Everybody Say “Yea-a” . . . Say “Nay-ay”
Slate’s got a piece on how to increase the voter turnout this year, but while it’s pretty funny, it won’t work, unfortunately. I mean, I like the idea of handing out Happy Hour vouchers, but there’s a reason they used to shut bars the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, and you know those conditions would prevail somehow. And universities and churches have their tax-exempt status to take care of, so they’re reasonably wary about allowing the public airing of partisan political views, lest they be perceived as active sponsors. Nevertheless, we’re going to throw our hands in the air and Par-tay come the election here (whenever it’s announced; unlike the States, federal elections here, while occurring every three years, are held early or late according to the strategy of the party in power). It would be fun to do a U.S. party, too, but we don’t know enough Americans, first of all, and second, it would be a very late night indeed.