Outside Counsel

Number 66 at my polling place at 8:15 AM. My data suggests that this is a pretty strong turnout for a primary, but shy of a revolution: I've seen school board elections with high numbers.
Also notable: no Hillary signage and no signage for any Republicans. No local pols gladhanding, although there was a Sanders rep outside the polling place.

# 27 at our polling place this morning at about 8:30. There are only three contested elections this go-round: Supreme Court Justice, Sheriff and Comptroller, and the choices are rather stark for the latter two. The current Sheriff runs a holding center that has got the county sued by the federal government, and which has a suicide rate that ranks with the worst in the country. You see his signs when you cross the city line, which is pretty awful. The Comptroller race pits the incumbent-- a former television reporter-- against Kevin Gaughan. On is hard-pressed to think of an office that Kevin hasn't run for, but that's besides the point: he will do a respectable job I think. He was at our polling place to vote this morning-- he may be the least natural politician I've ever seen, but he really puts his heart into it. The turnout will be key. Supreme Court Justice amounts to a choice of cats whose respective political parties reckoned they'd put in their time (and, I assume, their money). I hate judicial elections. Party affiliation is no sort of indicator. Both candidates have a background as local prosecutors; in my view that amounts to the same as saying that they've been the beneficiaries of an unfortunate local tendency to appoint ADAs on a patronage basis. It also means that they haven't done much time in private practice.

I like voting on Propositions, and the new fill in the dots ballot may mean that these get a little more attention that the old system, which involved looking up past the candidate lines and reading the Prop, probably for the first time, standing in the machine. A big No on the Adirondack propositions: Sorry, but "Forever Wild" means that. Yes on letting judges serve till they are 80. I suppose there is something to be said for giving someone else a turn, but since it isn't going to be me, I figure age is a pretty arbitrary reason to tell someone that they can't do something any more. Being a judge is a skill that it takes time to acquire. Once someone is good at it-- a skill that is attained at public expense-- they should be allowed to do it as long as they can. No to more casinos-- you'd think that by now people would have figured out that casino gambling is no sort of economic tonic at all, just based on experience, but apparently not. Here's the deal: Native American casinos are terrible. State run casinos are even worse.

Allowing municipalities to exclude debt incurred in constructing water treatment and sewage facilities to be excluded from their constitutional debt limits is a Yes. I understand why it is on the ballot, but seriously, how is that the sort of question lay people should be asked?

 Number 48 at my polling place this morning at about 8:00 0'clock. No line.

I was number 95 at my polling place at 8:35 this morning.

(A is in Cleveland.)

Number 75 at my polling place at 9:10

 Number 33 at my polling place at 8:15 this morning.

Early voting, which is a good thing, has wrecked my data set. I've been tracking my number and the time of my vote since I started Outside Counsel. 

Oh, and I suppose I should mention also that this has been a notably ugly election season.

I was number 44 at my polling place this morning at about quarter to seven. We expected a line, but there wasn't one-- I don't know if that means anything. My college chum Joe Morelli was on the ballot as a Clinton delegate-- I wanted to vote for him, but went straight line Obama for maximum effect. Interesting to see that the Clinton delegates on our slate included the two most prominent African-American politicians in the area. Byron Brown and Crystal Peoples were both on the slate. It is also interesting that the Republican ballot doesn't list the delegates-- they have a winner take all system, so their vote goes into a black box, and Jim Domalgowski or someone figures out how they want to count them later, I guess. (Image via BoingBoing.)
UPDATE: I searched my archives to get a better sense of turnout in the Delaware District over the past few years. We generally vote first thing in the morning, so I don't know what was going on in 05. In 04 I was number 128 at 7:50 AM. In the 2005 primary I was 13th in line. In the 2005 General I was 497th (out of 909 registered) at 6:30. In 2006 we went in the morning-- I was number 84. Last year I was 37th.

 Number 23 at my polling place this morning at about 8:30.

The scanner broke just as we arrived, so our ballots went into the "Emergency Drawer". I miss the big mechanical machines every time I vote

 Number 50 at my polling place at about ten after nine. 

There is only one race on the Buffalo ballot- mayor. For a long time there has been a notable logjam in local politics which started breaking up when Brian Higgins left Congress to go into show business (in mid-term- thanks for nothing Brian). We have an opportunity for meaningful change which is why I support Sean Ryan.

I was Number 96 at my polling place at 5.53 PM. That's not great-- it trails the turnout for the school board election last May, for example. I make no excuses for anyone else, but the only "competitive" races were for State Senate and Supreme Court. The State Senate race ended oddly: the Democrat won, but he is, at best, a flawed Democrat, with a prior conviction for election fraud. It is, I think, unlikely that he will hold the seat for long. I voted for the incumbent, who was a Democrat once, then ran for and won the seat as a Republican, then voted for the SAFE Act and marriage equality. He got primaried, lost, and ran this time on the Independence line.

The whole process felt kinda dirty, and not in a good, mucking out the stables sort of way. I'm glad that Fred Marshall and Donna Siwek won-- they are both excellent judges, but damnit, judicial elections are horrible. And stupid.

As for the rest of the country, words fail me.

Earlier in this political season I think it was easier to remember that one of the nicest things about the Democrats' field of candidates was that the array of choices looked so appealing. Now that we are down to the last two chocolates in the Whitman Sampler box it is easy to lose track of the fact that what we have is still a lot more appealing than the stale, fused together after-dinner mints the Republicans are offering. I'm happy with the way I cast my ballot, and no matter how it turns out down the road, I'll be happy when I walk out of my polling place in November.

A and I were 18 and 19 at our polling place this morning at about 8:15. That's kinda low in our district, particularly with heated contests for Assembly and District Attorney.

Number 30 at my polling place at 8:30 AM

I was 64 at my polling place at 8:03 AM. Looks like there's going to be quite a turnout. I was pleased that the clerk pointed out that the ballot had two sides: that's likely to mean that the Prop for reduction of the County Legislature will do well.

#47 at 9:38 at my polling place. Pathetic. I'm quite serious about running as a delegate to the proposed constitutional convention: now that the hoodoo is off (thanks again AHIA) I figure I have a shot. I don't figure the convention has a shot, however, which is a shame. New York's legislature is badly broken, and a constitutional convention seems to me to be the best shot at fixing a broken democracy

I was #102 at my polling place this morning at 9:00ish. Pretty good turnout for a school board election. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out: my vote resembled the Buffalo News' endorsements not at all. Carl Paladino has put a lot of money into this election-- we may get a picture of how wide (or deep) his support is. Me personally? (1) I think charter schools are a union-busting tactic that have next to no relevance to actual educational outcomes. Charters that are full of poor kids perform/fail at just about the same rate as do traditional public schools. To the extent that there is any variation whatsoever, I suspect it can be accounted for by the greater involvement of parents who put their kids in a charter. That investment would carry over, so I do not see that the charter model can be said to improve outcomes. (2) Unions are good. They promote and protect academic freedom, and prevent abuse. (3) We cycle through school superintendents at a furious rate in Buffalo. It seems to me that superintendents are probably not the real problem; that some stability might help the situation; and that a fair amount of the discontent that exists with regard to the present superintendent is a combination of frustration with a poverty-infected system and plain old racism. I doubt that a clone of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey and Horace Mann could do much in a system where eighty-six percent of the students qualify for free or reduced rate meals. (4) Common Core is a red herring. The Buffalo School Board has nothing whatsoever do do with this issue.

195 at my polling place at 6:30.

A bit slow off the mark today, the line was out the door, 15 deep at our polling place at 7:43. At 8:04 we were 140 and 141.

40 and 41 at our polling place at 8:35.

Number 36 at my polling place this morning