Off the Top of my Head: Will Edit and Amend if My Work Day Allows

"This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally."

Two things of note: one, Timothy Daly has been a lawfully registered voter of the state of Virginia since 1998, and, two, the Virginia Elections Commission didn't make the telephone call. Combine that with allegations that Democratic voters are receiving telephone calls telling them their polling sites have changed, and a nasty picture of democracy gone wrong develops.

I hate to state the obvious, but this isn't how it's suppose to work. Ideally, prior to today, we would have had a vigorous discussion of the issues that matter, citizens voicing their concerns and positions (what things matter to them, the best method for realizing the ideal outcome, the harm to others that course of action would cause), candidates stating theirs. We would then work to elect the candidate that best reflects our interests, and vote the ones that come closest to ourselves. Or we would vote against our interests if we were convince the harm of our positions to others was greater than the benefit of our dreams realized. We'd vote for the good of the nation over the good of our selves. And we'd trust that even if we lost, our voices would be heard and reflected in the decisions made by our elected officials, because regardless of political affiliation, elected officials represent the citizens of their district, state, and nation, the ones who didn't vote for them included. Unlike in Africa, we're not warring tribes; unlike in Iraq, we're not conflicting religions. We don't kill the losers, the people with whom we disagree, because we're all in this together (see the "United" part of the United States of America). We don't share this land by default or accident; we do it by design, by choice, by political will, because we believe this is the best way for peoples of differing cultures, ethnicities, and ideas to live together. At the heart of it all, we believe in democracy.

And this ain't it.