even cold november rain

Notify a poll worker immediately.
Call the state attorney general at 1-800-831-8814 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Wednesday or fill out this online form.
Call the secretary of state at 1-800-274-VOTE (8683) or visit her site, StopVoterFraudNow.com.
And tell the probate court for Jefferson County (205-325-5203) or Shelby County (205-669-3713).
E-mail us at Vote2010[at]wadeonbirmingham.com.

Q: What can I expect to see on the ballots?

A: Check out these sample ballots for each county.

You’re voting for governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, state and county officials, plus several state constitutional amendments.

Q: Who should I vote for?

A: You still have time to check out the candidates and a slew of endorsements.

Going to vote? Tell us who you want to win and who will win in the comments.

• • •

More Vote 2010 coverage.

Posted in B'ham, Bama, Hoover | Permalink | Add a Yip »

ballad of the ballot

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Sometimes, they voted
for. Sometimes, against. But they
made the time to choose.

• • •

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Vote 2010: Roundup of election picks, endorsements and predictions

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Be thankful it’s almost over.

The long march to Election Day 2010 ends Tuesday with some of us going to the polls, and many of us staying far away. Come on, people, is it really that difficult to vote once every couple of years?

Decision time is here, but if you’re like us, maybe you’re a little behind on your homework. Who’s still running? What’s in Amendments 1 through π?

Fret not. We have your cheat sheets.

First stop, the Vote 2010 special reports page:

See the list of races.
Determine your polling place with our shiny new widget.
Read back through this year’s coverage.

Second, take a look at your sample ballots for Jefferson and Shelby Counties. (John Archibald of the Birmingham News says the 164 variations of the Jefferson County ballot reflect the fractured nature of local government.)

Third, see if Facebook can predict the results of state races.

Fourth, our list of resources for the discriminating voter …

Bhamwiki

List of candidates in the general election.

Doc’s Political Parlor

Full list of races for Alabama Senate and House.
Full list of races for state offices and Congress.

The World Around You

Candidates and their endorsements by newspapers and organizations.

The Birmingham News

Bama Fact Check

Journalists offer Truth Ratings on statements made by elected officials and candidates.

Alabama Right to Know

A website that tracks money from political action committees to candidates, along with completion of campaign promises. The tool is from the Alabama Policy Institute, a Birmingham-based nonprofit, non-partisan research organization that advocates free markets, families and limited government.

Endorsements and predictions from partisan bloggers …

The Attack Machine: Parts one, two and three
Flashpoint
Note: None of the Democrat/liberal blogs we know of made endorsements or predictions. Let us know if we missed one.

Update: Jennifer Foster of the Opelika-Auburn News makes her case for write-ins instead of Robert Bentley or Ron Sparks for governor.

• • •

Are you ready to vote on Tuesday? Discuss in the comments.

• • •

More Vote 2010 coverage.

Posted in B'ham, Bama, Hoover | Permalink | 4 Yips »

holiday sprint

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Dash to the malls, dress
up for parties, cook tons of
food, play overtime.

• • •

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Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

Have fun with the tricks and/or treats!

Posted in Grab Bag | Permalink | Add a Yip »

to be someone else

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

Slip on the guise of
a better persona to
explore your psyche.

• • •

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devils in disguise

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

These days, evil ones
parade naked in the streets
to blind, cheering crowds.

• • •

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Vote 2010: Can Facebook predict the outcome of Alabama races?

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Video: Karen Hughes talks about social media
in modern campaigns

Facebook is the king of social media outlets, but can it predict elections?

Karen Hughes serves as Global Vice Chair of Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm, but before that, she was an undersecretary in the State Department and campaign manager for George W. Bush’s Texas gubernatorial run. At BlogWorld 2010, her keynote mentioned an interesting study.

Looking at 10 Senate and 10 House races, the number of Facebook Likes on the candidates’ pages correlated with the primary results. Many candidates with more Likes than their opponents won their races.

Using that assumption, we looked at the races for Congress, for state office and for Jefferson County, tallying Facebook Likes for candidates to predict winners. (In several instances, a candidate used his profile page, making it an apples-to-oranges comparison of Likes vs. Friends.)

We’ll see how accurate these predictions are next week.

Election Day is Tuesday.

• • •

Update Nov. 2: ABC 33/40 interviewed me for Monday’s 6 p.m. newscast.

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Update Nov. 9: With nine of 13 races predicted correctly, the Facebook election predictor debuted with a 69.2 percent rate of accuracy.

• • •

Key:

D = Democrat | I = Incumbent | R = Republican
* – Facebook profile page | ** – Facebook group page
If a candidate had both a Facebook campaign page and profile page, the Likes from the former were used.
red = leading in Facebook Likes

Check out the actual election results.

• • •

More Vote 2010 coverage.