This stuff really bugs me . . .
You know from reading these pages that we think intense early voting programs are contra Republican interests for a lot of reasons (see our Voting Integrity category at right). We have no big problem with making early voting information available or informed conservatives of their own volition voting early, although we wish they would not. Our objections diminish the closer to “election day.” But well funded Republican programs to encourage hector voters to do so grate at any confidence we have in the Republican apparat.
The practice of delegating great resources essentially aimed at “voting early,” as if that was the sine qua non of the “get out the vote” (GOTV) concept, is defended as competing with the Democrat’s “ground game.” Of course the whole aura feeds their ground game.
Underlying it (and a double entendre for the first word of this sentence is intended) is that the reason Republicans lose is because Democrats beat us in absentee voting rather than simply because the Republican candidate did not get enough votes at the end of the election “day.” It is actually said with a straight face, or that of a dullard, by proponents of early voting that “so and so won on election night . . . but lost in the absentee early voting count.” NEWS FLASH . . . SO AND SO LOST BECA– — USE THEY DID NOT GET ENOUGH VOTES PERIOD. So and so would have won if they had received more election day votes, those are not a fixed quantity either.
Early voting GOTV programs are supposedly an outreach effort to Republican leaners who stayed home the last election. Of course that is a phoney claim as the focus is pumping up early voting numbers period, flagrantly relying on hard Republicans to do so because some manager proves his worth by showing how early voting increased. The idea that costs are saved or votes banked is laughable. Costs increase and poorly spent resources mean lost targeted or overall vote gathering opportunities.
Follow the money trail, or the job justification trail. Electoral effectiveness and efficiency is secondary (the efficiency argument is belied by documentary evidence presented below). Effectiveness is reduced because of miss-focused resources. Pump up those early vote numbers and we win is the thought. The programs are pushed by establishment Republican types (including conservatives of a stripe) who find or divert money for this crap. They hold that conservatives stayed away in the last presidential election and if only those ingrates had voted Obama would have been defeated. The solution . . . get them to vote early. The problem could not have been with their candidate or the whole iffy establishment message, with the failure to attack Obama or in being so poor or compromised at it.
Now we agree that every conservative leaning voter should have voted for Romney, but if they did not, it was not because they did not know how to vote early (which goes against conservative grain anyway) or that they didn’t know what day was election day, or that they possibly could have forgot to vote.
We have explained elsewhere why we think it is against Republican interests to be part of encouraging early voting, especially by mail. It bugs us that the whole bums rush smacks of “vote early before our candidates expose themselves.”
Look above at the expensive post card I received from the Republican Party of Iowa this week. I am supposed to ” join (my) neighbors and vote early!” Like we will all get together and run down and vote. It is devoid of any substantive motivational message pro- Republican or anti-Democrat, what so ever. The shaming inducement? “Publicly available records show that you (I) don’t always vote,” and on the reverse side that “Public records show that you (I ) don’ always vote in non-presidential year elections.” Utter lying over the top huckster bull s**t. The only thing missing is the pointing finger which I would supply in different configuration.
I call it a lie rather than a mistake because it is so easy to determine who votes and how often. In truth I have voted in every municipal, school board, party primary, mid term and presidential election for any amount of time they could possibly consider relvant in determining who votes and who does not. Voting regularly is not Medal Of Honor stuff or rare. It is a pretty ordinary occurrence among active Republicans and many many others. The record is easily obtained. If it is not an intentional “lie” I would like to know who they did not send this card to and what elections they are voting in that I missed, if I am not a dependable voter.
Of course it is generic language because they are not even trying to be selective. And I am not supposed to be insulted or chagrined by their sensationalism and general waste of resources in order to allegedly bank costs. It is phoney insulting language and they do not care. They have lied about the focus of GOTV efforts and the effort is incredibly wasteful. R Mall
“The problem could not have been with their candidate or rather the whole iffy establishment message and failures to attack Obama or in being so poor or compromised at it.”
This says it all in a nutshell ! When will we have candidates who can express a cogent rebuttal to the opposition ? When the Republicans couldn’t beat Obama….the least qualified candidate in recent history….they lost my confidence and my vote !
Until we have candidates who slough off Dem ad hominem attacks, articulate conservative positions, stop letting the MSM dictate ‘who they must appeal to’ (blacks, women, LGBTQ, hispanics, etc) and take the fight to the Dems, our party will lose !
The fact that Karl Rove was shocked, I say shocked’, that Romney lost tells us more about Rove’s ineffectiveness than it does about Romney.
I’m tired of seeing the Rs playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules while the Ds go for the jugular !