Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I voted

Godspeed, little ballot! May you travel swiftly over the ocean -- and be counted, since Virginia is apparently now one of the battleground states. According to Wikipedia:

No Democratic presidential candidate has won Virginia since Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in 1964, and it was the only Southern state that went Republican in 1976. Virginia is no longer as reliably Republican as it once was... [snip, snip] Polls show Obama with a moderate lead in Virginia.

And good luck to all those college students trying to register to vote:

The Supreme Court's position is clear: a 1979 ruling found that all students have the right to vote where they attend college. But local officials often make students travel a rocky road. In recent months, registrars in counties including Montgomery, Va. (home to Virginia Tech) [snip, snip]issued warnings that were off-putting if not outright alarming: students who register in their college town could be ineligible to be claimed as dependents on their parents' tax returns and might be in danger of losing tuition scholarships. The problem, according to youth voter advocates and the IRS, is that these dire warnings are incorrect. After widespread outrage, the registrars backed off. But experts worry that the resulting confusion could sour first-timers on voting altogether.

1 comment:

Papadesdeux said...

I didn't realize or haven't paid attention that there is a Virginia connection here.

Ah, memories. I'm not sure if it is nostalgia or embarrassment. I started the debauchery that was my college career in Prince Edward county. If I'm not mistaken in my recollection of history, the only county in the nation to close it's public schools rather than integrate. Some legacy.

That said, there is a soft spot in my old ticker. I guess it is a left over from the "I 'heart' Virginia" campaign of the 70's. !!! I'm so old!

My vote didn't count for as much since my last US residence was in California. But hey, at least I was counted... er, I hope.