The message above is from plenty of people I respect. I hope you do take the time to vote on Tuesday. This is my last post on OneVoteMatters. I’ve enjoyed my time here immensely and hope that you have as well. You can still find me online, through my personal website or through Twitter. [Read more]

We’ve got just a few days before the general election, and I wanted to get this carnival up before we know — one way or the other — who will be the next president of the United States. Thanks for all the great entries! Alli presents Silver Lining in Economic Collapse – Abolish the Federal Reserve posted at The Smoking Argus. jdixson presents Oh Thank Heaven. Obama vs. McCain at 7-Eleven posted at Paunchiness – Lose Weight, Get Fit. Allison Bricker presents Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) – WTF? posted at The Smoking Argus. DWSUWF presents Barack buys an election? posted at Divided We Stand United We Fall. Jack H. Swift presents Connecting the Bailout Dots posted at Government is Not Your Daddy. John Phillips... [Read more]

Cnn.com has a great map showing some early voting data — unfortunately, it’s flash only, so I can only link to it: it’s here. Before you go rushing off, however, I’ve got a few things to say about early voting. You can vote early in 31 states, and it looks like plenty of people are taking advantage of that fact. Of those 31, only 22 actually make any sort of early voting data available. I’m making all my judgments on early voting on data from less than half the states in the U.S. — so no promises on whether what I believe is happening is actually going on. So far, California is reporting that almost 2.2 million ballots have already been cast, through both mail-in and in-person voting. That’s over 12 percent... [Read more]

It’s easy to forget that there’s anyone running for office this year besides Barack Obama and John McCain. I received a sample ballot for my county this week and was almost shocked to see other names on the paper. At least at my polls, I’ll be voting on a Congressional Representative, three judges, three school board members and two constitutional amendment — and I know that in many states, there’s plenty more on the ballot. I’m particularly interested in one of the two constitutional amendments for the state of Maryland, but I’ve been spending a little time online looking at all these other choices I get to make next week. Have you made any decisions on which way you’re going to vote — outside of... [Read more]

Want to see something scary? Search for ballot error on Google News. It’s pretty normal to see a few ballot errors right up to Election Day. Absentee voters have already reported a variety of problems, across the country. It wouldn’t normally be a major issue. But in this election, ballots may be a bigger question than we expect. There are some pretty serious questions on the reliability of the electronic voting machines that are used in most precincts these days, and problems with paper ballots just makes the situation worrying. The fact that various groups have demonstrated how easy it is to affect a voting machine isn’t exactly reassuring, either.  All this is complicated by the fact that just about every voting precinct... [Read more]