Dramatis electorius

Well, what can I say? Last night, between chatting with Brian, Davin, Alex and Cam over instant messenger I worked on my post about the weekend from around until 10pm, and tired of visiting webpages for my election information, I flipped on the tube. Having the very-most minimal cable possible (just enough to get a discount on my internet service), I didn’t have CNN or C-SPAN or any of the major news services, so I just flipped it to SNN6, one of the local channels, figuring they’d give me an update. What I found surprised me — they were going through who had won the position of county sheriff for Charlotte. What about the national election going on?! But that’s how it works down here. When you go to vote, you’re not just voting on Bush or Kerry or Nader; you’re voting on judges and sheriffs and all sorts of stuff. Seems unusual, but I think it’s related to the whole balance of power thing.
Anyway I ended up settling on WEDU, a PBS affiliate, and watched the what I’m guessing was a special edition of Jim Lehrer’s Newshour. The coverage actually turned out to be much better than I had expected; they discussed the current results, and in-between talked on things I was curious about, like how the geographic area someone grows up could affect which way they’ll vote. You know, left-coast, that kind of thing? Well one theory was, the closer you live to water, the more likely your vote will be liberal. Interesting idea. It holds in most of the situations I can think of, except the east-coast of Canada, which I believe is typically conservative. Another theory was that the higher the population density, the more likely they are to be liberal. Bigger cities == more likely to be democratic. Interesting idea, and I think it holds true. Except for all those cities in Texas. Hmmm.
Anyhow I shut off the TV around midnight; the coverage, plus dinner, plus maybe that beer made me pretty sleepy. Woke up at 5:47 without the assistance of my alarm. “Well,” I thought to myself, “self, why not check how the election is going”. It’s looking like Bush is probably going to get re-elected. The Bush campaign has already declared victory, though Bush isn’t scheduled to speak until later today. The Kerry camp is definitely not certain the election is over. I’m don’t know. It’s looking like another four years of incoherent speeches and dogmatic foreign policy. Guess we’ll find out soon.


Comments

One response to “Dramatis electorius”

  1. Interestingly, the east coast is socially conservative, but fiscally liberal. Lots of NDP action goin’ on. The water thing is something I’ve noticed, too. Also, the more rural people are conservative, witness the interior states and down south.