I've been offline for two days, and so many things have happened that I'm not sure where to begin. With the uncontested primary over, now the General Election campaign is underway. I also was elected to the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee. The surprising part was that I finished in first place, which I did not expect would happen. Gus Alzona won the second seat and District 16 joined some of the other districts in the Central Committee turnover Tuesday.

Tuesday started off with total chaos, but I didn't realize the scope of the voting machine debacle until later in the morning. Scott went early to vote up at his polling place and encountered the card problem there. Fortunately, he was able to go back later and cast his ballot on the regular machine. The whole provisional ballot idea was absolutely ridiculous. Some were just scrap paper put into sealed envelopes with voter name and address (!), thereby eliminating the basic concept of a secret ballot. There are all kinds of potential misbehavior that could occur with those paper ballots, and I want to know if there are going to be Democratic and Republican observers as those are counted.

Besides the whole card and electronic polling book disaster, I noticed other questionable behavior by officials. Namely, voting officials coming past my voting station and turning their head as they passed, appearing to read my ballot as I cast votes. The machines are propped up and not adequately shielded, so anyone passing by can know who you're voting for.

Secondly, some voters, including myself, were ordered to take out their cell phone and turn it off by an election judge. Again, that is illegal action by the official. The voting process is spelled out step by step in the materials mailed to voters before the election. Nothing can be left out. Likewise, judges cannot arbitrarily invent new voting procedures. In retrospect, I should have challenged that order. But the level of voter intimidation is so high now, with longtime voters being disenfranchised, ballots that "time-out" to scare people into selecting familiar incumbent names, etc., that I guess I just counted myself lucky to be able to exercise my right to vote. Some people lost that right Tuesday. Now, what is the deal with turning off your cell phone? I've heard rumors that it was to prevent interference with the wireless system that connects the electronic books with the central database. Or would cell phones interfere with some electronic misbehavior that was afoot? When someone asked why they must be turned off, the judge refused to give the reason. Now, in that situation, you can only speculate as to what in the world is going on. Which hardly contributes to voter confidence.

Anyway, I had changed my plan and was waiting to vote around noon, so everything was working by that time at my polling place. I was all over the District, and upset to find that many of our precinct chairs went AWOL, while Democrats had a literature table manned at every polling place. This cannot happen on November 7. I came across my opponents at Bethesda ES around 4. Well, at least the two who are campaigning. (The third incumbent did win, leaving the Democrats with only two Washington Post-endorsed candidates. A recent op-ed feature stated that endorsements are an obligation and public service by the Post, and accepting that as a factual statement would require them to give voters three names for a three-seat race. Hence, they will need to endorse at least one Republican to do so.) Brian Frosh, my dad's opponent, was there too, and they were apparently getting some unequal time on WTTG Channel 5. When I tried to contact the TV crew, they were either hiding in the back of their truck or off the premises. Wait a minute, that's Fox. So much for "fair and balanced." Unequal time, I say. That's illegal. Which was pretty much the theme for voters on Tuesday. Resignations by election officials are sure to follow in the next 48 hours, but the emphasis on unconstitutional early voting by Democrats in Annapolis had the expected consequences yesterday. Marc Fisher, writing in the Post, said Tuesday's events were not predicted. But Governor Bob Ehrlich and other Republicans in Annapolis had warned this would happen months ago. The whole situation is an absolute embarrassment and disgrace. Mexico's recent election was cleaner than this. Both Democratic and Republican voters deserve to have the right to vote in a fair election process.

As it got later, the sun went down, and the lights did not come on in the Westland MS parking lot. Again, this was another attempt to discourage voting by making it appear from the street that the polling place was closed. Gus Alzona's son was working there, eventually turning his car around to illuminate the area with the high beams. Gus Alzona himself was next door at Little Flower, where I picked up my last vote of the night. A voter shook my hand vigorously, took my literature, and said, "Any man who'll stand out in the dark like this has my vote."
Thank you, sir.