Have you ever done anything about this except moan to your friends? How about, as a minimum, writing to your state government to register your disapproval? I’d recommend giving some suggestions for change too, and ask them to at least look into them. How do you know the incumbents are happy with the current situation in reality otherwise? Or is it just your assumption?

Are you going to tell us which state it is? Let us check the voting records, the archaic laws, and the corrupt procedures. Telling us which state you live in isn’t going to ‘out’ you. Or are you too shy to say?

Vote early and often, say the Dems. No reason to disenfranchise our companion animals, favorite cartoon characters, or the dearly departed.

FWIW, I participate in the electoral process of a hopelessly blue state with one of the worst voting rights records, as well as the most archaic laws and corrupt procedures — closed primaries, draconian ballot access, no early voting, early deadlines, antiquated registration and cumbersome absentee voting. The incumbent Democrat politicians (when they aren’t in jail) are quite happy with the status quo.

Yeah, we can rule out gerrymandering. We’ll just stick to straight-out voter suppression. Many red-states don’t run fair elections, haven’t you heard? Pretty simple to do your due-diligence and learn the truth. As an American citizen, you should be outraged at the Republican party’s overt efforts to suppress the vote…or manipulate it by gerrymandering. “Cross-check” is the latest and most sophisticated iteration. On and on it goes with your party. I live in a blue state (by choice). Our ballots are sent to us in the mail, along with a brochure explaining all the initiatives, candidate bios, etc. You can either send the ballots in via mail or drop them off at the library or post office or school or other convenient locations. Adding to our blue-state fairness is the fact that it’s analog (no voting machines to be hacked here), no lines (many of the long lines are purposely exasperated in red-states), no extra fees and hassles incurred by mandatory special id’s, no thugs (always republicans) to harass people at voting locations. In other words, in my state, the state government encourages its citizens to participate and vote. Unfortunately, a large majority of red states’ governments discourage their citizens from participating and voting. If you live in one of these voter-suppressed states, I charge you to call your anti-vote representatives and assert your disapproval; consider it your democratic duty.

I’m happy that many (including you and me) like the sweet-endings. 🙂 Cheers.

Corker and Flake did not resign, they just decided not to stand for re-election. It’s unlikely they will be succeeded by “reasonable” people, if by “reasonable” you mean Democrat. Tennessee last elected a Democrat senator in 1990, and Arizona in 1988. In any case we can rule out gerrymandering as an excuse, since senators are elected at large.

Yeah. I think the problem on both sides is the way candidates are chosen. It tends to be people who are more extreme on both the left and right who are active in parties in some places and they select candidates who are more extreme. If the area is solid red or blue, which is more common in the US, those extreme candidates make it into government. Those extremist candidates don’t make it onto the ballot here because people are pragmatic enough to realize no one will vote for them and fewer electorates are solid for any party.

Thanks Diane. I used to do it the other way around. It was Mark R’s idea to change it, and I’m glad I did.

Yes, I do support the goal. I must admit, I haven’t actually seen their logo or looked them up.

I worked for MAF back in the 80s and one of the most important things we did in the part of the country I worked was possum control. We often did joint operations with the Pest Board as well. When I first went to that area most of the properties were on “movement control” for their cattle because their was so much bovine TB. The cattle were originally infected by possums. If a house cow had TB, it was possible for humans to become infected too. The TB status of those farms severely affected the incomes of those farmers too. Because of the work done by MAF and others in that area getting rid of possums, it’s now TB free.

There’s also the obvious benefit of an increase in the native bird population.

Almost all our possum operations, both big and small, were done with 1080. It is by far the best way to kill the possums. I have no time for those who are anti-1080. Most of them get their facts from the same sort of people who brought us the anti-vaccination and anti-fluoride lobbies.

Anyway, I’ve been a strong supporter of predator-free NZ since long before it was a thing.