Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Election Results

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 5, 2008 in Politics. 37 Comments

It was a good day for Democrats here in Virginia. Barack Obama has won the presidency, of course, with spontaneous celebrations breaking out in the streets of cities across the nation and the world, but he also won the state of Virginia, with about 51% of the vote with 95% of precincts reporting right now. Mark Warner won John Warner’s Senate seat handily, defeating Jim Gilmore. Both candidates easily won Charlottesville and Albemarle.

Less clear is the outcome of the race between Rep. Virgil Goode and and Democratic challenger Tom Perriello. Though Perriello is ahead, there are two outstanding precincts that historically have gone heavily Republican, so Goode is likely to emerge about two hundred votes ahead, by my math. But that’s before the provisional ballots are counted, and that’s before the inevitable recount. Expect this one to stretch out for a while.

It’s Election Day

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 4, 2008 in Politics. 34 Comments

It’s election day, kids—go vote. There are no constitutional amendments, just president, Senate, and House.

Here in Stony Point we had 49 people in line at 6am—probably ten times what we’ve ever seen here before—with steady, heavy traffic ever since. Over two hundred people had voted by a little after 7:00. Nobody has needed to wait more than a few minutes, and the election workers are as efficient and friendly as ever. The rain has held off so far in the northern half of the county, which has surely helped turnout.

What are you seeing at your precinct?

10am Update: Albemarle County reports that 17,556 people voted by 9am, just over 26% of the electorate. That’s compared to to 10% in 2007 and 17% in 2006. (I’m afraid I have no figures for 2004, the last presidential election.) Jeff Uphoff provides photos of Walker in the city—between the donut wagon, the school band, and the bake sale, it seems like quite a hub of activity.

7:00pm Update: “There also have been reports of fake robocalls instructing voters in the Charlottesville area to go to the wrong precincts, allegations that the Virginia State Police are currently looking into.” So says the Washington Post. The results are going to start coming in shortly—follow the returns at the SBE’s website.

Circuit City Shuttering

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 3, 2008 in Business. 10 Comments

Circuit City is closing their Charlottesville location, Louis Llovio writes in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. They’re shutting down 154 other stores across the country, laying off a fifth of their employees, and probably facing bankruptcy. This move was inevitable to anybody watching the Richmond business’s death spiral over the past couple of years. The NYSE just warned them that they’ll be delisted if they don’t get their share prices up—they’re at $0.40 at the moment, almost a doubling in value since today’s announcement.

With so many locations closing, I guess oddly-shaped stores will litter the stripmall landscape across the nation, a la Golden Skillets. Who this is really bad news is Albemarle Square, which continues to be viable only because acac remains. It would just take the loss of one or two spots there—Plan 9 or the Northside branch of the library—before you’d see tumbleweeds in the parking lot.

Whom Do You Endorse?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 31, 2008 in Politics. 44 Comments

I guess I gave the Daily Progress too much credit when I speculated that they’d endorse former governor Mark Warner for Senate—today they endorsed Jim Gilmore. Warner has become the darling of Virginia Republicans, largely because of his solid business credentials, his centrism, and the work he did to balance the state budget. The former Republican governor, on the other hand, is on track to earn perhaps 20% of the vote in Charlottesville, maybe upwards of 30% of the vote in Albemarle, and he might top 35% statewide.

The Daily Progress has a rich history of chuckle-worthy endorsements, occasionally having to bend over backwards to endorse Republicans who are totally ill-suited for the job. When Kenneth Jackson—a Republican with no political experience or even really work history—was running for City Council, the Progress endorsed him, despite that he’d been convicted of attacking people with knives on three separate occasions over the course of a decade. They asked: “What other candidate has seen the law enforcement system, the court system, the social services system from the perspective of somebody in trouble?” The paper endorsed Bush in 2000, reasonably enough, citing seven reasons why they supported him—he would unite the Republican and Democratic parties, he’d hold his staff to the highest of standards, he’d create jobs, etc. But even though President Bush failed to accomplish a single of those things, they they endorsed him again in 2004.

So, whom do you endorse for House (Republican Virgil Goode vs. Democrat Tom Perriello), Senate (Republican Jim Gilmore vs. Democrat Mark Warner vs. Libertarian Bill Redpath), or the presidency (Libertarian Bob Barr vs. Republican John McCain vs. Independent Ralph Nader vs. Democrat Barack Obama) and, more important, why?

No Campaign T-Shirts or Buttons at Polling Places

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 29, 2008 in Crime and Politics. 46 Comments

In a clear case of unbelievable bullshit (that’s a legal term), state law turns out to prohibit any voter from displaying support for any candidate when voting, and that law will be enforced in the area on Tuesday. If you show up to vote with a John McCain button or a Barack Obama t-shirt, you’ll be told that you must go into the booth topless. If you refuse, you can still vote, but you will be charged with a crime and face a year in prison. Charlottesville and Albemarle will both be enforcing this state law, and while they are basically obliged to do just that, Virginia Beach’s registrar has instructed poll workers to simply ignore the law.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the Rutherford Institute, and the ACLU of Virginia are teaming up to file a lawsuit against the state to overturn the policy, arguing that state law simply prohibits “exhibit[ing]…campaign materials to another person” in or near a polling place, but that law was never intended to affect buttons or clothing worn by voters. That suit won’t even be filed until after Tuesday, so it will have no effect come Tuesday, but the hope is have the policy eliminated. The organizations ask that anybody who is asked to remove political garb contact them and report the incident.

I remember the woman voting in Charlottesville’s Recreation precinct in 2004 who walked into the booth wearing just her bra up top, after she was told she’d have to remove her campaign t-shirt. I work the polls at the Stony Point precinct every year, in Albemarle, and this year my wife and I will be bringing some spare work shirts and jackets, so people can cover up.

Now I’m facing the conundrum of what to do. Do I refuse to take off my Obama pin, and let the chips falls where they may? Or do I follow a law that I know to be capricious and unconstitutional? (As I’ve mentioned, I may have helped get Denise Lunsford elected, but I don’t doubt she’d charge me with a crime if I had it coming to me. Awk-ward.)

Maybe if hundreds of us refuse to take off our pins and shirts, if we all break the law, then it simply won’t be possible to prosecute all of us, and we might just help to get this overturned. How about it?

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