eno2001's Journal: POLITICS: WHY?????

God I HATE politics. They're so damn complicated at a minute level. Here's an example of something I can't comprehend. The local League of Women Voters has publications meant to help you make decisions about who to vote for. In the case of a two candidates running for the Supreme Court of Ohio they were both asked the same question:

"What options to you believe the judiciary has when there is a judicial decision that requires the legislature to act if their response does not fully address this decision"?

Now the two candidates don't have any political affiliation listed so it's hard to tell which one is more on my side of the political spectrum. And there is no list of decisions made by these candidates in their current seats (if any) for me to make a decision based on their stances. And their responses to the question don't help.

Candidate 1 (excerpt): The judiciary is the third independent branch of the government with the solemn obligation to ensure that the other two branches follow the law as written.

He basically says in the rest of his response that in a conflict with the other two branches it is the judiciary branch's position to resolve the conflict by making the other branches follow the written law. This strikes me as correct based on what I learned when I wasn't sleeping in government class as a kid.

Candidate 2 (excerpt): The Ohio Constitution establishes the Judiciary as an equal branch of government, not superior to either the Legislative or Excutive branches. [snip] I am unable to concieve of a judicial decision that would "require" the Leglsature to act given that it is a separate branch of government elected by the voters. It is not the role of the Judiciary as interpreters of the law to supercede the role of the Legislature as makers of the law.

That doesn't sound quite right to me since it implies that the Judiciary isn't really allowed to be a check on the Legislature. To my understanding, each branch is supposed to limit the other as needed.

God I REALLY HATE politics.

Don't worry

[nizo]

If things keep heading the way they are heading, you won't have to worry about picking anybody; they will be picked for ya! How about them apples? :-)

Electoral College worse than Diebold

[WilliamSChips]

My state, North Carolina, doesn't use voting machines. (IIRC it uses optical scan which uses machines by default but also has a paper trail--it's like the bubblesheets for the SAT) But when I place my first vote in 2008, my vote for President won't count because I don't live in a swing state.

Re:

[nizo]

I loved the NC paper ballot (I think it was the 1996 ballot? Or maybe 1998....): It listed the Republican candidate, with a helpful arrow to a bubble in the center of the page, and below that was the Democrat. However, the second bubble down was pointed to by a third party candidate on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE, so checking off the second bubble meant you voted for the third party candidate instead of the Democrat (which was the third bubble down). That had to be the most idiotic and confusing ballot I ha

Re:

[WilliamSChips]

I doubt it. That sounds like a butterfly ballot. I'm pretty sure those have all been removed. The only good result of the 2000 elections.