Populist Group Post: Countin' Yer County.

[merrily]

So, a year or more ago, I was watching The Daily Show via On Demand. Brian Williams was the guest. Jon Stewart mentioned something or other relating to the electoral vote. Williams replied something like, "People who really know this stuff tells me it drills down to eight counties." Jon Stewart was stunned. So was I.

We hear every vote counts. We hear about purple states. However, apparently, it's really about purple counties--and not very many of those, either. Take $2.5 billion in donations to only one candidate, add soft money, then divide by the number of people in eight counties. How many hungry people could you feed? Ah, never mind. Hungry people are unmentionable anymore and I hate long division.

Anyway, I googled after hearing that and found stories about 8 counties. Also stories about more counties than that. But, never more than 100 counties. Think about that. All this time, energy, money, etc.

http://www.businessinsider.com/swing-state-counties-florida-ohio-wisconsin-virginia-2012-9 (article has a wonderful pic of Obama carrying a toddler--my favorite kind of Obama pic)

In 2014, the 8 counties were (alphabetically by state):

Jefferson County, Colorado
Hillsborough County, Florida (includes Tampa)
Cedar County, Iowa
Washoe County, Nevada
Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (what are the odds?)
Wood County, Ohio
Henrico County, Virginia
Brown County, Wisconsin

I wonder which counties, and how many counties, will determine the 2016 Presidential election? Keeping abreast of that next year will be important.

[aspirant]

1. Electoral integrity

comes down to 8 counties, isn't that a piece of cake for a corporate hacker?

[merrily]

2. Yes. Coincidence. I just noticed this reply, right after I posted this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6760253

Go past the subject line to the body of the post.

For some reason, we rushed to kill ACORN. Such a rush that ACORN's name still appeared in parts of the bill, leading to a lawsuit that this was an unconstitutional bill or attainder. The lower court even agreed with ACORN, but was reversed on appeal. ACORN, btw, was the organization Obama had worked with to make sure voters were registered in Democratic neighborhoods when he was running for the Illinois Senate. Well, cool, but we never replaced ACORN with anything, did we?

Then I listened to organization after organization testifying in the IRS hearings--remember those? The hearings held because the IRS was allegedly harassing organizations with Tea Party or Patriot, etc. in their names that had applied to the IRS for not for profit status.

Those testifying were talking about voter registration and education and having NATIONWIDE conference calls EVERY SUNDAY night to compare notes and encourage each other. Somehow, I don't think they were registering voters where ACORN worked. I'm guessing the Tea Party not for profits were working some of those much redder counties.

So, who is counterbalancing their efforts?

Who is working inside states for paper ballots, and stiffer penalties for mucking around with the vote?

Who's passing federal laws to protect the integrity of federal election?

Yes, Holder went after some ID issues and that was great, but that was only one piece of it.

[rhett o rick]

3. Why did the Democratic Leadership allow ACORN to be killed? My guess is that the

Powers That Be that own the DEmocratic Leadership doesn't like grassroots groups. Too democratic.

[merrily]

4. They did not so much allow it to happen as make it happen.

ACORN was RIPed in September 2009, when Democrats held the Oval Office and strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Several months later the Cat Food Commission was appointed.