Voter Turnout, Georgia Runoff & Obama's Victory

If you do a Google search on voter turnout, you'll see articles from news sources around the country showing that voter turnout was not nearly as high as expected in many areas. Here in Georgia, 74 percent voted, which was lower than the 77 percent that turned out for the Bush-Kerry contest in 2004.

After counting absentee votes in Georgia, though, the political race isn't over for Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin for the U.S. Senate. Just about every media outlet in the country had handed Chambliss the 51 percent margin he needed to avoid a runoff...until the absentee ballots were counted this morning. Chambliss and Martin will square off again on Dec. 2. I'll be back at the polls voting for Martin.

You think the McCain ads got nasty? In one, Chambliss accused Martin of being a child killer because Martin was head of the Georgia DHR when two children in foster care were beaten to death. Chambliss is a right-wing, Christian whackjob and he should be sent packing. Chambliss' loss would help salve the wound about Prop 8. After eight years of Dubya rule, having a government that is totally Democratic sounds pretty damn good to me. We need to get some young, liberal Supreme Court judges on the bench and extend civil and human rights to the GLBTQ community.

  Slate published an interesting article called Sept. 24, 2008: The Day John McCain Lost the Election summing up how it all went pear-shaped for Angry Johnny. If you'll remember, Sept. 24 was the day McCain announced he was "suspending his campaign" to fly back and save the country for economic collapse. From that day forward, Obama had won the presidency.

My weekly "Read This" post on a new poetry collection will appear on Friday. This week, it goes to the dogs. ;-)