WV Secretary of State should Educate rather than Supress voters

In a recent ad, which I personally heard on 58 Live (WCHS) during the Sportsline program, WV Secretary of State Betty Ireland was touting the "three ways" a college student who lives away from home can vote in the general election. According to Ireland, students need to either:

1. Vote early in their home county.
2. Vote by mail via absentee ballot.
3. Vote in their local precinct on Nov. 4.

Secretary Ireland leaves out an important fourth option. WV students can choose to register to vote using their mailing address at school. I phoned the Secretary of State's office on Friday, and was informed by Special Assistant Jason Williams that the Secretary's ad was "accurate in that it truthfully represented the facts as they related to the specific topic that the ad addresses." I pointed out that students were already being informed in WV and other nearby states that they might lose their financial aid if they register away from their parents' address, and that the Secretary's ad smelled of partisan politics. The Special Assistant responded that "the Secretary cannot promote college students running around all willy-nilly registering to vote where they may or may not have a permanent address." Willy-nilly, indeed. If McCain were going to benefit from those registrations, I bet they'd have no problem with it. Secretary Ireland swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the State of WV, and she has a responsibility to educate and inform voters of ALL of their options, not just the ones that benefit her party.

PDWV Unveils New Logo

A big shout out to PDWV member One Citizen for putting together a beautiful new graphic logo for us. We'll be using this one from here on out, hopefully. Please feel free to use the comments section to give OC his props.

Better use of McCain's Time

I heard John McCain in Wisconsin today say that he couldn't wait to introduce Sarah Palin to Washington (rooaad triip!) I also heard him say that he couldn't wait to introduce her to pork-barrel spenders and lobbyists. I know he meant that she was with him in being all maverick-y (strong emphasis on "icky"), but he should try to recall a few things. I know it's hard, but this is America and we can do anything we set our minds to because John McCain was a POW.

Though she may need an official introduction to pork-barrel spenders (except for the indicted ones from her home state, Stevens and Young), she knows them well already. As we've heard before Palin was very successful at getting earmarks/pork for her hometown of Wasilla. She even remarked in her own handwriting that they "did well" during one session of Congress.

As for introducing her to lobbyists - already handled. She hired a firm to lobby Congress for those precious earmarks they "did well" on.

He doesn't even have to travel very far to introduce her to lobbyists - only as far as the Straight Talk Express (they save on gas that way). The McCain campaign has more lobbyists on staff than any other campaign.

That John McCain...he just always finds some way to take care of the small things. The good news is that he doesn't have to waste time on all this. He and Palin can quickly get back the job at hand: lying to the American public.