Super Tuesday

Tuesday is the day that most of the country will vote in some sort of primary race.

Unlike us Texans, who still have a whole month to go, you need to know who you are voting for. Some of you have no idea, and are still looking for a credible place to find solid information about each person running. If this sounds like you then you need to get online and read about the people running on your Secretary of State's website. It is the constitutional mandate of these people to provide you with the most unbiased information concerning elections.

Some of you have no idea if you can vote. In Texas ANYONE can vote in ANY primary just as long as they do not vote in BOTH primaries. This is not always the case... and many states require that you be registered to vote. Texas does require registration for primary voting.

For all of my readers from other states... here is the low down:

California: If you are an Independent you can vote in the Democrat primary but you cannot vote in the Republican primary, it is open to only registered Republicans.
Georgia: This is a total open primary.
Illinois: This is a total open primary.
Massachusetts: Independents may vote in ANY primary. Registered Republicans and Democrats may only vote in party primaries.
New Jersey: Same as Massachusetts.
New York: Closed Primary. Only Registered Republicans and Democrats may vote in their specific party primary.
Alabama: This is a total open primary.
Arizona: Closed Primary. (See New York)
Arkansas: Total Open Primary.
Colorado: Closed Caucus. Independents cannot attend- voting is done much like Iowa, in that caucus goers may vote several times until a winner is declared.
Connecticut: Closed Primary.
Minnesota: Open Caucus. Anyone may attend an individual caucus.
Missouri: Open Primary.
Oklahoma: Closed Primary.
Tennessee: Open Primary.
Alaska: Semi-Open Caucus. Independent voters may attend and register to participate on the day of the caucus. (If you are in Alaska you can just 'show up and vote')
Delaware: Closed Primary.
Idaho: No Republican Primary or Caucus. (This is a Republican strong-hold, the state has never gone blue.)
Kansas: No Republican Primary or Caucus. (Republicans will hold a caucus on a different date.)
Montana: Closed Caucus only open to Republican invitation.
New Mexico: No Republican Primary or Caucus. (See Idaho)
North Dakota: Semi-Open Caucus for Democrats and Total Open Caucus for Republicans. (See Alaska)
Utah: Semi-Open Primary. Independents may vote in any primary, Republicans and Democrats may only vote in party primaries.
West Virginia: Closed Republican Caucus.

Remember... if you have no idea who to vote for... just ask!

The Election Standard

As a teacher you constantly ask your students to live up to a certain standard. Sometimes it is rather funny how that same standard is not practiced in the real world. I thought of this often this week as our Student Council held their elections.

Since I am the Student Council sponsor, it was up to me to coordinate the election and lay down the ground rules. I have a coworker that I grew up with whom helps me with student council- Miss. Godby- and also came up with some rules for the election. We used real life as our ‘don’t do this’ list.

Our candidates could not engage in any name calling, backbiting, poor sportsmanship, bribery, or ‘dirty’ campaigning. It was all very humorous to me because all of these qualities that were unacceptable in our school election are the norm in American politics. It is amazing how ‘un’ issues oriented our political spectrum really is. It seems like this is the standard more in this coming election than ever before.

At our ‘debate’, which was little more than a candidate giving a speech, students were only allowed to talk about themselves: what they would like to see happen and what they would like to do. All candidates who were running, because they were on stage with everyone else, were required to show good sportsmanship by clapping for each candidate, even if they were the opponent.

It really was amazing how un-real the whole process was.

The saddest part about all of this is that Americans seem to be getting more and more complacent as time goes on. When you look at the field of candidates running in the coming election you get really disheartened. Never in my political life have I been as clueless as to who I will vote for. I am one of those neo, ultraconservative, religious, right-winged republicans and I think all of the candidates who are running this time are an absolute joke. It is sad that in a country of 300 MILLION we cannot find anyone better suited to run our country than the few we have to choose from.

America is at a dangerous time. It is a time where, after generations of liberalism, she has lost her purpose-her vision. America doesn’t really know who she is anymore and too many are unwilling to stand up and remind her.

Our election went off without a hitch. As soon as the results were tallied, all the candidates met in the library to hear the news first. They patted each other on the back and clapped for the winners. It was anything but realistic. America could have learned a lot from our Student Council election.