It’s my right as a citizen of this country to have a say in how I want my world to look, and if I don’t participate in an election (there have been some), I’m in an indefensible position if I don’t like the outcome.
So what is happening with the displaced evacuees from New Orleans? (from WaPo)
But with three weeks before the election, the numbers seem lagging. The two groups have about 4,000 Houston signatures combined. Nationwide, some 10,000 evacuees have mailed absentee ballot requests, according to Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater.
Furthermore, Ater spent two hours in an empty Houston church auditorium, waiting to field voting questions from evacuees, but not a single person showed up.
But wait! Apparently those are wonderful numbers, things are looking great, and displaced residents care a LOT about this election! (from NOLA.com)
Pundits and campaign advisers scouring the ravaged post-Katrina political landscape for clues to voter participation in the upcoming election have their first bit of hard evidence to ponder: more than 10,000 requests for absentee ballots from voters across the nation. […]
With ballot requests still flooding in at a rate of 500 to 1,000 a day, some see the data as indicative of intense interest from displaced voters, particularly given that displaced voters also will have a unique opportunity to vote at satellite polling places statewide starting April 10.
Not all the absentee ballots will be filled out and returned, but the interest would seem far in excess of the 2,000 to 2,500 absentee votes cast in normal times.
Evidently, the cup is either half-full or half-empty, as ever… though it seems pretty obvious that ordinary numbers of absentee votes are utterly irrelevant here.
The future of New Orleans – how it will be rebuilt – hinges on this election, and the turnout is critically important. Given the demographics of the city, the NAACP is understandably interested. However, they apparently plan to challenge the results if the outcome is “low”… which leads to another validity question (again from WaPo, cited above, my emphasis):
Others see it differently, including New Orleans resident Ulanda Shedrick, who registered to vote even though she plans to stay in Houston.
“Even though you’re not there, (voting) still makes you feel like part of the community,” she said. “That’s going to appeal to a lot of people.”
Perhaps the thinking is that her vote will offset someone who doesn’t care as much, but does plan to return? How does that make the results valid… or does it matter? All in all, this is shaping up into yet another political fiasco.
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Update: To help the country understand conditions in New Orleans today – over seven months post-Katrina, the New Orleans bloggers have launched a “We Are Not OK” campaign. The city desperately needs a successful election. (Google blogsearch here, Technorati search here.)
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