ASA Council meeting...

[azbigdawg]

anyone headed there? Finally managing to attend one.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by azbigdawg

anyone headed there? Finally managing to attend one.

About time!

[AtlUmpSteve]

I will be there.

[bkbjones]

:::sigh:::

Some year, they won't have it wrapped around election day...and I will get to go.

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by bkbjones

:::sigh:::

Some year, they won't have it wrapped around election day...and I will get to go.

That could happen. The ASA Code says it may start no earlier than November 1, and must conclude no later than November 20. So the option to use a later week is available, if a bidding city, host hotel and visitors and convention bureau wants to use it.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

That could happen. The ASA Code says it may start no earlier than November 1, and must conclude no later than November 20. So the option to use a later week is available, if a bidding city, host hotel and visitors and convention bureau wants to use it.

I wish they would do it a week later. America can't have an election without me and there's just no way I can go with the way it's been scheduled.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by bkbjones

I wish they would do it a week later. America can't have an election without me and there's just no way I can go with the way it's been scheduled.

You must live in one of those goofy-assed communities that insist on having off-year elections.

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

You must live in one of those goofy-assed communities that insist on having off-year elections.

And a wonder why government costs too much to run...damn elections every year somehow!

[Scooby]

One word for you Absentee Ballot...OK two words.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

You must live in one of those goofy-assed communities that insist on having off-year elections.

Well, plus my real job is trying to convince folks how to vote on certain issues and candidates. I have campaigns here in WA state (rare that I do something in the home state), Oregon and California. Most of what I do is in Cali -- things like most every statewide ballot prop, getting people to vote for Austrian-born body builders, and lots of local issues. Plus, the world's largest retailer is one of my clients. I've also done stuff for clients in NJ, MA, KY, IA, MO, FL, TX, NM, MI, OH, AZ, NV, UT, ID, MN, ME and prolly some others I don't remember. I try to do issues rather than candidates: issues don't have egos.

So the election season is a pretty busy time...and right after the election I have to file a bunch of paperwork in a very short period of time. Since the guy who owns the business (and there are just three of us who work here) is currently in Alexandria, Egypt, and will be cruising through the Red Sea on election day, there ain't no Louisville for me -- I'll be the one in Seattle getting ducks in a row.

As for doing voting by mail, I think you should have the opportunity, but I am opposed to doing it like OR, where they are ALL mail-in ballots. I think there is still something to be said for going to the polling place and invoking your right to vote.

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by bkbjones

I try to do issues rather than candidates: issues don't have egos.

Maybe not, but issues do have fanatics. I'd probably rather deal with the egos.

Originally Posted by bkbjones

...I think there is still something to be said for going to the polling place and invoking your right to vote.

You mean like a system to actually make sure the person voting is actually a citizen and has voted only once? Like that? Naw, turnout and convenience is MUCH more important.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Maybe not, but issues do have fanatics. I'd probably rather deal with the egos.You mean like a system to actually make sure the person voting is actually a citizen and has voted only once? Like that? Naw, turnout and convenience is MUCH more important.

Naw, no issues with fanatics, trust me. They don't even get to the first cut.

In WA, voting more than once is not an issue. We have people who vote several times. Just ask our governor.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by bkbjones

.

As for doing voting by mail, I think you should have the opportunity, but I am opposed to doing it like OR, where they are ALL mail-in ballots. I think there is still something to be said for going to the polling place and invoking your right to vote.

Which is why I go to the local Election Board office and vote the week before. It's not that big a deal.

[Dakota]

When I was in TX, they had an "early voting" system. Still do, I suppose.

But you could go to the court house (or wherever they set it up) and vote as much as a month or so early (as I recall). They shut down early voting a couple of days before the actual election. They do still have traditional absentee ballots, but the early voting means you can deal with business trips, vacations, scheduled surgery, etc., without having to vote absentee.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by Dakota

When I was in TX, they had an "early voting" system. Still do, I suppose.

But you could go to the court house (or wherever they set it up) and vote as much as a month or so early (as I recall). They shut down early voting a couple of days before the actual election. They do still have traditional absentee ballots, but the early voting means you can deal with business trips, vacations, scheduled surgery, etc., without having to vote absentee.

I noticed in the Amarilla paper this morning they still do that, and they made a big splash about how these offices were open on Saturday to handle the early voters.

I was a young reporter working for enuf money to keep me in peanuts and beer when they finally changed from just the absentee to the early voting. Too many folks were being a bit untruthful about their need to vote absentee. Best thing they did down there behind abolishing the poll tax.

(For you Yankees, the poll tax was yet another way many of the old Confederate states kept many blacks from voting. Of course when LBJ was running for office they all voted, right beside dead people and 13 folks from Mexico who had never waded across the Rio Grande.)