Amiga-Commodore / CC BY-SA 2.0

Lady Liberty herself

If you refuse to look away while one political party puts personhood for fetuses above personhood for women, this election is relevant to you.

The GOP platform does not make exceptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest, or even some insignificant detail like the life of the mother. They tell us rape resulting in pregnancy is a gift from god. They tell us some girls “rape easy.” I could go on, but I’m sure you know the rest. (If you don’t, the gist of it is really, really misogynist.)

I’m hardly saying President Obama is perfect, or even that another Obama presidency will prevent a gaggle of old white men from talking about vaginas. But a non-vote allows them to continue talking about women as second-class citizens. A non-vote doesn’t combat the notion that we’ll go slut-crazy with unfettered access to birth control. A non-vote won’t keep funding for Planned Parenthood—an organization that provides cancer screenings, treatments of STDs and low-cost contraception as 97 percent of its services. And most of all a non-vote doesn’t tell Republicans that these issues are real, deciding factors for many women of all class, color and circumstances, no matter how much they try to tell us otherwise.

Obama has let a lot of us down on a lot of things to be sure. But he (and the Democrats behind him) continue to do all right when it comes to ensuring women have basic agency over their own bodies. And I haven’t even mentioned the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act or basic civil rights for our LGBTQ community.

Plus, why would you vote for a party that erects a “lady tent” to convince us ladies to like them as much as we all like pink.

 

Our three-reporter election team is heading out to various camps around the city. In the meantime, watch preliminary results roll in online.

Politico’s got a few states breaking red or blue on its still mostly gray map.

At the New York Times’ 538 blog, the counting has begun. The forecast is looking Obama-y.

In New Mexico, the Secretary of State’s Office has results online for you. Nothing’s up yet since our polls are still open.

The county clerk’s site is the place to check in about Albuquerque’s minimum wage. Nothing will be there until after 7 p.m.

Man-about-town / Alibi contributor Clifford Grindstaff reported that a woman from Sandoval County appeared at an Albuquerque polling place this afternoon seeking advice about where to vote. And voters in Rio Rancho (the majority of which is in Sandoval County) reported this morning that they were waiting in long lines to cast their ballots. One woman told KOB News that she’d waited for 2 hours and 20 minutes before she was able to vote at Puesta Del Sol Elementary School.

Let’s hope that the Sandoval County Clerk’s office was able to iron out any difficulties before the work day ended. As of this spring, there were more than 50,000 eligible voters in Rio Rancho. The county only has five polling locations to serve the entire town.

Vox Efx / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

Lines at Jefferson Middle School have shot out the door and down the sidewalk. The Student Union Building voting site on UNM campus has lines an hour or so long. Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver tweets that waits are longer than 30 minutes at Rio Bravo, Siesta Hills, Van Buren, Del Norte, McKinely, Cibola and Hayes. But the wait is less than 15 minutes at Downtown sites, including Washington Middle School and the Clerk’s Annex. Scope a map of polling locations and wait times. You can vote at any one of 69 convenience centers.

• Argh! Shoulda checked the blog before I left (ChiKung) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 6:07 PM ]
  
• Went to Siesta Hills first... (Samantha) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 7:22 PM ]
  
• if it ain't broke... (PB5000) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 8:32 PM ]
  

QB-17 Flying Fortress Drones over New Mexico 1946

If you refuse to vote for a candidate that supports endless war, the 2012 presidential election is irrelevant to you. If you refuse to vote for someone who's in favor of mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders, this election is irrelevant to you. If you refuse to vote for someone who has proven time and again that they will put profit before people, banks before families, business before human dignity, this election is irrelevant to you.

Sure, you could vote third party. But that third party candidate is not going to win. Obama is. Having out-raised Romney and being the incumbent, it was good as done before it even began. Not that it matters.

Because whether the next president is donkey or elephant, children will still be slaughtered by American bombs in Yemen and Pakistan. Children will still be cut down by American guns in the streets of Mexico. Palestinian children will continue living under United States-backed apartheid and Saudi children will still wake up every day as subjects of a dictatorship.

And American children? American children, regardless of who wins, will still grow up under the most odious surveillance state in history. They will still inherit a country more likely to throw them in jail than any other country, or government, in the world. Tomorrow, we will still have heavily-armed private contractors in Iraq, troops in Afghanistan (until at least 2024), CIA in Syria and drones in no less than six countries.

No matter how you look at it, both candidates would pursue sociopathic policies and do extreme damage to the planet and the people living on it. The only good thing to be said about this election? It's almost over.

• Andy, I hear you (marisa) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 2:44 PM ]
  
• More important votes nationwide (AndyTenido) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 3:46 PM ]
  
• Win 2024 (sloppy) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 5:57 PM ]
  

Young Women United / Kirbie Platero

 

I was in line by 7:04 am at Jefferson Middle School, and there were at least 50 folks ahead of me. Thank goodness for the bake sale being held in the lobby: The scones held me over until it was my turn. When I left there, were slightly fewer people in line. It was great to see the diversity of voters who turned out early at this neighborhood polling station.

We’ve heard reports of differing waits at the polling locations. You can vote at any of the 69 convenience centers. The county clerk has a color-coded system that will show you what the wait will be like as you head in on your lunch hour. It’s looking pretty good around the city, with green 15-minute waits at most locations.

Or, try the clerk’s new app on your smartphone. Download it at Apple’s App Store or the Android Play Store for free. Just search for “BernCo,” “Bernalillo County” or “My Vote Center.” If you don’t have those services, you can get it right from the bernco.gov home page. There it’s called the Wait Time Feature for My Vote Center.

In our Election Guide, we summed up everything you need to know about voting today.

• It's true (marisa) [ Mon Nov 19 2012 10:26 AM ]
  
• Whatever could have gone wrong? (PB5000) [ Tue Nov 20 2012 7:54 PM ]
  
• Armistice Day early voting anachronism (Pattriot) [ Tue Nov 20 2012 11:05 PM ]
  

Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

The Alibi loves bikes. What could be better for our country’s health and the environment than everyone getting out of their cars and powering themselves to work?

It’s part of why we’re not crazy about the Paseo and I-25 interchange revamp. That’s going to suck up so much money. Why not put that cash toward public transit, bike paths or other creative solutions to our vehicle-based problems? When you make the road bigger, it just fills up with more cars.

The city isn’t the only entity pitching funds toward the overhaul, though it’s certainly putting up the most. The county may toss in $5 million, depending on what voters say today.

But here’s the thing: The ballot language on county bond 5 doesn’t say a thing about Paseo. Instead, it says the bond puts cash toward road repair and bike paths. It’s a $10 million bond—and half of it goes to Paseo.

Sneaky.

We say vote for it anyway. BernCo residents shouldn’t suffer potholes and dangerous conditions for cyclists because of this shady business. Still, it’d be nice if the ballot language was clearer.

• I voted for it... (MikeSmith) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 1:52 PM ]
  
• Nah (marisa) [ Tue Nov 6 2012 1:58 PM ]
  

rachel_titiriga / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

You’ve got until 7 p.m. to cast your ballot at any of these 69 polling locations. If you got your absentee ballot in the mail, but you haven’t turned it in yet, you can drop it off at the County Clerk’s Office by 7 p.m. That’s in City Hall (1 Civic Plaza) on the sixth floor.

You do not have to bring ID.

If you have any problems at the polls, call these voter protection hotlines:

English

1-866-OUR-VOTE

(1-866-687-8683)

Spanish

1-888-VE-Y-VOTA

(1-888-839-8682)

Here’s what the Alibi thought of the candidates and the issues you’ll see on your ballot today.

 

You can vote at any of 69 voting centers today. The county clerk laid out this great map to show you where they are. They’re open until 7 p.m.

Scope the Alibi’s personalized election guide, where you can enter in your address and see what races you’ll be voting on.

We interviewed candidates in challenged primary races and endorsed our favorites. Here’s the short version.

In some cases, whoever wins the primary today automatically wins the general election because there’s no party opposition on the November ballot. That’s the case for: district attorney, District 2’s county commissioner and District 4’s county commissioner.

If you’ve got any questions about the candidates or about voting today, cruise our handy, Smartphone-friendly guide.

• 30,000 (marisa) [ Tue Jun 5 2012 5:14 PM ]
  
• 319,653 eligible voters (marisa) [ Tue Jun 5 2012 6:09 PM ]