Did voters like the new way of voting?

I heard on the radio this morning that name is Edward Ford III, a proper Farragut type name. :-)
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Sounds like better turnout than the last City of Knoxville election?

"By a four to one margin the people of Farragut chose Convenience Voting."

Greg, I'm not knocking the concept. I referred to the courthouse because it was the only alternate site for Farragut voters.

Larry Van Guilder

With few choices for locations and such a small turnout, it is hard to draw conclusions from the Farragut election. By all accounts the process ran smoothly and was a good test run before the City of Knoxville election. It was a smart move on the part of the Election Commission and Greg to try a test run in Farragut. Any kinks that came up could have been ironed out with smaller numbers to handle. However, it is pretty clear that people who did vote took advantage of the selection of days available.

The real test will be the City of Knoxville elections. Although, again there are variables to consider. There will be several high profile races with no incumbents and wide-open seats. Turnout was somewhere less than 10% in '07 (6% maybe?), but there were fewer contested races and lots of incumbents. Turnout would be higher this year regardless of the convenience voting plan, so it will be hard to identify exactly what affect the plan had on turnout.

Randy's right, and my earlier post may have been misleading. You're not restricted to casting your ballot in a specific precinct.

Larry Van Guilder

Per a speech from Bob Becker earlier this week, there was no difference in convience voting vs. Regular voting in this election because there was one and had always been 1 voting location. So, this was not a good election to try this out.

In regards to the application of convience voting across the county in the future, I think it will be much better. People work all over town and it will hopefully work better and in the long run be more cost effective to have convience voting with fewer more efficient locations than to have 90 precincts open with a cumbersome book to sign in and people to pay to man a station where maybe 10 people vote.

Im looking forward to convience voting.

. . .well maybe a little.

So, the local Democratic* party is part of a conspiracy to protect incumbents????

Explain how that makes any sense?!?

*It just occurred to me that after reading all the posts about the "ic", I can not remember which one is "correct"!

So convenience voting favors the incumbents (republicans for the most part) AND the party not in power (the democrats for the most part)?

Diluting the politics of precincts and wards favors the party not in power.

That's the part I don't understand.

The campaigns will still be targeting certain precincts and wards. How does moving the voting booth dilute or weaken that?

I've already decided whom I'm voting for before I get to the polling place, but even if I haven't, as long as the campaigns have been targeting and working in the appropriate precinct or ward, how will the politics be affected?

You have to assume that more people voted in Farragut by having "convenience voting" than would have voted without it.

Heavy voting favors incumbents while a low turnout favors the "aginners."

An electorate that was paying attention would have voted for Ford and Markli or Rosseel and McGill. Instead, both incumbents lost.

Had the election been held with other county, state and federal elections ... Ford and probably Rosseel would have won. And so it goes. -- s.

"I know I'm late to this particular party, but HUH???"

Well. . . the best I can tell convenience voting occurs in a vaccum that dismantles precincts. It also simultaneously helps incumbents and the minority political party.

Seriosuly though #9, does it help incumbents more or the minority political party? Or does it work out as a wash?

I tend to enjoy voting on election day at my precinct. Its much less convenient, but I like seeing my neighbors and catching up. However if you vote at a small precicnt, the chances of seeing a candidate is slim to nothing. I remember the Aug. 04 state primaries, there was a precicnt north (Hills, I think) that had a very low turnout on election day (less than 100 people maybe?). Do you think candidates were standing outside there all day? No, they were down at Halls where the turnout was 5x the turnout at Hills.

I think the net effect is more convenience for the community, but I am cognizant of the little old lady who lives across the street from her current precicnt and will have more of a hassle getting somewhere else.

the Digit's front right wheel on his little red wagon may be sticking...anyone got an oil can so he doesn't keep going in circles to nowhere?

_________________________________________________
"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

So you seemed to avoid the question. .

Accoring to you, convenience voting "destroys the ward/precinct system" which favors the minority political party. You also say it favors incumbents because its similiar to early voting, right?

So I'm wondering, does convenience voting favor incumbents more or the minority political party?

Okay, one last time. Convenience voting doesn't do one dang thing to eliminate wards/precincts.

I still live and vote in ward/precinct 16N in Knox County's 2nd district. It doesn't go away with convenience voting. It still determines which school board members I can vote for, which county commissioners I can vote for, which city council members, etc., etc.

Just because convenience voting allows me to vote at the county courthouse downtown or at Downtown West shopping center or the Farragut Folklife Museum, it doesn't mean I get to vote for representatives from those districts. It only means that through the magic of computerification and customizable voting screens, I can vote in my district from anywhere in the county. I can vote at Farragut City Hall (if the bus would take me), but I would still be voting for Mark Harmon and Amy Broyles and not for any of the Farragut-area commissioners, because I am a registered voter in the 2nd district.

This is exactly how the already accepted "early voting" works-- with the exception that it now extends the ability for me to vote from anywhere in the county on Election Day rather than simply during the two week voting period preceding Election Day.

How does any of this dilute wards and precincts and/or help the Democrats to take over the county? I haven't a clue. But, I suppose it's part of the Digit's cult of victimization. Man, I wish I belonged to a party as strong as the Digit thinks mine is and I wish his was as weak as he pretends his is.

All that being said, I'm still working to organize my ward, to register voters and get out the vote. Every voter I register in 16N is simply another voter for 16N and hasn't a thing to do with the wards/precincts of any other part of the county-- even if they end up voting at New Harvest Park out east or the Expo Center on Clinton Highway. Convenience voting hasn't changed a thing about the wards and precincts. Digit is simply looking to blame someone or thing, so he and his candidates won't have to take responsibility for their own losses.

Because, you know, if you lose your election by 840 votes and there's only 171 extra voters from your last electoral victory, perhaps the reason for Mayor Ford's campaign loss resides somewhere in Mayor Ford's office and/or in his campaign and not with convenience voting. But, you know, that's just me.

Part #1
Me:

Okay, one last time. Convenience voting doesn't do one dang thing to eliminate wards/precincts.

Digit:

Who said it did?

Me answering Digit by quoting Digit's own words back to him:

So the plan is really to do away with precincts because the big bad local Republicans are too tough to deal with? Can't fight them straight up so have to use the new PR? And the new PR is to kill precincts.

(Emphasis mine)

Part #2
Me:

How does any of this dilute wards and precincts and/or help the Democrats to take over the county?

Digit:

Which is it, eliminate of dilute? Those words have different meanings. Your question was already answered. Find another nit to pick.

Even earlier Digit:

diluting the political power of wards and precincts favors the party not in control.

(Again, emphasis mine)

Hey, Digit, you do know that when you type a new reply in a thread that your previous replies don't magically go away, right? The two statements you quoted from me were separate responses to separate direct quotes from you. You are the one who has been alternately accusing convenience voting of "eliminating" (aka "kill," "do away with") precincts or of "diluting" precincts.

I still stand by my statement that you simply are crybabying about convenience voting because it's an easy scapegoat to use in looking for answers to the Farragut election rather than addressing internal issues relating to the campaign and the candidates. As per usual, you look to pin any faults of your own as the result of some nefarious plot by the dastardly sneaky Democratic Underground.

When shown that your first premise ("killing off" precincts) is factually wrong and when unable to offer up any evidence to support your second premise that convenience voting is "diluting" precincts (which I also believe to be factually wrong), you simply point to the nits in your own bed and accuse others of putting them there.

I'd still love to hear your explanation of how convenience voting "dilutes" the precincts/wards. I've not given up on finding out either on your earlier accusation that convenience voting shuts down communication between the candidates and the voter. I saw your response that volunteers were unable to put barcaloungers and tents in the Municipal Building parking lot, but it still didn't tell how this stopped "communication" between candidate and voter. I'll look forward to hearing your answers to either one of these.

Or, if you want it in terms you seem to better understand: I say you're bluffing. I call.