PSA: Are You Registered?

[flwyd]

The beginning of October means it's time to make sure you're registered to vote at your current location. Colorado Voters can check their registration status online. It will also tell you your polling place, what districts you are in, and so forth. In Colorado, the County Clerk must receive your voter registration by 5pm next Monday in order for you to vote in this fall's election.

Even if you can't make it to your polling place on November 4th, you can still vote by mail; check your County Clerk's website for mail-in ballot information. The advantages of voting by mail include not waiting in line, being able to refer to voter guides before checking boxes, and voting at midnight while drinking a beer on your couch naked.

Colorado is considered a "swing state" in this year's presidential election which means major candidates are expending a lot of effort to convince us to vote for them this year. I've listed all of the presidential choices below. I urge you to inform yourself about the other items on the ballot as well; many of the less-publicized choices will have more of an impact on your day-to-day life. Coloradans this year will vote on an open senate seat, a seat in the house of representatives, the state board of education, University of Colorado regent, state senate, state house, district attorneys, county commissioners, RTD directors, judge retention, 14 initiatives and 4 referenda to amend the state constitution, and various issues at the county, city, and district levels. Educate yourself early so you make an informed decision about the future of your community.


Colorado has rather easy ballot-access laws, so tends to have a lot of minor-party choices. I'm surprised, for instance, that the Prohibition party is still kicking it even after Earl Dodge kicked it. And I've never seen a few of these parties before, particularly the Boston Tea Party (who are not on the ballot in Boston). Presidential candidates on the Colorado ballot:

John McCain / Sarah Palin	Republican
Barack Obama / Joe Biden	Democratic
Chuck Baldwin / Darrell L. Castle	Constitution
Bob Barr / Wayne A. Root	Libertarian
Cynthia McKinney / Rosa A. Clemente	Green
Jonathan E. Allen / Jeffrey D. Stath	HeartQuake '08
Gene C. Amondson / Leroy J. Pletten	Prohibition
James Harris / Alyson Kennedy	Socialist Workers
Charles Jay / Dan Sallis Jr.	Boston Tea
Alan Keyes / Brian Rohrbough	America's Independent
Gloria La Riva / Robert Moses	Socialism and Liberation
Bradford Lyttle / Abraham Bassford	U.S. Pacifist
Frank Edward McEnulty / David Mangan	Unaffiliated
Brian Moore / Stewart A. Alexander	Socialist, USA
Ralph Nader / Matt Gonzalez	Unaffiliated
Thomas Robert Stevens / Alden Link	Objectivist

Comments

[mackys.livejournal.com]

Gene C. Amondson / Leroy J. Pletten - Prohibition

Wow. I thought we settled that argument in the 1920's!

[hattrickflyer.livejournal.com]

Did we need 3 different varieties of socialism?

[flwyd.livejournal.com]

They're counterbalancing the Libertarian, Boston Tea, and Objectivist* parties, I guess. I'm trying to remember if the two socialist candidates together had enough votes to cover the original Bush/Gore margin in Florida. I don't think they did, but I remember that John Hagelin did. I decided his party was doomed when his own press secretary couldn't give me a reason to vote for Hagelin instead of Nader.

Small movements are really good at splintering.


* Wow. The Objectivist Party's president and vice president candidates both live in New York. So if they won, they wouldn't both be allowed to serve. (Or at least no elector would be able to vote for both.)

[hattrickflyer.livejournal.com]

Moral of the story: Socialists aren't creative with names when they splinter?

[flwyd.livejournal.com]

The People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front would beg to differ. Or maybe they differ in how they beg.