SSSU said:
Having worked as the Salt Lake County Office of the Clerk public-information officer in 1994 and 1995 (and one of county Clerk Sherrie Swensen 1994 campaign managers), I can say that she prefers to keep voting-precinct polling places in the same locations that were used during the previous election.
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Also, having been a Democrat for 30 years, switching around the polling places flummoxes Democrats, too. Any reduction in votes based on polling-place locations is a wash, in my opinion, and a great reason for people to apply for and vote with absentee ballots (the only paper ballot we have left).
Loyalty is a good trait. But let's be clear. The GOP legislature has and will continue to gerrymander congressional boundaries to the best GOP benefit possible. That they fail to unseat Matheson is a testament not to GOP magnanimity or "fairness" in drawing boundaries, but rather to GOP incompetence in doing it well enough to force him out. (In contrast, I do not believe that the low number of democrats in the legislature is due to gerrymandering, but rather to the low number of voters in Utah willing to vote Democrat in most elections coupled with the fact that democrats seem to cluster in urban areas while republicans tend to dominate the suburban neighborhoods so that we have very few competitive neighborhoods. Any gerrymandering in the legislature seems to me to be a bipartisan affair intended primarily to protect incumbents--in both parties--from being lumped into a district with another incumbent.)
But on the flip side Swenson has done everything she legally can to benefit Democrats in SL Co.
Until recent legislation required some randomness in determining the order in which to list candidates and parties, Swenson always listed the Democrat candidate first on the ballot. This is well proven to be worth at least a full percentage point, and
this research suggests that being listed first improves a candidate's chance of winning by nearly 5%. There is a reason that the GOP (and I suspect the Democrats as well) randomize the order in which candidates appear on internal party ballots such as at convention.
If polling locations are held steady in democrat strong areas, but moved frequently in GOP strong areas, then any flummoxing is focused on the GOP areas. In 15 years in my home we moved among four polling locations, 3 of which were public buildings with full ADA compliance, parking, etc. We cycled among them voting in each of them about twice over the 8 county-wide elections in that time. So it seems unlikely that the changes were motivated by complaints.
We have also gathered strong evidence that precinct boundaries in SLCo have been shifted with the very clear effect (and we believe intent) of maximizing the number of liberals who get elected as delegates to the GOP conventions. Because the democrats hold their conventions on legislative boundaries, this type of thing has no effect on them. It is perfectly legal as the country clerk has almost carte blanche to change these boundaries. But once discovered, the effects are so clear, and any other reason so remote, that the only conclusion one can draw is that the clerk has used her legal ability to change precinct boundaries for the specific purpose of gaming the makeup of delegates to the GOP conventions.
Similarly, she has consistently waited until the last, legal, possible moment to release precinct maps. Certainly, the large number of changes in boundaries gives good excuse for this. And waiting until the last legal moment is...by definition, legal. But it minimizes the time the GOP can plan its caucus meetings. Or at least it did, until the GOP started doing more meetings on leg boundaries rather than individual precincts. Again, because the democrats meet in leg district meetings, these things had no effect on them.
Again, I want to emphasize that so far as I know, everything she has done has been entirely legal. And I think the GOP is stupid for not changing their internal rules so as to negate or at least mitigate her ability to use her office to partisan advantage.
SSSU said:
bagpiper said:
...I always put my "I Voted" sticker on my holster.
That sends exactly the message I want broadcast....
What an obviously flagrant regard for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Yay!
Had to read that twice to make sure I had it correct.
Charles