Wisconsin recall election, today is the day.

[General Zod]

A quick scroll does not reveal any states that have balloting times that open and close within normal business hours. Some small towns in ME can open as late as 10am, but they are open until 8pm.

6pm is cutting it pretty close though, and this is only for 2012 so it might have been the case for other elections. If you get off at 5 and your polling place is 30 minutes away, that would be a tight squeeze.

[Andras]

Kentucky, Indiana and Hawaii appear to be the only states that close at 6pm local time, and two open at 6am and Hawaii at 7am. None of those states appear to support the idea that 'retired old farts open and close the polls while the youngin's are at work'.

If you are in line when the polls close, you get to vote. If you can't make it home by 6pm, then you can vote on the way to work. In addition more then half the states have laws which require the employer to provide allowed time off for the purpose of voting, including Kentucky.

[General Zod]

They'll be more inclined to focus on purging voter rolls anyway. It's a lot easier to get away with.

[Lonestar]

A quick scroll does not reveal any states that have balloting times that open and close within normal business hours. Some small towns in ME can open as late as 10am, but they are open until 8pm.

6pm is cutting it pretty close though, and this is only for 2012 so it might have been the case for other elections. If you get off at 5 and your polling place is 30 minutes away, that would be a tight squeeze.

Your employer cannot legally make you work hours that will make you miss being able to vote.

[Thanas]

So where was Obama?

[Losonti Tokash]

Laan and I live in Nebraska. Polls here are open from 0800-2000.

[amigocabal]

Did the unions make even a token effort to reach out to the larger electorate?

It is hard to use union privileges as a rallying cry for the larger electorate.

Also, when it comes to collective bargaining rights, we need to establish what union activists mean by collective bargaining rights.

If it was merely the right for employees to choose someone to bargain with their employer on their behalf, then laws prohibiting that would not likely survive judicial review.

But the “right” is really an entitlement for the collective bargainer to have exclusive rights to bargain with the employer. Individual employees are prohibited from withdrawing from the collective and bargaining with the employer on their own, or in a rival collective.

[Losonti Tokash]

Oh shit. Is this where you tell us unions aren't necessary or that workers would be better served if unions competed for members?

[Phantasee]

Laan and I live in Nebraska. Polls here are open from 0800-2000.

That's what I thought. I'm tired of Highlord Laan's hyperventilating.

[Andras]

http://twitchy.com/2012/06/06/kill-scot ... ll-defeat/

[Elfdart]

If Obama couldn't be bothered to support the recall, why should Dems in Wisconsin bother supporting him in November?

[General Mung Beans]

Some interesting statistics on the election from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012 ... f=politics

From 2010, the percentage of the electorate who was a labour union member or had one in the family increased by seven percentage points, opponents of the Tea Party increased by four percentage points, and city voters increased by five percentage points all of whom are obviously natural Walker opponent (although surprisingly Walker's support among all these groups actually increased).

[Aaron MkII]

What other "liberal" choice is there for them? I suppose they could write something in but I think we both know that won't happen.

[MKSheppard]

So where was Obama?

Thanas, that's a good point.

Virtually all of Obama's promises come with an expiration date, as the Unions of WI found out.

That's another thing. Despite the entire reason for this recall being about the whole collective bargaining for government employeers / medical benefits; that issue was apparently strangely absent from Barett's campaign after the initial start -- which begs the point -- what the hell was this all about?

[amigocabal]

Oh shit. Is this where you tell us unions aren't necessary or that workers would be better served if unions competed for members?

Absolutely not on the first, absolutely on the second.

[Aaron MkII]

Does America not have "union raids" where another union comes in and makes a bid to represent the employees?

[MKSheppard]

I don't think so, Aaron. First I've heard of it.