Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with election

Judging judges.

ryanrs — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:49:30 -0800

What questions should I ask a candidate running for Superior Court Judge? I am a member of a political club in my city. At a recent club meeting we heard from three candidates running for Superior Court. As might be expected at a political club, many of our members asked the candidates about their opinions on various laws and policies (marriage equality, drug laws, three strikes, etc). Unfortunately, that's a bit like asking an umpire who's their favorite team. All three candidates rightly declined to answer such questions.

After the somewhat misguided Q&A session, I approached each candidate and spoke with them for ten minutes or so. At the end, I asked if I could email them a few questions. All agreed.

So what are some good questions to ask? Keep in mind we're talking about Superior Court. Reddit's Top 10 Injustices On The Internets is beside the point. A Superior Court judge does not create precedent, he follows it.

On a more general note, how should a genuinely interested citizen evaluate judicial candidates for Superior Court? They have no record, no political platform, no name recognition, and no press coverage. Do I just go by endorsements?

I should point out that these candidates aren't exactly running against each other. The election is still seven months away and it is not known how many seats will be open. It's possible there will be as many open seats as candidates.

Here's what each candidate has been doing for the last decade or so:
* Alice is an attorney at the public defender's office.
* Bob is senior counsel at a private firm specializing in civil litigation.
* Carl is a staff attorney for a California Supreme Court Justice.

Note: I'd like to keep the names of the candidates out of the thread. No candidate has a significant google footprint. All are probably running vanity searches on a daily basis. If a name is mentioned, that candidate is guaranteed to read this thread. For various reasons, I'd like to avoid that. If you're curious, memail me.

Where to be born for president of Palestine?

parmanparman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:11:43 -0800

Are there steadfast constitutional rules - like birthplace - for those who seek political office in the Palestinian Territories?

Campaign stiffs campaign workers, won't respond. Solutions?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:39:54 -0800

Local political campaign reports a large surplus four days after stiffing its workers (I and dozens of other campaign workers are owed back pay, several of us in the $300+ range). Solutions? This was an unsuccessful bid for a NY City Council seat. (I'm not directly naming the candidate or any individuals in this post, just as a courtesy -- trying not to saturate people's google results with this because A) I don't know yet what happened and B) the candidate has done great things for the community and I still really believe in his achievements. But there's an article at nypost.com and several of the campaign workers are blogging about it, so it's not exactly a secret).

The campaign hired all its workers at $15/hr. On Election Day (the 15th of September), we were told to come pick up our checks on the 18th of Sep., with no indication that anything would be wrong with them (and throughout the entire campaign they were still actively asking us to bring new people, friends and relatives, to come work at $15/hr).

At 9pm on the 17th, we got a group email saying the campaign would only pay us $10/hr and we should not come in on the 18th; instead, the $10/hr checks were mailed. According to the article linked above, the campaign reported a significant surplus four days after sending out our partial-payment checks on the 18th.

The sole public statement from the campaign, given at the reporter's request for that article, was "Everyone has been paid or their check has been sent to them in the mail." That is, needless to say, an extremely disingenuous (and bad-faith) non-response.

Several campaign workers got together and wrote a formal group email to the campaign's email address asking for a resolution (there was no answer, and now that address is apparently no longer accepting emails), and started a blog with the basic facts, then filed a formal complaint with the Campaign Finance Board after it was clear that the campaign wouldn't respond (that complaint is now pending). Many workers have attempted to contact the campaign managers (using known-good phone numbers and email addresses), receiving no responses whatsoever. Only the Field Coordinator has been responsive, but she has no relation to the campaign's finances.

One thing I have not done is cash the partial-payment check they mailed me on the 18th, on the suspicion that cashing it could be seen as implicitly accepting it as correct payment. (Please share opinions re. whether that's a wrong suspicion, because I seriously need that money.) For me, and for at least a dozen other people who also started towards the beginning of the campaign, these partial checks sent on the 18th were the second or third of the weekly checks we received. Our earlier first checks were all correct, $15/hr, agreeing with our timesheets. I did cash my correct earlier check, as I think all of us did.

My own financial position means the money I'm still owed (several hundred dollars) is clearly worth time and effort in material terms, not just on principle. Are there steps to be taken while we wait for the Campaign Finance Board to review the complaint? And more importantly: would even the best-case result of that review produce money for us, or would it just produce something like censure or fees for the campaign?

Best sources for information on the primary election in Chicago?

a robot made out of meat — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:47:32 -0800

Best sources for information on the primary election in Chicago? As a resident of Chicago, I'm routinely disgusted by the behavior of all manner of elected officials and their appointees. Their party affiliation does not appear to matter. Further, I'm aware that they might as well not have a general election in my district/ward, which makes it difficult to keep incumbents honest.

What are your best sources for information for Chicago primary elections? Assume that the most important issue is general good-government reform. I understand that this is difficult to score objectively, since it's a mixture of policy stances (which by and large have no hope of passing) and behind-the-scenes horse trading, which is why I'd like help.

There are a fair number of organizations and media bodies which rate candidates, but I have no idea which to trust or how thorough they are.

Where do the insiders go?

2bucksplus — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:37:23 -0800

What are the best "inside baseball" political blogs covering the upcoming New York City elections? I used to read the Politicker religiously when it was still part of the Observer and edited by Ben Smith, back when I worked with a campaign in the primary and general elections in 2005.

Are any of these blogs the obvious successor or is there something better?

Help Finding an Election Day Piece

knmr76 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:24:35 -0800

This is a shot in the dark, but maybe you well-read, politically minded people can help: I am trying to track down a short commentary I remember reading around election day 2008. It was written in a French newspaper, I believe, and it was a short piece, but the basic gist was: "Today we are one with america. that may change later, but today we're one" re: the Obama win. I feel like I saw it linked in Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, but couldn't find it in the archives. I was voraciously reading so many sites at the time that I have no idea where it actually was. It was just a beautiful piece and I would like to read it again and keep it around. If it rings a bell with someone, that would be great!

Where are the amazing posters releases just before Election Day?

joshmcconaha — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:43:12 -0800

Sometime during the summer of 2008, a website popped up with maybe 10 or 12 political, printable posters. Does anyone still have the link? They were political in focus, and the one I explicitly remember was brown, with a lighter colored outline of the continental US with the words MADE IN CHINA within. I think there was one with a gas pump (or oil barrel), and one dealing with credit/the economy.

They were really amazing, but now I can't find them anywhere. Googling is helpless because of the broad details I have. I do remember there was an associated URL -- knowing it would answer this question.

Any ideas? Someone has to have this stuck in their bookmarks somewhere...

So, now that I've spent 30 minutes talking to you, will you vote for my guy?

Weebot — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:43:14 -0800

For the politicos out there: how effective is phone banking / canvassing, statistically speaking? So I'm working on a political campaign right now on the communication side of things, and I was curious as to some of the inner-working of the field program. I'm relatively new to all this, so a lot of it is a mystery to me.

We are running a particularly intense field program, and I was curious about the literature and history behind it. Some particular questions pop up in my head, like how likely is voter going to support you if a volunteer talks to them face-to-face? Over the phone? To the candidate directly? Where did this technique of politicking originate? What are the major pieces of literature behind these techniques? Things like that.

Sometimes I wish I had majored in Political Science rather than English...

There better not be an obvious google query for this.

prefpara — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:56:19 -0800

I'm too ignorant to properly evaluate a historical claim that I just read. I am a little skeptical of the following claim: that the United States in 1801 was "the first time in world history that an existing set of political leaders had been voted out of office by their opponents in a popular election. There was no precedent for a peaceful transfer of power..."

The first claim seems more plausible than the second (for example, surely it happened at least once that some monarch died and there was a peaceful transfer of power to the heir, who was part of an opposing group... or maybe not, I have no idea).

Is it really the case that never before had a popular election resulted in a change in governing party or group? I am not sure how I would even begin answering that question (I have no background in history). Please help me!

Why is it "Great news! For John McCain" ?

0xFCAF — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:49:03 -0800

What's the origin of "[Some really bad event for McCain is] Great news! For John McCain!" ? I thought I was following the last election pretty closely, but I guess I missed some great meme. It seems to be only used in ironic contexts (i.e. Obama winning the election is great news! For John McCain!!!). Someone on 538 claims it's from people blogging unjustifiably exuberantly about Clinton during the primaries, but "Great news for [Hillary] Clinton" only turns up about 1,000 Google results (including an undated LOLIraqiInformationMinister) compared to 6,000 for "Great news for [John] McCain". Truth or fiction?

Who gave the best McCain endorsement speech?

josh — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:15:53 -0800

Who gave the most powerful, most persuasive, and most memorable endorsement of John McCain in this election? I'm going to be giving a series of talks in the spring about political argument, and I'd like to organize one of the talks around political endorsements. I'd like to watch or read, with the audience, one endorsement for Barack Obama and another for John McCain, and explore what makes the endorsements powerful, persuasive, and memorable.

Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama is the obvious choice on that side. On the McCain side - what was the single most persuasive and interesting endorsement you read or heard? Who made the equivalent of the Powell endorsement for McCain? Bonus points for YouTube video!

Preparing for 2010

jlowen — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:52:51 -0800

I need to build a database or buy a software solution to help manage electoral work with the 30,000 individuals I represent. I need to be able to map members to their electoral districts and check against voter registration roles, but I have no idea where to start. Help? I represent an organization that is an umbrella group of sorts. Our membership consists of 40 separate organizations who in turn have about 30,000 individual members combined. For electoral work the organizations are going to start turning over the list of their members to me so that I can manage combined voter registration and targeted campaign outreach to those members. I need to design a system that would allow me to:

#1 Neatly import and organize data from member organizations (likely will be in spreadsheet or database form)
#2 Assign individuals to state, federal and local electoral districts (I.e. I will need to generate a list of all members in a particular congressional, state legislative, or county commission district)
#3 Cross check member names with voter registration rolls to be able to determine if a particular individual is registered to vote or not.

Bonus points for:
#1 The organizations I work with tend to represent highly transitory individuals. Each time I get a current list from them it is very likely that phone numbers, addresses will change, as well as new members added and old members quitting. It would be nice to have the system robust enough to be able to keep current as I dump in new lists.
#2 Be Mac OS x based. (perhaps file maker pro?)

I have quite a bit of time before the next election, so I have time to lay down infrastructure and learn new skills to do this right. Any idea what software / services / training / help I will need to hire to carry this out? What kind of budget might this entail to do it right?

I consider myself highly computer literate. I can write HTML and some PHP but know nothing at all about relational databases. I would like to eventually learn more and would be willing to take classes or receive training if necessary to build this system.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for a grassroots campaign strategy!

serazin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:12:03 -0800

I gather from Howard Dean's announcement today that he and the Obama People don't get along. I'm curious though how much Obama's win and the Congressional turnover are due to Dean's strategies and policies as head of the DNC. When he was running for president, Dean was Mr. Grassroots. Does the "grassrootsyness" of the Obama campaign owe much to Dean? What actually changed in the DNC under Dean? (I'm interested in your incite and also in reading any articles you can point me to on the subject.)

2008 election stats, stat!

wsg — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:20:17 -0800

I'm googling without success for 2008 US National election results broken down by race, gender, education, income. etc. Any ideas?

Was JFK that generation's BHO?

LastOfHisKind — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:33:21 -0800

Was the reaction to John Kennedy being elected anything like the current world-wide wave of joy and relief to the election of Obama?

Why were the plexiglass walls on stage at Grant Park?

kaudio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:45:45 -0800

Can anyone tell me about the giant (plexi?)glass walls that were on stage during Obama's rally in Grant Park? Initially, I assumed they were sound barriers, similar to the plexiglass shields you often see around drum kits for live performances that prevent noise from the drums from overwhelming the vocal mics in front...

Perhaps I'm a naive Canadian for not initially assuming the walls to be bulletproof glass?

Don't Stop Believin

mwhybark — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:21:06 -0800

How common has it been in US history for a Presidential election to prompt celebrations in the streets across the country? I was bemused and pleased by the spontaneous street parties that erupted Tuesday night, and am now curious: how often do we run out into the street to cry with joy, hug one another, wave the American flag, and sing the national anthem (or Journey) as a spontaneous collective reaction to the victory of a Presidential candidate? Please note, I am not asking how often Presidential campaign workers engage in said behavior. I was thinking back through the elections in my lifetime and beyond; the only thing that I can think of that remotely relates is the out-of-hand celebrations associated with the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. Hope me, historians of MeFi!

America, love it or leave it (but where to go?)

DragonBoy — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:42:41 -0800

I'm a liberal in a red state (Texas). After the 2000 and 2004 elections many people I know told me that if I didn't like the President I should move to Canada.

If Liberals go to Canada when a Republican wins, where would the conservatives go now? They wouldn't like Canada at all (no offense my Canadian friends). Conservatives wouldn't go to a country that has nationalized health care, progressive taxes or abortions. Any thoughts on what countries Conservatives would like?

Capturing the mOment

Jaybo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:39:20 -0800

I'm looking for news stories, blog posts, photos, video clips, mash-ups or anything else that captures the impact and emotion of Barack Obama's victory, especially on a personal level. Some examples might be:
- Sheri Sheppard breaks down on The View

- a young black conservative writes about how Obama's victory affected him

- Stephen Cobert tears up when Obama is announced as the winner

- there was a clip I saw somewhere and can't seem to find again of Condi Rice's touching remarks this morning about Obama's historic win.

...and why not, even stuff from before the election like the clip of the elderly black volunteer who won a raffle to meet Barack Obama.

US political map by party and population?

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:49:40 -0800

Where is that particular political map of America that shows a county by county breakdown of party and population via 3D extrusion? I recall seeing, from either the 2004 or 2006 US elections, a neat political map. It was 3D, with the shape of America on a horizontal plane and broken down by county. Each county was colored red or blue, based on who won it.

The best part was that each county was extruded vertically, based on the size of the population. This allowed you see see the population breakdown of Democrat vs Republican voting.

Anyone got a link to this map? It's probably from 2004 or 2006, but I'll take one from 2008 too if it exists.

I've been to politicalmaps.org, but they don't have what I'm looking for, not even the population cartogram.

Mccain soundtrack

exhilaration — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:37:30 -0800

What was the music that McCain had playing as he walked off the stage after his concession speech on Tuesday night? It sounded like it came from the soundtrack of an action movie. I must know what it is.

Is Obama the world's first minority Chief Executive?

brandman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:24:20 -0800

(I think) I read somewhere recently that if Obama won, he'd be the first elected chief executive (President, PM, etc.) from a racial minority. Is that true? I don't recall if the comment had to do with all nations, or Western nations, or what. Just curious if anyone knows of a case where someone from a racial minority won the chief executive spot in their country's election. (And for the purposes of this question, let's consider Obama to be a black man.)

And no, these guys don't count.

Politics obsessed. Just not obsessed enough to turn down free tickets.

nokry56 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:44:44 -0800

How can I stay up to date on the latest election results while I'm away from my TV this evening? I'm off to sporting event tonight. I leave in 45 minutes. Before then I want to know where I can go on my phone (Windows Mobile w/data plan) to get the latest election results as they come in this evening...

I have a twitter account if that helps...

Any ideas???

2.0 election stuff that really helps people, not just impresses them

jessamyn — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:16:11 -0800

Examples of good web/election widgets to show to librarians this upcoming week? I'll be speaking at a conference this week talking about, among other things, Web 2.0 stuff. I'm looking for some good topical examples to briefly highlight. One of the best arguments for supporting public libraries in the US is that they're necessary for a functioning democracy, that it's important that people be able to freely research topics of interest so that they can become informed voters. There's upsides and downsides to this approach but I feel it's generally solid. In the library world there's also a lot of "well I don't really think this 2.0 stuff helps us do our jobs" attitude, especially in rural areas like the one I live in.

What I'd like to do is put together a small set of easy-to-understand web-based examples of 2.0 types of tools being used to help further our democratic ideal, regardless of the outcome of this election. So I'm not so much looking for "this helps us get out the vote for Candidate X" but something like "This application lets you type in your address to find your polling place" or "this lets you get information about how much money people in your zip code spent on Candidate X versus Candidate Y"

I'm looking for simple and practical. Eye candy with little useful application won't be as great. Extra points for libraries using any of this stuff. I'll be poking around on my own but figured people here might be more up on this sort of thing than I am. Thank you.

Why was I not allowed to vote my choice?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:38:48 -0800

I thought it was more a less a given right to write in a candidate. I have before. The sample ballot indicated that one could do so. After standing in line 2 hours I see that, nope, I have to vote for whoever is printed on the ticket. everything else, from senator to dog catcher had write-in options. The poll workers, a young and friendly lot, were clueless, God bless em. So, when voting in a presidential election, must one vote for the names printed on the ballot, or not participate at all? I realize a write in vote is a 'throwaway', that's not the question. I am not from SC, but had to vote there this year if that matters which it shouldn't.