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fandomhigh2013-11-07 12:50 pm
professor-lyman.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2013-11-07 12:50 pm
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Current Affairs [Thursday, November 7, 2013]
"Morning, everyone," Josh said, sipping from his coffee as he leaned back against his desk. "Tuesday, being the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November because sometimes the Founders liked to get cute in the Constitution, was Election Day. Because it's an odd year--like ending in an odd number, not just being very strange, though that too--there weren't huge numbers of non-local elections going on. There were a few governors' races: the big one being Virginia where they managed to run human versions of pond scum against rat feces and were absolutely shocked when voter turnout tanked. Personally I think that Virginia's rule that no governor can ever run for re-election didn't help them out: they're run out of qualified, non-insane, people to be governor. This was also the first time Texas's massively restrictive new voter law was in place, which managed to not only disenfranchise people who traditionally vote Democrat like they'd planned, but also managed to seriously inconvience a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas's own Attorney General who'd pushed so hard for the law in the first place. Karma's hilarious."
He took another sip from his coffee. "Since it's been two whole days since the election, pundits are jumping all over the 'What Does It All Mean?' train. They're really interested in trying to see if the voters punished anyone for the government shutdown in Washington, though the Members of Congress aren't up until next year unless there was some kind of special election going on, with a bonus of trying to handicap the next Presidential race, though that's still another three years away. There was also special interest in noticing if the Republican Party could make any headway against the total whackadoodles--technical term--who tend to be the heavy turnout in these off-cycle elections."
He paced the room. "'Off-cycle' means not an even-number year election, or even not a presidential year election. Voter turnout spikes then because it's all over the news. When it's little local issues, even though those are the sorts of things than can really affect your quality of life, they don't get the same sort of media saturation and so only the really political tuned in--and the whackadoodles have nothing better to be doing--turn out. And that's how you get crazy people on the school board."
"Okay," he concluded, givin the teal deer pressing their noses against the window a curious look. "What do you think we could do to keep voters engaged for every election? Would making Election Day a federal holiday help? How about making voting mandatory?"
He took another sip from his coffee. "Since it's been two whole days since the election, pundits are jumping all over the 'What Does It All Mean?' train. They're really interested in trying to see if the voters punished anyone for the government shutdown in Washington, though the Members of Congress aren't up until next year unless there was some kind of special election going on, with a bonus of trying to handicap the next Presidential race, though that's still another three years away. There was also special interest in noticing if the Republican Party could make any headway against the total whackadoodles--technical term--who tend to be the heavy turnout in these off-cycle elections."
He paced the room. "'Off-cycle' means not an even-number year election, or even not a presidential year election. Voter turnout spikes then because it's all over the news. When it's little local issues, even though those are the sorts of things than can really affect your quality of life, they don't get the same sort of media saturation and so only the really political tuned in--and the whackadoodles have nothing better to be doing--turn out. And that's how you get crazy people on the school board."
"Okay," he concluded, givin the teal deer pressing their noses against the window a curious look. "What do you think we could do to keep voters engaged for every election? Would making Election Day a federal holiday help? How about making voting mandatory?"
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Kathy had feelings.
"The trouble is coming up with some kind of incentive to get people to vote. Like, I don't know, prove you voted and they'll wave the late fee at the DMV or something. Though that privileges people with cars, obviously."
Talk to Josh!
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