Sorry, I've "stolen" the title to Shannyn Moore's piece in the Huffington Post this morning, but I couldn't believe this hadn't been diaried yet. This won't be much of a diary, but I wanted to make sure the kos community was aware of this.
Something stinks. Not just an ordinary low tide smell. Not like something you'd blame on the dog. It smells like an infection. For me to plug my nose, I'd have to overlook some curious facts. In Alaska, more people voted for George W. Bush in 2004 than voted for Sarah Palin on Tuesday despite an identical 61-36 margin of victory. Yes. Only four years ago 54,304 Alaskans got off their sofas and voted for Bush, but decided to sit home and not vote for Palin in 2008. In turn, I have to ignore the 30,520 Alaskans who felt progressive enough in 2004 to vote for John Kerry, but weren't inspired enough to get out and vote for Barack Obama. I would have to glance past the 1,700% increase in the Democratic caucus in February, the 20,991 newly registered voters, and the three largest political rallies in Alaska's history.
I think I smell it too. It's not just an abandoned crab boat. Turnout is of record numbers across the country, but in the state where the Governor is on a presidential ticket, it's DOWN???
Democracy demands all of the votes be counted...if you can find them. In the balance hangs the fate of Alaska's Senate seat and House seat. We still don't know if we have elected now convicted felon Ted Stevens, or Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. We still don't know if Don Young and his million dollar legal problems will defeat former State Representative Ethan Berkowitz and his dreams of Washington DC.
And that's what this is about. I don't expect that Obama was going to carry Alaska, but Young and Stevens should by all rights be going down hard. I suppose it struck no one else as strange that they were doing so well after the polls all predicted their demise?
Four years ago, 313,592 out of 474,740 registered voters in Alaska participated in the election-a 66% turnout. Taking into account 49,000 outstanding ballots, on Tuesday 272,633 out of 495,731 registered Alaskans showed up at the polls; a turnout of 54.9%. That's a decrease of more than 11% in voter turnout even though passions ran high for and against Obama, as well as for and against Sarah Palin! This year, early voters set a new record. As of last Thursday, with 4 days left for early voting, 15,000 Alaskans showed up-shattering the old record set in 2004 by 28%!
I could block quote this whole article. Just go read and ask yourself if any of this makes sense.