Pennsylvania exit poll

We were the 186th and 187th voters in our local polling place out of  about 1000. What a terrible turnout. On the way in there was only 2 poll workers and Plains Twp.plus  incumbent Commissioners Robert Sax and Jerry Yozwiak. I have long said that the only poll workers that matter in a local race is the candidates themselves.

 But in this case they were not going to persuade me. They both voted to kick back $3 million of slots money back to the Mohegan Sun to pave the parking lot over the last few years. Then they asked for $1 Million  of slots money to finance an upgrade to the Woodlands. I voted for Barry Kresge.

Being the contrarian that I am I usually vote no on retaining a Judge but in this case I actually voted Yes for State Supreme Court Justices Ron Castille and Max Baer and No on the other 2. What persuaded me was the Tea Party groups and Sue Henry said they opposed them because they blocked the Voter ID law. It should be trashed as it's a solution in search of a problem that will keep people from voting. For all the jokes we make about dead people voting in Pittston it just doesn't happen. Absentee ballots are another matter. All my life I have heard the lament that enough people don't vote (like today) so they want to make it harder. Elections are a bad way to pick appellate judges see Choose Judges on Meirt

Kathy Bozinski reported "that for the first time ever our reporters were told it's illegal to take generic, non-invasive shots inside polling places, and were turned away, or told to shoot through a window. I can't count how many live shots I've done inside the polling place... Is this something new?... We've learned its a regulation that is decided by the County Solicitor, and for apparently the first time, he decided to invoke it for this election."  I saw Pete from the TL at our polling place tonight taking photos and I snapped a few.

The Luzerne  County Website has  a link for election results that looks pretty good. You can tailor the races you are interest in. The thing is they had to go to a vendor to do something that was done in house and worked flawlessly until last spring.  Another waste of money. I like Walter Griffith but the pissing contest that he got into with Lenny Piazza that the county manager Bob Lawton  overreacted to  is costing us money and aggravation

And another ballot screw up

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One less Democrat on W-B Twp. council ballot

PA Voter ID

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court kicked the voter ID law back to the Commonwealth Court with a narrow question. Can PennDot handle the task before the election?  I'm not optimistic.

SPPE has more.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sends Voter ID law back to Commonwealth Court

PA State Supreme Court race

I don't pay much attention to the statewide Judge races because the candidates run on their bio's and promise to be tough on crime with an emphasis on locking up all the drug dealers. But then every politician promises to lock up all the druggies and we all know that policy has worked out well over the past 50 years. Their campaigns are financed by the lawyers that will appear before them but they assure us that that will not influence their rulings. What a bunch of hooey.



Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts make a good case for scrapping the present system and going with merit selection of Judges. Their blog JudgesOnMerit.org documents the problems with electing appellate Judges.



The Democratic nominee for the one open seat is Jack Panella
from Northampton County who presently serves on the Superior Court and was on the Court of Judicial Discipline that dropped the ball over the allegations about Luzerne County criminals Conahan and Ciavarella . They were busy with the Lokuta witchhunt orchestrated by Conahan.




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His opponent is Joan Orie Melvin from Pittsburgh who also serves on the Superior Court. Her website tells us that she has been a lifelong Republican. Her faith is the cornerstone of her life. She comes from a family of nine children raised with the principles of God and Country. Her sister is State Senator Jane Orie who helped her get the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Teamsters that didn't turn out so well. The Pennsylvania Progressive has the details.
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Melvin was in town last month and said of the Juvie Brothers scandal "This is surreal. It is right out of a Charles Dickens’ novel."
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In her previous visit to Wilkes-Barre in May she gave a long rambling speech to the local GOP faithful. In that speech she listed as one of her selling points was the upcoming redistricting after the 2010 Census telling the partisan crowd that they needed a Republican on the court to rule in favor of Republicans in any challenges to whatever plan emerges.

So much for Judges being above politics.
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Now Capitol Ideas points out that the state GOP is running a banner ad on GrassrootsPA on her behalf.

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"Tired of Barack Obama, Ed Rendell, Arlen Specter and big government Democrats ruining our nation?" the advertisement asks in yellow block capitals set against a bright-red background. And in case the message wasn't subtle enough, there's a Soviet-era hammer-and-sickle inside the "O" in Obama's last name. That oughta rally the base, eh?

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My friend Danny gave me the heads up and says


She's using a hammer and sickle for the "O" in Obama in her new web ad. Disgusting. And the best part is that it's paid for by the PA GOP.

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Comparisons to Communists or Nazi's used to be out of bounds in American politics but the Tea Bagger crowd does it all the time and now it is somehow Okay. It's one thing for a bunch of people who are ignorant of history and political philosophy to engage in this kind of nonsense but a State Supreme Court candidate should know better.
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The thing that we want in our Judges is to be impartial and not take political sides no matter what party they belong to. She flunks that test.
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I will vote for Panella.