Thursday, November 05, 2009

DOES RUSH LIMBAUGH EVER ACTUALLY VOTE?

So I was on Limbaugh's Web site reading what he said on the radio about the NY-23 race, and this jumped out at me:

...this is what happened, [Dede Scozzafava] remained on the ballot. In fact, she was on the ballot twice. This is screwiest looking ballot. I just got this.

Here's the ballot: Democrat Owens, Republican Scozzafava, Independence Scozzafava, Conservative Hoffman, Working Families Owens. There were five parties on the ballot. Two of them endorsed Owens -- the Democrat Party and the Working Families Party -- and two of them endorsed Scozzafava, the Republican Party and the independents party. Only one of them endorsed Hoffman....


"This is [the] screwiest looking ballot." Really? Does Limbaugh really think it's that odd? Does he think it's odd that a candidate might appear on multiple ballot lines?

I ask because Limbaugh moved to New York City in 1988. He stopped being a New York resident in 1997 (though he continued to do some broadcasts from here). But that means he presumably voted in a city where multiple ballot lines are routine -- if he actually did vote.

Here's a sample ballot the Hoffman campaign was passing out in NY-23 (click to enlarge). It's really fairly simple, but, yeah, Scozzafava and Owens do appear on two ballot lines each.



But that's routine in Limbaugh's former residence, New York City. Here's a 2008 presidential ballot from the city (Staten Island, to be specific; click to enlarge):



Several candidates have multiple ballot lines, and it's actually more complex-looking. That's what ballots around here have looked like for years and years.

Did Limbaugh -- the most important Republican in America for the past twenty years -- actually never see one of these in the decade he lived here? Did he ever vote?

(If he voted absentee, the absentee ballots look pretty much the same.)

Limbaugh can't let it go. Later he says again:

Scozzafava's name was on the ballot twice! Owens' name was on the ballot twice! She got 5% of the vote.

But that happens all the time in this state. We allow candidates to run on multiple lines. And voters cope. We're used to it.

Does the nation's most important Republican over the past generation not know what a ballot looks like in a state he lived in for nearly a decade?

*****

UPDATE: I'm embarrassed to say I missed this, but teahouse, in comments, didn't:

the hypocrisy here is stunning though. remember how bush supporters/enablers scoffed at the idea that the 'butterfly ballots' in florida may have confused some people and caused al gore to lose votes? ...

limbaugh claimed that anybody who couldn't figure out the butterfly ballot had to be either retarded or a liar.


That's true. He did.