Month: November 2012

By Michael Bryan Post-election is always a nice time to do some tidying up around the blog. A few things have changed: The Navigation bar across the top of the page, just under the site's banner, now has links to posts by a particular BfAZ authors. In case you like to follow a particular author … Read more

By Michael Bryan

Reviewing some very nice data from exit polling posted on The Arizona Conservative, I came across a few interesting factiods that are informative about the thinking of Arizona's electors. I suggest a look. You may find some interesting insights of your own for the comments.

First, was this:

Not terribly surprising that those voters who believed that Obama was primarily responsible for the current economic problems would vote for Romney. Very surprising, however, that 15% of those who blamed Bush would nonetheless vote for more of the same from Romney. Maybe those folks think that Bush wasn't sufficiently "supply sided" in his economic policies and want Romney to finish off the middle class?

Also interesting that 31% of those who think Romney favors the wealthy still voted for him: I guess that those 31% think they are in the 1% who would have benefitted of Romney's agenda? I don't think that math works… which demonstrates the brilliance of conservative propaganda.

Also interesting to me was this:

At first, I could not figure out why fully 44% of those who want Arizona to recognize same-sex marriage would vote for Romney, who opposes such policies. Then I realized that, of course, they were voting for Romney despite his position. They want same-sex marriage recognized, but it is not a high enough priority to overcome their support for Romney on other issues. In other words, these are 'fiscal conservatives' who believe (wrongly…) that Romney would be a superior choice on other (more salient) issues, but who now support marriage equality. That's an strong resevoir of support for marriage equality inside the GOP coalition. It may not be a strongly motivating value in a candidate campaign, but it could be decisive in an issue-oriented campaign, such as a ballot question.

Chris Hayes had a segment on his Saturday show about Arizona's exit polls and racialized politics that was very thought provoking. See that clip after the click…

Posted by Bob Lord I need to stop wasting time on this, but I'm finding the right wing fascinating. Check out this post at Sonoran Alliance. If you took the trouble to read it, drop a comment to let us know your favorite, "you own it" line for hypocrisy, idiocy, or sheer ridiculousness. I had … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Have you heard? Florida finished counting ballots today and President Obama was declared the winner. Obama wins Florida at last, pushing final electoral tally to 332-206.

So how are you doing, Arizona? Have you got those ballots counted yet? (I ask facetiously). I just finished my tour of duty auditing ballots, and I can tell you that early ballots are not yet fully processed, and all those provisional ballots cast on election day won't be counted until next week. Which means the Banana Republic of Florida (substantially more population) has done a better job of counting ballots than the backwater of Arizona. Aren't you proud?

The Arizona Republic reported today, Dems, Latinos protest provisional-ballot use:

At a raucous downtown rally, state Democratic lawmakers and Latino
activist groups said Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice and
state officials should probe what the lawmakers and activists believe is
an unusual number of uncounted early ballots, as well as what they said
was a higher number of provisional ballots given to minority voters who
showed up at the polls.

They also want Maricopa County election officials to better publicize
how voters who cast a "conditional" provisional ballot, because they
were unable to present proper ID, can ensure their vote is counted.

If you were given a conditional provisional ballot because you were
unable to produce the necessary identification, you have until Wednesday
to show the proper ID so your vote will be counted.

You need a photo ID with your name and address matching the address
listed on the voter rolls. That can be an Arizona driver's license,
tribal-identification or medical-marijuana card.

If you don't have a photo ID, you need two forms of identification
with your name and address matching the information on the voter rolls.
These can be utility bills, bank statements, Arizona vehicle
registration or government-issued ID.

Bring your ID to any city or town clerk's office or Maricopa
County's two offices in Phoenix and Mesa. Locations can be found at recorder.maricopa.gov/pdf/

Bring your ID to your county Recorder's offices in other counties.

"We're asking for an investigation as to how we got into this
situation," said state Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix. "We have seen an
inordinate amount of people who didn't receive their absentee ballots
and had to show up (at the polls), and we want to know why that is."