Christie allows early voting, paper ballots: Kickin' it 'old school'

BY MICHAEL HAYNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

It is now day 6 without power and essentials for most of NJ. And for those among us lucky enough to thankfully avoid major damage to our homes, you’re either discovering the lost art of mouth-to-mouth communication or annoying immediate family members when you’re not cleaning.

But for political junkies and humorists like myself, not being able to discuss, cover, and lampoon the election has been tantamount to a sports writer not being able to cover the Superbowl. Even though N.J. has historically served as a landslide state and political ATM state, where party nominees drop in on the state only to garner donations for its campaign coffers from the state's vastly wealthy citizens and interest groups, and where you pay to eat crap but get to buy access to the candidate and hopefully he remembers you (depends on the size of your donation), the whole country seems to be focusing not on the swing state of Ohio but New Jersey. Fuggetaboutit!

Christie said New Jersey residents could get their early voting done over the weekend at the county clerk's office because he ordered the offices to stay open in every county in the state over the weekend.

"Time on your hands? Tired of cleaning stuff up? Go there in person, you'll get a ballot, you vote and hand it in and you're done," he said in a press briefing from the town of Little Ferry.

And for those of you old enough to remember when elections had to be stolen by old-fashioned fraudulence such as ballot stuffing, butterfly ballots, and a misrecording of votes, it seems those former cottage industries could be open for business as Christie said paper ballots would be available on Election Day.

But according to Christie, the National Guard will protect trucks set up at these makeshift polling stations to enable voting.

And for those Joiseyians who want to vote (and you should so you get to complain but who are not sure where to vote on Election Day, residents are being urged to send a text message, starting Tuesday morning, to 877877 with their address and they’ll reportedly receive a response right away that contains their polling location.

"There's no reason why anybody shouldn't vote. We're going to have a full, fair, transparent, open voting process," Christie said.

So since New Jersey isn’t a swing state, here’s your chance to stick it to either candidate and vote however you want.

Michael Hayne is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire, who co-wrote an award-nominated comedy, wrote for NY Times Laugh Lines, guest-blogged for Joe Biden, and writes a column for MSNBC.com affiliated Cagle Media. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Someone once told me in a prior election, "One must vote their conscience." I replied by saying, "One must vote period." In the 2012 general election it doesn't matter whether you vote your conscience or merely vote, because both candidates virtually tout the same ideology. There are slight differences in approach to foreign policy, but aside from this, their strategy in terms of public policy is about the same. Governor Mitt Romney said he would create 12 million jobs, the first year in office. Any fool knows this is wishful thinking. In fact it's a fool who thinks such things, when the business cycle is a self-willed entity and responds only to human nurturing not human demands. President Obama on the other hand, took the road toward reducing the threat of terrorism to American citizens once in office in 2009. It might have been, politically, the wrong decision for the country at the time, but it's to late for that at this point. However, if reelected, his first priority should be to the American people and the economy above all else. This I believe is what he will do politically... in spite of the opposition's continued efforts to stonewall. Moreover, and according to the bureau of labor statistics, the economy is slowing healing from its terrible assault of corporate and financial corruption, fraud, and deception, spearheaded by the banking industry during the Bush administration. We as dedicated and strong-willed Americans have got to hold on. We have got to accept that neither candidate for the Presidency is a magician, but a man. That the American economy will rebound... but... like a recovering victim of some traumatic post-surgical operation, there's a healing process which in most instances always comes first. If we yield to this principle, time will turn America's dire circumstances, completely around and on the road to prosperity once again.

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