, he stands a good chance against Portman in part because his name recognition from being our former Governor. Polls show he has a good chance, too.

  6. lorn says

    On the Democratic side it looks like Florida went for Hillary, acceptable in my book. On the GOP side Trump carries off all the delegates. I don’t like Trump but perhaps it is for the best because all the others are even worse. The immediate up side is that it appears that Rubio has given up … an aesthetic victory.

  7. StevoR says

    Just in case anyone hasn’t yet heard.

    Verdict is coming in and Rubio is out :

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-16/us-primaries-super-tuesday-sequel-live-blog/7249876

    Hillary and Trump have won big in Florida, Rubio’s campaign is now officially over -- I guess he can say he at least beat early Repub favourites Scott Walker, Rand Paul and Jeb! Bush!!! among others. Who would’ve thought that -- or expected Kasich, Cruz and (for pity’s sake!) Trump of all people to be final podium contenders in this Repub race when it started eh? (Not me.) Yikes!

  8. lorn says

    The good news about Rubio is that it is something of a double scoop, he is out of contention for GOP nominee, and, because he gave up his seat in the Senate, he will not be returning to the Senate. It is hard to count him out in the long term, the people backing him are very persistent and wealthy enough to try and try again, but, for the next year or two, Rubio may be out of politics altogether. As Martha said: That is a good thing.

  9. Holms says

    #2
    Why vote for a candidate that isn’t even in the running? You know he dropped out, right? If you didn’t want to vote, you could simply have stayed at home.

  10. lorn says

    “Why vote for a candidate that isn’t even in the running? You know he dropped out, right? If you didn’t want to vote, you could simply have stayed at home.”

    Because, for me, voting is important. That my vote was for a candidate that had dropped out doesn’t make any difference, not to me. I was given a choice, a vote, and I made a choice based upon all the facts at my disposal to determine how best to apply that vote. That my vote made no discernible difference, isn’t important. I have made my best effort to make the system work. I did my part.

    One never knows the repercussions. Perhaps someone will analyses the voting and determine that a lot of GOP registered voters voted for people who were no longer running. Perhaps they might apprehend the fact that this is an expression of a willingness to vote, but not having anybody worthwhile to vote for.

    Perhaps they will discern that he system is broken.

    IMHO a whole lot of problems in this political atmosphere come down to people not voting. I understand why so many do not vote. It doesn’t seem to make any difference. An entire party has made it a cornerstone of their political philosophy that government does not and can not work. That government is the problem. They bolster that belief by doing everything in their power to make sure government cannot work, and then point to the failures and announce that they have proven their point.

    I don’t buy that. I will continue to vote even if it accomplishes nothing. I have seen government systems that worked, worked well, worked about as efficiently as any complex system designed by man. I am determined to deny them the hopelessness embodied in not voting. Voting is the one thing they can’t take from me. It is the one thing that scares the powers-that-be. I’ll be damned if I’m going to give it up without a fight. As long as I am given a choice I will vote.

  11. Holms says

    So… vote for a candidate that is actually looking to reforn the voting process. I wonder who that might be?

  12. sonofrojblake says

    Who would’ve […] expected […] (for pity’s sake!) Trump of all people to be (a) final podium contender in this Repub race when it started eh? (Not me.)

    Answer: Scott “Dilbert” Adams. At the beginning of August. Within a few weeks he revised his view from Trump definitely being the Republican nominee beaten by Clinton, to Trump narrowly beating Clinton, to Trump winning a landslide.

  13. Nick Gotts says

    sonofrojblake@15,

    So far, Trump has won 37.1% of the popular vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses, which scarcely suggests an irresistable popular Trump-for-President movement, although almost certainly enough to bag the nomination. Polls consistently show him losing in November to either Clinton or Sanders. Anti-Trump Conservatives within the Republican Party are considering launching an independent candidate. It is of course possible that Trump will win the Presidency -- if I was putting money on it, I’d want at this stage odds of about 3/1 or 4/1 -- but contrary to the delusion you appear to share with Scott “Numpty” Adams, Trump does not in fact have superpowers.

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