Special elections

There is a special election today for Senate Districts 19 and 43. Results are here.

In addition, there will be a special election for two seats (a House and a Senate seat) up in St. Cloud on December 27th. Yes, that's right: two days after Christmas. And who decided this? Our governor, Tim Pawlenty.

Since the legislature isn't going back into session until the beginning of March, the election could have been held any time between now and probably the middle of February. It's not like there is a rush for this. However, Republican tactics are to make elections as inconvenient as possible so as few people as possible show up. This is obviously the thinking behind the December 27th election date, but the reasoning goes further than that. Since St. Cloud is a college town, and since college students tend to vote Democratic, the election date was also almost certainly deliberately chosen to be at a time when school is not in session and students are not around, to ensure that the student vote is not heard. Real nice.

See, this is one of those things that demonstrate the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats. I think that voting in and of itself is a good thing, and something that should be as easy as possible. If that means more Republicans show up to the polls, that's great. The more, the merrier: high turnout is an end in itself. Republicans, though, will try to manipulate elections to make them as inconvenient as possible (two days before Thanksgiving, or two days after Christmas) to try and tilt things their way.

I don't think democracy is a club to be wielded against your opponents.