Wish you had a poll Tuesday? Me too
Another good example of why mail-in voting is so bad. I have heard from a number of people that they might have voted differently if they have waited to vote until after the South Carolina primaries. Thinking Hillary Clinton a forgone conclusion, they voted for her, and now having seen her - and mostly Bill's - performance in South Carolina have switched their allegiance to Obama. They say they always liked Obama but weren't sure he had a chance.
Today polls are showing Obama's pull in California within 2 points of Clinton's - where it was once a 25-point difference. There may be lots of Mendocino County residents who wish they could vote for Obama now but have already mailed in their ballots. Or what about the people who voted for John Edwards whohas now dropped out of the race.
Our county clerk will say, well, people should just wait to vote. No, people should go to the polls on election day when they have all the information they need in order to make their decision.
Comments
And some people- I suspect a LOT of people- won't have all that much more information on election day than they had three weeks earlier. Oh well.
That's no reason for us not having the option of voting absentee.
Not to be accusatory, but I get the impression the incident you describe bothers you because Obama lost some votes more than anything else. If so, might I remind you that any "enlightenment" one might receive regarding a candidate can work both way. Give it another day or two and some of those who wished they'd voted for Obama might change their minds yet again and switch back to Hillary.
Heck, if whoever they end up voting for wins, they might wish they hadn't voted for THAT candidate after he or she is in office a couple months.
Fickleness of voters is no reason to cast aside the option of absentee voting and that's coming from someone who votes absentee who wished he had changed his vote at least once after voting.
Except I might add that the time I cast that one vote early, and regretted it, I wasn't registered as permanent absentee. I voted early at the elections office which anyone can do a few weeks prior to the election.
Posted by: Fred Mangels | February 5, 2008 07:49 AM