Wednesday, September 15, 2010

It's morning in Baltimore

Way to call it, readers, accurately predicting the teeny tiny margin in the State's Attorney's race. (Two points! What is up with that? And the turnout-- 13 percent! Tsk!
But all's well that ends well, right? (Or all's well that's statistically extremely unlikely)
So stuff it, racists and cynics!



"Good morning Baltimore .... The rats on the street all dance around my feet... There's the flasher who lives next door, there's the bum on his barroom stool, they wish me good luck on my way to school..."

10 comments:

ppatin said...

"It's morning in Baltimore, Lester. Wake up and smell the coffee."

Winston Smith said...

Unfortunately all we know are about those which had been recieved until tuesday. The ballots themselves have to be postmarked prior to tuesday and be recieved at the elections board by today at 4pm. This is likely why they will not start counting them until tommorow. See below from the elections board web site:

"After you receive your ballot, vote the ballot and return it to our office before or by 8 p.m. on election day. A ballot received by the county board of elections will be counted provided:

It has been received prior to the closing of the polls on election day; or
It was mailed from a location within the United States before election day, bearing a postmark verifying that fact, and the ballot is received from the postal service by 4 p.m. on the Wednesday following election day; or\
It was mailed from a location outside the United States before election day, bearing a postmark verifying that fact, and the ballot is received from the postal service by 4 p.m. on the second Friday following election day. (not applicable following a Gubernatorial Primary)"

Maurice Bradbury said...

does anyone else feel like they're not just on a different page but in a whole other universe from most other citizens of the city, and this election was a little bit about the SA's office, but mostly a referendum on "how clueless are your fellow citizens"?

ppatin said...

MJB:

Yes.

I think I may have gotten a little over-invested in this race though. I had multiple dreams about the election last night. Early on I dreamt that Bernstein won by something like ten votes, then shortly before I woke up I dreamt that I read on the B. Crime Blog that Jessamy had pulled out a win after all.

On a more positive note I did convince at least one of my friends to get out & vote for Bernstein!

Winston Smith said...

I agree. So the headline that is ubiquitous today is fringe canditate exploits low voter turnout to beat entrenched incumbent. What amazes me is that more candidates like bernstien don't exploit this on the democratic side. I would not consider bernstien a fringe candidate except for the demographic that typcially elects in baltimore city.
I think we are seeing more elections swing on the two sentance sound bytes not just here but in the UK. Just seems to be what most average voters now want to digest. It really is an immature view on the world.

"The greatest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter" as Churchill once quipped is as valid now as it was 70 years ago.

Maurice Bradbury said...

it's official, the city is 46% retarded and 87% apathetic. And where did the 46% come from? In the past two weeks I've seen one Jessamy sign and like two pro-Jessamy commentors online. Where are her other 10,000+ supporters? Not in my neighborhood or online or talking to the media. Where are they getting their information from?

ppatin said...

I've been wondering the same thing. As much as I hate to stereotype, I can't help but think that anyone who's foolish enough to tithe to a charlatan like Frank Reid or Jamal Bryant can also be led like a sheep to vote for whomever their pastor tells them to.

The leadership of some of Baltimore's churches is every bit as much of a part of the city political establishment as Jessamy, Cummings and the rest of that crowd, and I'm sure they pulled out all the stops to help their own. There's a reason that Bethel AME got that sweetheart deal with the Pier 6 concert pavilion.

As I said earlier I hate to stereotype, and the fact that Bernstein won shows that black voters aren't the mindless lemmings that some racists make them out to be. Still, when you look at the vote tally that you mentioned at Western and the one that I saw at General Wolfe (both were nearly 10:1 in favor of Bernstein) it seems clear that Jessamy must have some source of voters who're willing to turn out in droves for her, otherwise this election would not have been even vaguely competitive.

ppatin said...

Oh, and as for where they get their information from, I read this on the Sun's politics blog:

"Next to her, Rosemary Howell Atkinson added that she doesn't know much about Bernstein, and wasn't interested in finding out. "He wasn't worth listening to," she said."

Willful ignorance.

Maurice Bradbury said...

But admit it, there is also something sweet about how this race was won by a small number of people who made a little extra effort to get the vote out-- reminding their neighbors, putting up signs, hosting parties, commenting on media web sites, all that stuff really did make a difference.

Maurice Bradbury said...

ok, it's not just me-- Sun readers are also apparently in their own little bubble world