Pages
Stay In Touch
More
© 2013 The Sandwich Democratic Town Committee
Toward the end of the presidential campaign Lou Cerrone (SDTC Vice Chair) and I made a journey up to New Hampshire to help with door-to-door canvassing for the President. As part of our orientation we were told that the time for regular registration to vote had passed. However, in New Hampshire someone may registration to vote at the polls on the day of the election, and thus cast a ballot.
Armed with information about how to do same-day registration we headed off to go door-knocking for the Obama campaign. On our route we encountered several enthusiastic supporters of the President who had not yet registered. So, we dutifully informed them of the procedure and required documentation for registering at the polls on Election Day. It wasn’t an easy process to complete but the people we spoke with claimed to have all the necessary documentation and understood what we told them they had to do. On we went to the next door, absolutely convinced that there was no way those people would actually register and vote on Election Day.
Boy, were we wrong! Although we have no way of knowing whether the people we met actually registered and voted at the polls, a story in today’s Globe revealed startling information. It turns out that approximately 14% of the votes cast in NH on Election Day were cast by people who registered to vote at the polls – 14%! There were 99,319 same-day voter registrations: “…the state saw a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of people who registered at the polls on Election Day.”
Some place in there are a number of lessons about canvassing, voting, and voter-friendly provisions to enable, not block, the ability of citizens to cast their ballots. Given the outcome of the election – both in NH and across the nation – I have to say I am really happy about being wrong.
The employment report for September produced startling results but that didn’t stop Republicans from trying mightily to “spin” the report in their favor. Don’t fall for it! There are some critical facts in that report that we should keep in mind whenever we discuss the economy and employment with friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
- 114,000 new private sector jobs created in September: this is not great of course but it does display continued upward growth in the job market;
- The unemployment rate dropped to 7.8%: in the past critics could point to a decline as possibly coming from people giving up on finding work and who therefore dropped out of the job market, but not this time…
- A whopping 873,000 more people reported being employed than in the previous month. Note that this number comes from household surveys and is therefore distinct from the “new” jobs number which is focused on new positions created in the private sector.
- The unemployment rate (7.8%) and the number of unemployed (12.1 million) match where those numbers stood when President Obama was unaugurated, before the full brunt of the Great Recession had manifested itself.
- +325,000: The economy has now gotten back all of the jobs lost since January, 2009, and then some.
It’s hard to believe that Republican candidates and members of Congress actually hope ill for the economy and people’s employment but that sure seems like what they are doing. They were so bewildered by the good numbers for September that they actually went on a campaign of accusing Democrats of cooking the books, falsifying the report by shaping it to make the President look good as he runs for re-election. Just about everyone honest observer, including Republicans, condemned that effort as irresponsible and wildly off the mark.
Source: Huffington Post
The Boston Globe published an interesting piece about where the campaigns for U.S. Senate of Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren are concentrating their efforts geographically (October 10, 2012). Of course the major focus is on the greater Boston metropolitan area. What struck me, however, was a comment in the article that, “Brown has also placed a greater emphasis on the South Coast, Cape, and the Islands…” The author notes that Brown leads Warren 41%-40% in that area. One percentage point! In other words, Elizabeth and Brown are in a dead heat on the Cape and Islands right now. With a little more dedicated effort over the next few weeks we just might win the Cape & Islands for Elizabeth on November 6th!
Follow Us!