Of all the wild scenarios spun out for the 2008 presidential campaign, perhaps the least likely was the one we face: a Republican contest that was effectively over the morning after Super Tuesday, and a Democratic cage match that could go on and on and on — all the way to a tumultuous and unpredictable convention in August.

I, for instance, offered an unconventional convention scenario back in July, noting that the uniquely early start (called “front loading”) of the primary process, combined with the compressed schedule, could provide a formula for an extended, pitched battle, with no candidate getting close to a majority after Super Tuesday. But I made it clear that this was more likely to happen on the Republican side, where many plausible candidates were running against one another and none seemed to be getting more than tepid support.

The Democrats, on the other hand, already had a front-running candidate, highly regarded by most Democratic partisans, and an enthusiastic electorate that wanted to pick a nominee and get on with the big battle — ending the Bush era once and for all. (more…)

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Posted in Super Delegate, Convention, Texas, Election Reform, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Election 2008, Primary schedule | No Comments »

Journalist and programmer Declan McCullagh has a longish piece up at ZDNet about how a legal loophole in Ohio allows anyone to figure out who voted how. Because ballots are a part of the public record in Ohio, and ballots cast on some ES&S voting machines used in Ohio are time stamped, if someone were to merge a time-stamped list of votes with a list of voters in the order they cast their ballots (as compiled by poll workers), they could, McCullagh writes, probably figure out who voted how.

There are arguments for and against this theory in the article, which you can read by clicking here.

Posted in Election Reform, Ohio, Electronic voting | Comments Off

Another installment from the GOTW Road Team. Congressman Tim Ryan was generous enough to give us a few minutes of time; the Congressman’s had a long career in public service, and has been an up-and-coming Member of the House since 2003. He thinks that a national holiday might be the way to go, and wants to preserve the collective ritual of everyone voting together. When we asked him the question, he seemed to have some idea- check out the clip for his answer.

We don’t generally travel by horse and buggy (or wagon, or carriage) anymore, of course. Most of us travel with 160 horses under the hoods of our cars, or by public transport. Makes us wonder: does the reasoning behind Tuesday voting still hold up?

The search continues…

Posted in Election Reform, Election 2006, Get Out The Why?, Ohio | Comments Off