Some election notes
It's been amusing to see the various polls disagree with each other. I expect each one weights things differently and has a different sample-space (adults? registered voters? likely voters?). It's even more amusing to hear the various analysts and media types trying to make sense of apparently conflicting numbers. I wonder if, the evening of November 2nd, it will be like four years ago with jumping the gun in a contest to be the first to call the election or if it will be like two years ago with everyone being careful and wanting to actually have the right stuff to report. I expect the first, I hope for the second.
Meanwhile the news here in Minnesota is that the Independence Party will appear on the ballot this fall. There was doubt due to an obscure and rather clumsy election law that required the top (primary) vote-getter of a party to get at least 10% of the votes someone in his party got in the last general election. It's even clumsier than I just put it. Even the state attorney general figured it wasn't constitutional, and said so to the state Supreme Court, which agreed. This was fast-tracked as the ballots had to be finalized by very early October so that absentee ballots can be printed. The result is that the minor parties should have an easier time of appearing on the ballot.
One of the problems was that the Minnesota primary is almost useless, so few bother to vote in it. Both the Republican and the DFL (Democrats) party do the caucus thing in Minnesota, so the major parties aren't a reason to go the primary. Also, the primary is after the conventions, so it would hardly matter even with the caucuses. With only minor parties on the primary for anything statewide, it should be no wonder that few bother. I recall that one of the major parties tried to change to a caucus in Wisconsin (to avoid the open primaries there) and got voter apathy as a result. They went back to taking the primary seriously after that.
And there is the debate scheduled for Thursday in Florida. Four hurricanes and now this. Filibuster Cartoons summed it up well.
