Follow the Bouncing Ballot

I'm going to keep this week's blog short.  I spent most of last week in Kansas City with my dad, my first trip back "home" in over a decade, and I'm still catching up on things back in Illinois.  Rest assured, I'll be much more chatty next week.

"This will be Florida 2000 all over again!" cry the left-leaning activists. There is growing speculation --some legit, some unfounded-- that voter fraud and dirty tricks may play a part in the presidential election. The election is already fairly contested, with neither candidate running away from the other, but do we have to resort to fearmongering? Is paranoia getting in the way of the democratic process? Are we heading to the most staunchly partisan election in American history? The answer to all three questions is... maybe.

Florida's recent decision to outlaw early voting and add impediments to registering to vote has become a testy issue in a notorious swing state. On one hand, these new laws are meant to prevent non-US citizens and other undocumented residents to vote in November. On the other hand, a substantial percentage of the African-American population doesn't have IDs or registration.  Barring that some alterations are made, these new laws not only violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, but they evoke the old Jim Crow laws as well. Clearly, whoever wrote this law doesn't know their own state.

Speaking of elections, the movement to recall and usurp sitting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was an abject failure. I'm disappointed, but I will also admit that a lot had to happen to turn Walker into the midwestern Grey Davis. Ultimately, my neighbors to the north prefer fiscal responsibility and the illusion of a free market over basic civil liberties. Walker was elected to office less than two years ago by vanquishing a weak opponent, and here we stand today with Walker beating... that same also-ran. I don't think I need to reiterate how much I resent Walker's activist, against-the-people agenda, and with any luck the Wisconsin GOP will come to their senses sometime before 2014.