In the Chicago area we have excess voter registration. So, come on down in November.......bring the cat as well as any and all deceased friends and relatives. Vote early, vote often!
Mostly, the workers at the polling place know you. This is a small state. Whenver I've moved to a new place, and I go to vote for the first time, I ask, "Is this where I vote?" And someone says, " Daniel. Yep, right over there," or "You live in the township, so you vote in that room." But they do have a list of names, and they check you off. And if you're new in the precinct they write in your name. And if you try to vote twice, they'll remember that you already voted. Like I say, this is a small state. And besides, voting twice would be cheating and North Dakotans don't cheat. We're almost as civilized as Canada.
Hahahahaha. Well, I did some checking, and it looks like ND is 4th in terms of population density, with 8.96 people per sq miles, behind Alaska, Wyoming and Montana. Its population puts it just ahead of Wyoming, Vermont and DC. But as I understand it, ND is a "solid Republican" state anyway, so your vote, like mine, doesn't really "count" for anything.
With only the minimum 3 Electoral College votes, neither Vermont nor North Dakota garner much interest from the candidates.
Actually, ND is not by any stretch of the imagination "solidly Republican." North Dakotans split their ballots. We had a Democratic governor for a long time (George Sinner, whose brother Richard was a life-long peace activist and part of the underground railroad that helped Central Americans get to Canada during the 80's, when President Reagan was deporting them to certain death in their war-torn countries run by death-squad governments). And now we have a Republican governor. ND always votes republican for President, but for many years has had a solidly Democratic congressional delegation: Byron Dorgan, a populist; Kent Conrad, one of the more liberal senators; and Representative Pomeroy, who I despise enough to vote for anyone who runs against him, but who nonetheless was elected on the Democratic ticket, replacing Dorgan when he moved up from the House to the Senate. Our state legislature is controlled by the Republicans, who are currently fighting tooth and nail to keep ND one of the last states to have no effective human rights protections. In short, we are not "solidly" anything, even though, in the presidential race, you are right that my vote is meaningless, and right also, that the candidates have no interest in us. BTW, I always thought we were the second lowest-population state, after Wyoming.
Okay. According to the US Census bureau here ND is third, behind Wyoming and Vermont. DC is not a state.
Oops! Sun__Tzu was talking about population density, and I was talking about total population. Sorry.
My son is living and going to college in Montana. He is at GREAT cost to himself waiting till after the election. He wants to establish Montana residence so he can save money on a fishing license rather than a out of state one. He thinks his vote will count more at home! Damm sometimes it all comes together and you did the right thing. He is doing his second year as a intern in the Department of Environmental Quality. I am quite proud of that as well.
Haven't you noticed? Subject drift is common here and elsewhere. Unless the moderators police the subject of posts, most threads will drift. As will most conversations. But I guess in this case it happened because I replied to your sig, which deals with politics. A post on nuditity seemed a good place to comment on voter registration. (I think we are the only state that does not have it, though a few allow people to register at the polling place and vote immediately.)
So long as none of the threads turn into personal attacks, I won't be doing anything about topic drift. It's no different than if we were all meeting each other peronally, hashing out the exact same topics, IMO. It does have the effect of making the site seem more friendly.
Once, very briefly, I participated in a very highly-moderated discussion board. Posting off-subject was prohibited. You got a warning and your post was deleted. Third offense you were banned, and you had to re-register with a new name. That never happened to me, but that board was so dull I quickly tired of it. Topic drift is a small price to pay for freedom of speech. And anyone can always go back to the original topic. -- That said, I am aware that I tend to drift more than most.
Since we're floating topics, I humbly offer this: ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A team led by an 82-year-old pensioner Tuesday won the first Dutch championship for battery-powered electric scooter racing. The race across an obstacle course in rear-wheel-drive buggies, fitted with comfortable seats, armrests, handlebars and shopping baskets, was all about skillful maneuvering, with top speeds of just 7.5 miles per hour. The Nationaal Fonds Ouderenhulp, a foundation for the elderly, organized the race for people in their 70s and 80s to promote mobility and to fight loneliness in retirement and nursing homes. A team of Rotterdam pensioners took the checkered flag at Zandvoort motor racing circuit, beating 12 rival nursing homes over the 250-yard course of speed bumps, wooden ramps and plastic slalom cones. "I'm 88. In the end my (scooter's) battery was running out. It was very frustrating," said contestant Wilhelmus Souren. In a country that has one of the highest life expectancies in the world and is home to the world's oldest woman, demand for electric scooters is high with up to 75,000 people owning one. Organizers hope the event will not be a one off. "I think a lot more countries will get the idea of a national scooter championship and then we could start with a European or World scooterbike championship. Who knows?" organizer Jan Romme said.
At the annual street fair a few weeks back, I saw the solar-powered racing car built by students at one of the local universities (North Dakota State University). The whole (enormous) top is covered with solar cells, the motor is mounted directly at the left rear wheel, which is the only driven wheel, and to reduce drag, the car is so low that the driver's head sticks up into a tiny plastic bubble, which must get awfully hot when the sun shines. The steering wheel is tiny (maybe six inched across) because there's no room under the low roof for a full-size one.
