Advertisement
Reason to rejoice
Collin Minor, 22, of La Crosse wore an American flag stocking hat over long wavy hair to the polls at the Harry J. Olson Senior Center and told it to me straight.
He's a conservative, but not "crazy conservative."
He voted for Ron Kind for U.S. Rep. because "he's a Logan guy. Anyone who makes that many trips to the alma mater gets my vote."
He didn't vote for any of the three referendums on the ballot. "Honestly, I didn't really care about them," he said.
He voted for sheriff not based on party or platform. He picked the one who's name sounded best, but doesn't remember who it was. "Cops are all the same anyway," he said.
Election Day is great, he said, "because now I get to watch my regular commercials. None of this back-to-back-to-back political ads anymore."
The one thing he wouldn't reveal: who he voted for in the governor's race. He said he based his vote on which candidate he thought would be better for nursing homes. He works at Lakeview Health Care Center as a housekeeper.
"I voted along the lines of who would better fund nursing homes," he said. "I'll let anyone try to figure it out from there."
Going it alone
I encountered some wisecrackers outside the polls at La Crescent ( Minn. ) Elementary School. The two middle-aged men told me they didn't want to share how they voted, but they did want to watch me tap voters' shoulders and ask for their comment.
"It's like watching a bum in Chicago trying to hustle loose change," one guy said. "We should start betting on who'll talk and who won't," said the other.
The safe bet was against voters talking to me. Interestingly, about 90 percent of voters on the Wisconsin side of the river wanted to talk. On the Minnesota side, it was 10 percent at most.
But one voter who was kind enough to talk made all the waiting worth it.
Marion Jackson, 76, voted at the elementary school as she has since she was eligible to vote.
"I'm a Hubert Humphrey, Harry Truman dyed-in-the-wool Democrat," she said.
She watched Humphrey give a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1976. She listened to a speech Truman gave on the back of a train in Winona , Minn. during his presidential campaign. She worked as a poll worker during the 1960 presidential campaign, counting votes until 2 a.m. Another of her political heroes, John F. Kennedy, won that race.
Something was different this year, though. Jackson's husband, Harold, passed away last week at 84.
Harold taught music at the elementary school for more than 40 years. He'd usually vote over his lunch hour, while Marion would come in after work. Sometimes, she worked the polls.
Marion said her husband fought in World War II and was assumed dead by other soldiers when mortars fell on his foxhole while he was in North Africa.
"He always said he figured he'd die in the war," Marion said. "He couldn't understand why he lived so long, and was so thankful to be alive."
His name was just above hers on the voter list, she said, "so it was impossible not to think of him today."
They had discussed the La Crescent school referendum shortly before his death, Marion said, and both agreed to support it. She said she didn't consider not voting despite her grief.
"Voting gives us a chance to establish what we believe in, even if we don't always get what we believe in," she said. "These last two years have very difficult for our country, but we hope things will get better."
A Republican plumber
Greg Flottmeier, 49, says Iraq is "a can of worms we shouldn't have opened." He thinks we're spending "way too much money there," and that "we should pull out and let them have their civil war."
Despite his dissatisfaction with the war, he voted straight-party Republican, as he usually does. You may not expect this out of Flottmeier, a union plumber. But he also hunts deer and belongs to the National Rifle Association.
"I'm a true believer in owning my own guns and going deer hunting and not being told I can't," he said.
His union colleagues typically "like us to vote Democrat," he said, but doesn't believe the party treats unions much better than Republicans do.
"You can't believe any (of the Democrats) anymore," he said.
He voted for Steve Helgeson for sheriff, mostly because he's a Republican.
"Boma's a little too old, and Konetchy's a Democrat," he said, while noting that he did attend Konetchy's chickencue.
"Good guy, but wrong party," he said of Konetchy.
Konetchy draws North Side support from unlikely constituents
Tim Olsen, 18, knows Butch Konetchy personally -- the county sheriff candidate booked Olsen into jail for domestic disorderly conduct. Olsen was so taken with Konetchy that he registered to vote Tuesday and cast his ballot for him at the Harry J. Olson Senior Center.
"He treated me by far the best of anyone in there," Olsen said. "He tries to be friends with everybody, treat people with respect."
He was joined at the polls by his girlfriend, Jennifer Shaw, 18, her sister Amber, 21, and their roommate, Amy Johnson, 22. All have their tongues pierced. All have been in jail or are dating a current inmate. All voted for Konetchy.
"He knows what goes on in that jail and what needs to be fixed," Jennifer Shaw said. She has been in the women's jail 14 times, she said, "and it's just nasty in there."
"Everybody in jail wants Butch," Olsen said.
Rachael Kaiser, 26, has never been to jail or known an inmate. But she also voted for Konetchy. She researched his platform online, and liked his ideas. Ultimately, though, she listened to a friend who's a jailer. He said vote for Konetchy.
"I figured he'd know better than I," she said.
Absentees are in; military turnout very light
As of 10:30, the La Crosse city clerk's office has received 1,920 absentee ballots. That number is down from the 2004 general election total of more than 5,000 but significantly up from the last midterm general election in 2002, in which 1,116 voted absentee.
City clerk Teri Lehrke is delivering the ballots to their proper polling places, where they'll be counted along with those cast on election day.
Only eight absentee ballots have come in from overseas military personnel. Nikki Elsen, deputy city clerk, said the office had sent out 60 as of September, which still seems a fraction of the total number of La Crosse soldiers deployed. She said she'd know by tonight the total sent out.
Military personnel who request absentee ballots typically are sent two: one write-in ballot months in advance, then the actual ballot once it's completed. They follow this protocol to ensure that soldiers have enough time to get their ballots in, Elsen said.
Kim Wolf, who voted at the town of Shelby hall this morning, said her husband, Sgt. 1st Class William Wolf, never received an absentee ballot after requesting one while based in Kuwait.
Closing thoughts from Shelby
Joe Heim I ain't, so I well realize I can't be trusted to divine deep meaning from my roving exit interviews. That said, a few observations so far:
Voters aren't happy with Iraq. No big surprise there, but I was surprised to talk to military families stridently opposed to the war (some of whom supported the war to start with), and voting Democrat in national races as a result.
Relatedly, voters don't seem to be taking out dissatisfaction with Iraq on state or local Republicans. No voter I talked with mentioned Iraq in the governor's race -- most had very personal reasons for voting one way or the other. A plastic surgeon voted Green because he feared Doyle would raid the state's patient compensation fund -- and make doctors more susceptible to malpractice lawsuits. A nurse practitioner voted a straight Democratic ticket because she trusts them to deal with health insurance more fairly. A few days ago she had a patient who needed a brain MRI -- but turned it down because the procedure was out of pocket, and out of his budget.
The Republicans had a poll watcher; the Democrats didn't.
There was a steady stream of voters in and out the whole time I was there, but I didn't talk to anyone who had trouble registering or voting. Kim Wolf brought her infant son, Landon, to the polls. She said he was peeking at the woman next to them as she voted. "Good thing he can't read yet," she said.
I was surprised at the sparseness of protest votes cast. Mostly, people told me they're voting pretty much as they usually do, especially in local and state races. One woman told me it's because there aren't any tight national races in Wisconsin. It will be interesting to see how that differs -- or not -- when I cross the river to La Crescent. Voters are deciding hotly contested U.S. Senate and U.S. Representative races there.
Iraq and a hard place
Dave Drewes, 70, voted straight-ticket Republican. He almost always does, he said. He supports the war in Iraq, and he supports President Bush.
"I think Bush has done a super job (in managing the war)," he said. "Cut and run is not going to be successful. I can't believe the Democrats see that as a serious solution."
Among the dozen or so people I talked with, he's by far the biggest war supporter. Many voters had other, harsher ways to describe Iraq.
"We've driven off a cliff and we shouldn't continue that course," said a 50-year-old semiretired man who chose not to give his name. "If we stay the course nothing will change."
He doesn't think Democrats have any great answers, either, he said, but feels a change is needed.
The man said his son has served in Afghanistan and Iraq and still supports the wars. "He feels we're doing a lot of good over there still."
For awhile, his dad agreed. But now he has lost faith.
"As a father and taxpayer, I can't support it any longer," he said.
Kim Wolf brought her infant son, Landon, to the polls. She voted straight-ticket Democrat -n largely because of Iraq.
Her husband, Sgt. 1st Class William Wolf, has been in Kuwait since July. He got his activation notice in January, three days after Landon was born.
"I support my husband and all the troops 100 percent," she said, "but I think this war is senseless in a way. We're there for the wrong reasons."
She said her husband also planned to vote Democratic n- but never received an absentee ballot.
Ken Adams, an engineer, said Iraq has turned out about as he expected: "another Vietnam, a quagmire to get mired down in," he said.
Now, he said, "it's a matter of finding a way out and bringing the troops home safe and sound."
To accomplish that, he said, he'll be rooting for Democrats to retake Congress.
"I think it's about time they come back in and balance out power a little bit."
The election worker
Let's get this straight first: Diane Fields is not an old woman. "I'm under 50, and proud to say that," she joked.
She's also proud to say this: she's an election worker in town of Shelby. It's her first general election after working the primary earlier this fall.
She took issue with a column in the morning paper about election workers being mostly older women which, by and large, they are. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
"It's a good niche of women because they've been together a long time," she said.
Fields and her husband moved back to Wisconsin last year after bouncing around the Midwest for awhile. He works at UW-L. She stays home and watches their dogs n Lucy (breed unknown) and Noodles (Hungarian puli). She also plans trips to see their first grandchild, who lives in Aberdeen, So. Dak.
Today, she'll work from 6:30 a.m. until the polls close at 8 p.m. n and perhaps longer. Poll workers in the city of La Crosse make $6.50 an hour, or $7.50 if they're an election inspector. City clerk Teri Lehrke has a resolution before the council to raise their pay to $8 an hour, $9 for inspectors.
But Fields doesn't do it for the money.
"You have to give back somehow, and this is an easy way to do it," she said. "Plus, you can never have enough friends. This is a good way to start."
Her central concerns have nothing to do with the election or even her own nourishment. "I can get through the entire morning on coffee," she explained.
She's mostly concerned about her dogs. "They tend to get lonely without me around," she said.
The Catholic vote
The bishop would be proud of Mary Hovel. The self-employed woman said she was in a rush to get her day started, but volunteered that she voted mostly for Republicans, as usual, including for Mark Green as governor.
"I just like him," she explained.
On the amendments, she said she followed Catholic social teaching "to a T." Thus, yes to the marriage amendment, no to the death penalty.
First, a teacher
Darvin Klatt voted first, in a rush to get to his job as math teacher at Central High School. Governor Doyle got his vote n again. "For a teacher not to vote for Doyle, it's like Colonel Sanders getting a chicken to vote for him," he said with a laugh. I'm not sure I got that quote exactly right n but you get his point.
On the amendments, he had health care on his mind. He voted no to the marriage amendment, no to the death penalty and yes to the county health-care referendum.
Here's why.
Marriage: "It's a sneaky way of taking away health care benefits, especially for common-law marriage situations." The state of health care, he said, "is atrocious."
Death penalty: "This one was tough for me," he said. Ultimately, though, he decided the state shouldn't have that option. "It's almost a retaliation," he said. "Does it really deter criminals? And it costs three times more."
Health care: see "Marriage" above.
Wearing shorts, waiting in line in Shelby
"Polls open."
By state law, those two words had to be said at every polling place this morning, regardless whether there were any voters there to hear them.
In town of Shelby, there were about 15 voters in line already when the doors opened at 7 a.m. The weather will provide no excuse for staying home today n it felt like July. One voter wore shorts to the polls.
I went to Shelby first because it has a history of strong turnout n and of being a bellwether of voter sentiment.
"To do well in Shelby tends to be a good indicator (of larger success)," Joe Heim, political science professor at UW-L and local political oracle, told me.
There was steady traffic through the town hall annex from 7 until I left at 8:15 n steady, but not overwhelming. Most were in a rush to get to work. Many were gracious enough to spend a few minutes telling me how they voted and why. Stay tuned to find out more.
|
More Politics: |
