10/31/06 4:30 AM, and I've been up for an hour, haunted not by Halloween howls but by occasional howls of wind. Yesterday's temperature was in the 60's, today's should be low 40's and windy, 25 to 30 mph, and in three and a half hours I'm biking downtown with friends to hear Barak Obama, Doyle, Kohl, Moore, the Democratic all-star team, in Pere Marquette Park. Can you blame me for lying here listening to the wind?
11/2/06 We got there early so we could be up close, and even the body heat from hundreds of others didn't warm me up. Still, I'm glad we went. Although I'm just a clapper, not a cheerer or a chanter, I like being there to show my support. And I always prefer to see the candidates in person. It makes them human, not mere images on a screen.
Gwen Moore and Obama energized the chilled crowd. Obama spoke about the audacity of hope, but what worries me is what candidates don't talk about, though I'm finally seeing coverage in the mainstream media. It's the integrity of the election process. It's been clear since the election of 2000, that our system is fraught with problems, and the process hasn't improved. In fact it's gotten worse. Yet the media has waited until right before the election to cover the issue. Unreliable voting machines, no paper trail, increased gerrymanders, new rules for voter identification and other techniques aimed at keeping the poor from voting, purges of voter rolls, I hope our democracy isn't beyond repair. The discrepancy between the exit polls and the results in the Ukraine told the world that that election was a fraud. When there were similar discrepancies in our 2004 elections we were told the exit polls were flawed.
I'm thankful that when I vote in Shorewood I personally fill in the blanks between the tips and the backs of the arrows on a paper ballot, and that the paper ballot is scanned and saved. This is supposed to be the most reliable method for voting. Why isn't it used nationwide, with special accommodations made for the handicapped?
