Super Tuesday Poll

[donheff]

How about a poll to see how close the ER forum comes to the actual voters? Simply choose one of the six and we can compare to the actual spread.

 

[ronin]

I'm a decline to stater. In the CA primary, I can get a dem or am indep ballot. Normally I'd take the opposite side of what my wife votes to cancel her out . But she hasn't decided. So I will only vote the props.

What I think we need is a combo of prop 92 and 94-97. Just put the indian slots directly on the community college campuses and lower the gambling age to 18. That way the students can have a shot at tuition and book money directly.

 

[bright eyed]

What I think we need is a combo of prop 92 and 94-97. Just put the indian slots directly on the community college campuses and lower the gambling age to 18. That way the students can have a shot at tuition and book money directly.

you're hilarious - i'm so sick of those gaming prop commercials!

 

[TromboneAl]

So I will only vote the props.

This year the props are especially difficult to make heads or tails of. Can you imagine how most uninformed voters deal with these? Bad system.

 

[free4now]

With all the talk on this board about the need for Universal Healthcare, I'm surprised Obama is leading Clinton, given that Clinton is the UHC candidate.

 

[calmloki]

Thanks for the chance to vote for Ron Paul - where my not voting for someone else doesn't matter. Against some of his views (abortion for instance), but it's good to see a gadfly.

 

[Walt34]

You forgot "None of the above".

 

[donheff]

Interesting how much higher Obama is polling than Clinton here. That contrasts significantly with the national polls but they are always a little behind the momentum - I bet Obama does better than expected. Also interesting that the Dem/GOP split is nearly 50/50 (so far). And a lot you conservatives are always complaining about the left bias on this board. No foundation - just like the complaints about the liberal media.

With all the talk on this board about the need for Universal Healthcare, I'm surprised Obama is leading Clinton, given that Clinton is the UHC candidate.

Not much light between them even on this topic. There are a lot of us here who wish we could get a single payer health care system like any sensible society but we understand that no one will campaign on that. Clinton isn't calling for true universal health care just universal insurance. Obama says he wants the same but wouldn't mandate coverage to the point of garnishing wages. The ultimate proposal (assuming the dems win) will undoubtedly be some compromise.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Im really torn on my choice. I need to decide tonight too

 

[donheff]

Im really torn on my choice. I need to decide tonight too

Get it down to two possible choices. Assign one to heads and one to tails. Flip a coin and while it is still in the air you will know which way you want it to land -- that is your choice.

 

[Goonie]

For me the choice was as easy as ABC!

 

[figner]

I'm a decline to stater. In the CA primary, I can get a dem or am indep ballot. Normally I'd take the opposite side of what my wife votes to cancel her out . But she hasn't decided. So I will only vote the props.

Ok, I've puzzled over this statement for several minutes and still can't figure out why anyone would want to vote just to vote the opposite of their spouse. Could you explain, or were you kidding?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This year the props are especially difficult to make heads or tails of. Can you imagine how most uninformed voters deal with these? Bad system.

Just said that to my wife the other day. With the ability to look into ALL of the info and pro's/con's, I formed a rather different opinion about the props than I'd gotten from the voter info booklets, tv ads and mailings.

Its disappointing to see how much the average person is manipulated come election time.

 

[Texas Proud]

Also interesting that the Dem/GOP split is nearly 50/50 (so far). And a lot you conservatives are always complaining about the left bias on this board. No foundation - just like the complaints about the liberal media. .

AHHHHHHH... even the media did a story on the left leaning of the media... IIRC, something like 95% of them voted Dem about 8 or 12 years ago...

Kind of hard to dispute that left lean if this is even close to true...

 

[jambo101]

So who won??

 

[donheff]

It appears we overestimated both Obama's and McCain's pull. The pundits say that highly educated people lean to Obama and independents to McCain so maybe we are overrepresented in both categories. The other possibility is we reflected the momentum of both candidates in our choices but with early voters and the unregistered newbies that momentum wasn't yet reflected in the results

 

[FIRE'd@51]

I find it interesting that, despite all the opinion polls on Iraq, each party's leading candidate in delegates is the most hawkish (within his/her party) on the Iraq war.

 

[ronin]

Ok, I've puzzled over this statement for several minutes and still can't figure out why anyone would want to vote just to vote the opposite of their spouse. Could you explain, or were you kidding?

It's an inside joke between us as we often take opposite sides of the slates and find out we might as well have stayed home. So I ask her who she is supporting and teasingly tell her I'm going to cancel her vote. In reality I got a Dem ballot and did just that. Not to be mean to her though.

On another note, at the poll there was an older lady going off on the workers because they gave her a Dem ballot. She was actually registered Dem, but apparently didn't want to be. Maybe she was unclear on the concept, but man was she raising a ruckus over it.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm just unclear on why it'd be considered rocket science to just give EVERYONE a ballot that would let them vote for ANY of the candidates.

Of course, I thought I was smart to register "unaffiliated" to avoid being pestered by party telemarketers.

Instead I was barred from voting for the candidate I decided I liked, and pestered by independent voter telemarketers.

Much better.

 

[SecondCor521]

I find it interesting that, despite all the opinion polls on Iraq, each party's leading candidate in delegates is the most hawkish (within his/her party) on the Iraq war.

Is this accurate?

On the Democratic side, I believe Hillary is leading Barack in the delegate count at the moment. I also thought she wanted to pull the troops out ASAP, whereas Barack was wanting a pullout by late 2009.

I could be wrong on any of those three points, though.

2Cor521

 

[Gumby]

Why do these people ever get to vote?
Confused Florida voters try to cast ballots in Super Tuesday primaries -- OrlandoSentinel.com

 

[TromboneAl]

Instead I was barred from voting for the candidate I decided I liked, and pestered by independent voter telemarketers.

I don't get it. As an independent, you could have gotten a democrat or republican ballot, right? That's what I did.

======

This business of delegates and winner take all or proportional by district strikes me as just another instance of humans choosing unnecessary complications. One person one vote makes more sense. The different web sites (cnn.com, msnbc.com) can't even agree on who has more delegates, Clinton or Obama. Complicated cell phone plans, health insurance, and voting. It's as if we make it complex so the media can do in depth analysis of the different strategies.

If we currently had one person one vote for primaries and the main election, and someone suggested we switch to this state wide stuff, no one would go for it.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nope. I could have requested a democrat ballot. The republicans did not want the independent vote and declined to supply a ballot.

I would have had to previously decide I wanted to vote for a democrat to request the democrat ballot. As of the cutoff date to request one, I hadnt decided.

As it turns out, I probably would have voted for one of the guys from the party that doesnt want my vote. So they might not get it after all.

Al, the system is easy enough for a 5th grader to comprehend when focused on the subject in grade school, yet complicated enough for the average adult voter to not completely get it anymore. A whole lot of people never realize that their vote didnt really matter.

But you pretty much nailed it. Faced with complexity, its very difficult to do an apples to apples comparison and know exactly what sort of value you're getting for your selection. So you're likely to give up and be swayed by a flashy ad or a decent sounding sales pitch. That beats producing a superior product and service at a reasonable price, then treating the 'customer' appropriately to retain their future business.

Just dont ask me about buying a furnace...that was worse than picking a cell phone plan or health insurance.

 

[ronin]

Nope. I could have requested a democrat ballot. The republicans did not want the independent vote and declined to supply a ballot.

I was asked at the polling station if I wanted a Democratic ballot. There was no cut off date to get one, you just tell them what you want. Actually, the Amer. Indep. party also was available. But since G. Wallace hasn't run in a while, I declined that one ( I'm not being serious OK? get it? Just because my wife calls me Archie Bunker doesn't mean...)

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I was voting by mail. You needed to request the democrat ballot by a certain date to get it.

I didnt do it because I didnt want a special democrat ballot, I wanted to be able to pick any candidate I wanted at the time of voting, as I imagined would be the case if I were voting in person. Little did I know...