Election Day Ramblings

-I'm very excited that there are elections today. Not because I'm really into government or the process by which our laws are formed, but mostly because I'm sick of my phone ringing every night with people asking me to vote for them or the candidate that most shares their values and I look forward to it coming to an end. The thing is, I would understand it if I thought the calls even worked. I would love to see some kind of independent research into just how effective the strategy of "cold-calling right at dinner time, then having four seconds of silence before the pre-recorded message starts" actually is. Honestly, every time I have been at someone else's home when they get a political cold-call their immediate reaction is, "Well, now I'm certainly not going to vote for that guy," which is the same reaction that I have. At this point I'm beginning to wonder if candidates have begun hiring firms to call on behalf of the other guy.

-The only thing worse than the calls are the TV and radio ads. First off, they are everywhere. (I heard a story on the news that during one day of programming in Nevada there were 1,200 30-second ads. That's ten hours worth of political ads in one day. That seems excessive.) Secondly, half the ads in this area are for races where I'm not even in the district the election effects. Now, I can understand the ads for races taking place in other parts of Massachusetts, because those campaigns can't be too specific about where they are going to run. You buy ad time on Channel 7, not just Channel 7 between Springfield and Worcester. But, for some reason this election season I have been subjected to not only to the Massachusetts, but also a slew of New Hampshire political ads. New Hampshire has it's own local CBS and NBC affiliates - advertise with them. I don't care that New Hampshire is at a cross-roads. I don't live in New Hampshire. You may as well be telling me that Ohio needs change.

-That being said, there is one radio ad I heard the other day that really stuck with me. It was for Governor Deval Patrick and it started a little something like this: "When you hear this (gunshots ring out in the distance), don't you want to immediately hear this (police sirens slowly grow louder)? And if you hear this (cue crackling fire noises), don't you want it to quickly be followed by this (insert fire engine sirens)?" The rest of the ad was talking about how Patrick's opponent, Charlie Baker, was going to cut the taxes that fund these important social services. Powerful stuff... or it least it would have been if I hadn't been fixated on the first part of the ad. What section of Massachusetts are you living in that people are shooting at each other and then setting houses on fire? Really, Deval, I didn't think things were so bad in the commonwealth that police and fire were constantly busy. When did we become like ThunderDome around here?

-So, I went and voted fairly early today, just to get the whole thing over with. I know I ask this every election, but why are the women who work at the polling stations roughly 96 years old? It would speed the whole voting process up if I didn't have to repeat my name and address five times until she hears me.