funnystrange.com

The phone calls from Maryland democrats have slowed down. Only one yesterday and one today. The one today started out with "I bet you've gotten a lot of phone calls!" Maybe just a couple.

He told me that they've moved the county activity from Havre de Grace to Bel Air, which is going to add about 15 minutes to my drive from Delaware. I kind of wish now I was going to Elkton! Oh well, at least I have good audio books on the iPod. He told me he would email me a schedule, and I asked for a short day on Monday since I figure Tuesday will be the big day. He said they'd put me on phone duty that day.

Well the schedule was a little too ambitious: first they put me canvassing Friday afternoon, when I will be driving up. Then 8 hour days on Saturday and Sunday, split between phone and canvassing, then 12 hours phone duty on Monday (!!!), and then 12 hours of canvassing on Tuesday.

Oh, and I have to be there 1.5 hours early on Saturday to train for canvassing. I don't think the training actually takes that long, they just need me there before the canvassing shift heads out, but then the phone shift starts later. I'm glad they're going to train me. In 2004 I don't remember getting any training, just a stack of pamphlets and a map.

I wrote back, told them I can't do Friday, and asked for a short day on Monday. They wrote back asking me to do 9 am to 6 pm instead. That's not really a short day in my book. I didn't feel like arguing any further, so I'll just show up and then plan on leaving early if I'm tired on Monday. What are they going to do, fire me?

I did early voting this morning. For Durham County it's next door to the Board of Elections office, across the street from the old ballpark. There was no line so I got in and out pretty quickly. I was kind of surprised that they didn't ask for ID, but at dinner this evening my friend Joe told me that it's illegal (everywhere but Arizona) to ask voters for ID. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, I can see that requiring ID would be an obstacle to poor people who might not have a driver's license. But on the other, I'm a little alarmed by the idea that anyone who knows my name and street address could vote in my name.

It seems like early voting combined with no ID requirement could make voter fraud really easy. Just go to early voting and vote in someone else's name, then on election day go to your own precinct and vote in your own name. Note: I am not advocating anyone do this! On the contrary, I think it's pretty damned scary. I wonder what they do if something like that happens? I mean if you showed up at your polling place on election day and your vote had already been cast by someone else, what can you do? Anything?

After voting I walked a couple of doors down to the board of elections office, and asked the woman at the front desk if they have any plans to convert Durham County to electronic voting machines. She seemed a little flummoxed by the question; she didn't really answer one way or the other. I told her that I like the system we have now (for those of you not in Durham County, we use optically scanned paper ballots), and I hope we don't change, because I think this system is much safer. She said, "We all feel the same way." She suggested I talk to the guy inside the office, she didn't identify him but the sign on his desk said Michael Ashe. Later I looked him up and he's the director of the board of elections. Unfortunately just as I started to talk to him, he got a phone call that sounded like it was going to take a while, so I left.

So I didn't get any concrete information, but I was encouraged by the remark that they all prefer the current system too. I have to say, I don't know where this push towards paperless electronic voting machines came from. What is the rationale for switching to those machines? I mean sincerely, not just "so it's easier for them to steal elections."

With a week to go I've been rethinking my plan to go to Pennsylvania and campaign for Bob Casey. I still feel very strongly about wanting to see Rick Santorum out of office. But (knock on wood) it sounds like it's going to happen with or without my help. I've been following the polls for over a month and Santorum has been consistently way behind, never gaining any ground.

We got a "2006 Nonpartisan Judicial Voter Guide" booklet in the mail. Each candidate for state-level judge gets a half-page to state their credentials and make a personal statement. Being a nonpartisan race, none of the candidates state their political party affiliations. And since judges aren't supposed to have "hidden agendas," none of them state positions on anything.

It's kind of interesting, though, how some of the candidates make their politics as obvious as possible. For instance Rusty Duke's statement starts off "I am a Conservative." And Rachel Lea Hunter (who, if not a total nut job herself, seems to be married to one) mentions progressive issues like the erosion of constitutional rights, and double standards for the rich and the poor. On the other hand, some candidates seem to take that "nonpartisan" thing more seriously. I wasn't able to figure out Mark Martin or Sarah Parker's political affiliation from the booklet. Now that I think about it, the incumbents in general seem to be less blatant about their politics.

That said, here's my Somewhat Accurate Guide to Decoding the Politics of Judicial Candidates:

Conservative:
endorsed by Elizabeth Dole and/or Richard Burr
deny being activist judge
use words "crime," "guilty" or "rule of law"

Progressive:
endorsed by organizations with "women" in name
deny having agenda
use words "rights" or "justice"

I must say, while I appreciate the sentiment about not having an agenda or being an activist judge or whatnot, I think it's a bit disingenuous. They're human. They have opinions and beliefs, and when they interpret the law, their opinions and beliefs are necessarily going to be some kind of a factor. Not to say they should decide against the law to suit their beliefs. But if there was no human element, we could just replace judges with robots and be done with it.