Words & Tricks

Election 2006; There’s a First Time for Everything

Some of the firsts from this year’s election:

1. Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, third in line for the presidency.
2. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim in Congress.
3. Keith Ellison, the first Black person elected to the House from Minnesota.
4. Amy Klobachar, the first woman to be elected to the Senate from Minnesota.

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Update 11/09/2006 11:57 AM

C’mon people. Whatever happened to Web 2.0? Social media? I had to dig up these two firsts myself:

1. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the first Socialist to be elected to the U.S. Senate
2. Deval Patrick, the first African-American Governor of Massachusetts

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Update 11/09/2006 6:36 PM

1. Ellen Young is the first Asian Assemblywoman in New York.

Please comment and add any local or national firsts you’re aware of this year, and correct me if I’m wrong on any of the above.

Thanks!

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• Latest Links: Voting 2 (0)
• Latest Links: Voting (0)
• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)
• Wednesday Morning Brings Democrats and Yet More Waiting (2)
• Go Vote! Democracy Still Needs Defenders (0)

Wednesday Morning Brings Democrats and Yet More Waiting

It was too much to hope that when U.S. citizens woke up this morning to go to work, we would have elections results waiting in our inboxes. Official news outlets like the Associated Press and the New York Times are handing the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). From the look of it, the House victory was decisive. The democrats needed 16 seats and they’ve picked up nearly twice that. The Senate still hangs on close races in Virginia and Montana this morning.

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• S. Dakota Senator in Critical ConditionFuture of Democratic Control of Senate Uncertain (7)
• Latest Links: Voting 2 (0)
• Election 2006; There’s a First Time for Everything (2)
• Designers for Democracy Suggest Photographing Polling Place (0)
• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)

Latest Links: Voting 2

Diebold Voting Machines Jam in Vista
Two Diebold voting machines in Vista experienced paper jams on the already controversial computerized format that has been challenged on local, regional and national levels.
“What happend today in Vista is an example of the continued erosion of our democracy,” said Fredia Avalos, a communication lecturer at Cal State San
Marcos. Vista filmaker Mark Day commented “I ended up voting twice. Those machines make a lot of racket and sound like an old harvesting machine. The whole thing is very scary.”

Klobuchar wins
Democrat Amy Klobuchar sailed to an easy victory in the U.S. Senate race Tuesday, capitalizing on voter anger over the Iraq war to become Minnesota’s first elected female senator.
Klobuchar, the elected prosecutor of Hennepin County, kept an important post in Democratic hands by beating Mark Kennedy, a three-term Republican congressman from west of the Twin Cities.
Klobuchar’s win was based on a statistical analysis of the vote from voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitosfky International.

Doyle wins in Wisconsin governor’s race
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, won a tough reelection race Tuesday over U.S. Rep. Mark Green, a Republican who focused on state spending and property taxes.
In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Herb Kohl easily defeated Robert Gerald Lorge, a Republican lawyer from Bear Creek.
Kohl, who used to run his family’s grocery and department stores and now owns the Milwaukee Bucks, has served three terms in the Senate.
Wisconsin voters also approved Tuesday a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Similar measures banning same-sex civil

Mapping the Movement: Washington
Heavy rain falls on election day. Shankar Narayan, director of the Hate Free Zone, hopes it won’t keep away the 11,000 immigrant voters it’s registered through canvassing and phone banking.

La Nueva Cara del Votante: Jóven y Latino

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• Latest Links: Voting (0)
• Election 2006; There’s a First Time for Everything (2)
• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)
• Wednesday Morning Brings Democrats and Yet More Waiting (2)
• Designers for Democracy Suggest Photographing Polling Place (0)

Designers for Democracy Suggest Photographing Polling Place

Today, November 7, 2006, a tiny percentage of United States citizens will decide which individuals will represent everyone in Washington D.C. In order to document this event, the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) and Design for Democracy are supporting the Polling Place Photo Project. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project in collaboration with Jay Rosen, founder of NewAssignment.Net.

This project pursued two goals:

1. To archive and document the voting process in order to provide a record for research on “how voting happens in America and how it can be easier, less confusing and more enjoyable.”
2. To make sure the election isn’t stolen, votes aren’t miscounted and to provide protesters and activists a photographic record if necessary to support claims of fraud.

Keep in mind that local laws vary greatly and any would-be citizen journalist should be familiar with her or his statutes before snapping pictures of happy voters. Lauren Gelman, deputy director of the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School, has posted a blog entry covering that question.

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• Wednesday Morning Brings Democrats and Yet More Waiting (2)
• Latest Links: Voting 2 (0)
• Election 2006; There’s a First Time for Everything (2)
• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)
• US 53rd in World Press Freedom Index (1)