A vote for so and so is a wasted vote...

Hi folks!

It's election day tomorrow in Virginia. I like to call it "No more political ads day eve". This campaign has been atrocious. We have the Democrat, Terry McAuliff, the Republican, Ken Cuccinelli, and the Libertarian, Robert Sarvis. The polls all put McAuliff ahead. Sarvis doesn't have a snow ball's chance, but he's hanging in there in the hopes he can get at least 10% to guarantee the Libertarians a place on the ballot and in debates in the future. I have to give the guy credit for trying.

What bothers me most about this whole thing is not really the smear campaign of the two major candidates, but the reliance on fear. The Cuccinelli campaign is trying to draw votes away from Sarvis by saying that voting for him is a wasted vote. I HATE that concept. To me, voting for anyone is not a wasted vote. The only wasted votes are the ones that don't happen. Those folks who sit on their lazy duffs at home and DON'T vote are the ones who waste votes. Grrrr...

Okay, that's my rant. Remember folks, people died for our right to vote. We should use it!

-Matt

 

Good points by you.

 

I'm not in Virginia, but it seems like the Sarvis campaign has the potential to be one of the bigger political stories of the year. The polls suggest that Sarvis has a shot to get 10% of the Virginia vote. If he hits that double-digit level, there will be three major political parties in the state -- not just two. And the state will recognize this, by giving the Libertarian party guaranteed access to ballots and debates.

On the other hand, support for third parties often seems to be higher in the polls than it is in the election booth. So the polls could be misleading here. We'll know soon enough.

 

In my area of Colorado (and perhaps all of Colorado) voting is by mail. So advertising and robocalls pretty much ceased a week ago.

One Colorado congressman is already advertising in anticipation of the primaries.

 

You could be right. In 2012, the polls indicated that Gary Johnson (the Libertarian presidential candidate) was pulling 7% support in New Mexico (his home state). Yet in the actual New Mexico election, he only got 3.6%, or about half that level. So his supporters apparently did "chicken out".

On the other hand, it seems like there is an unusual degree of dissatisfaction in Virginia with the choices from the two major parties. So perhaps people will be less likely to "chicken out", and more likely to cast "protest votes". Don't know, but will be interested in the outcome.

 

The Virginia Board of Elections has Sarvis at 6.5%. This is not bad by historical standards; in fact it is the third highest showing in history by a Libertarian candidate for governor. But obviously it's short of 10%.

 

Every vote DOES count.

I looked at the unofficial returns for Virginia Attorney General. The GOP candidate won by 1,169 votes in a statewide election with over 2 million ballots cast.

 

The Virginia Board of Elections currently puts the GOP candidate ahead by only 727 votes, out of 2,200,869. It's headed for a recount.

 

I know it isn't really a "one vote makes the difference" concept, but if you look at the individual localities breakdown in the race for governor, Westmoreland county, which is right next door to me, was neck and neck between Cuccinelli and McAuliff. Cooch was ahead by one vote. Does it matter? No. But I thought that was interesting.

-Matt

 

Yabbut you don't KNOW who will win until after the election!

 

After further review of the ballots, it appears that the GOP candidate may have actually lost.
The latest numbers put the Democratic candidate ahead by 117 votes statewide.

In this case, it's been a week since the election and we still don't know for sure.

 

Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities, totaling 133 local jurisdictions for electoral purposes.

In the Attorney General race, the current count has the Democrat (Herring) ahead by 164 votes over the Republican (Obershain). If these numbers hold up, then Herring has a statewide lead of 164 votes over 133 local jurisdictions, or an average lead of 1.2 votes per city or county. Of course, the statewide total is the only number that really matters, but it's still an interesting way to look at it.

 

So let's hear from someone who's backing that Ford idiotdrugaddict in Toronto. Did I mention that he's really fat? And stupid? And a lying drug addict? A vote for this guy is worse than a wasted vote.