Editor's note: Welcome to new C&L contributor Juanita Jean, who covers the crazy over at Juanita Jean's, The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon Inc.

Montana, maybe the sky is too big or something, but crazy grows wild and freely up there. Maybe it’s dripping down from Canada, in French. I dunno. But it’s crazy.

Here ya go –

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: “AN ACT REVISING ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS AND TO FILE FOR CANDIDACY FOR MUNICIPAL ELECTED OFFICE; ALLOWING A QUALIFIED NONRESIDENT PROPERTY OWNER OR DESIGNEE OF AN ENTITY TO VOTE IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS AND TO FILE FOR CANDIDACY FOR MUNICIPAL ELECTED OFFICE; AND AMENDING SECTIONS 7-1-4121, 7-4-4104, 7-4-4301, AND 7-4-4401, MCA.”

Sweet Mother of Landowners, that means that corporations can vote. Maybe they can even run for office. Wouldn’t that be cool? Hey, my friend, are you voting for WalMart or Kodak?

But don’t stop there. Lavine is skipping ladder rungs on the Tower of Nuts. He wants to allow people to salvage roadkill.

Now at first glance that sounds dandy, until you go out to dinner. Yeah, you guessed it – roadkill deer meat in a restaurant.

You know, maybe Republicans are on to something with this smaller government thing. Maybe they should leave. That would be a great first step.

Via Dayton Daily News:

Steve Quillen, Miami County elections director, on Friday morning submitted his resignation “due to the stress of the upcoming presidential election.”

The Miami County Board of Elections held an executive session Thursday afternoon, and the board accepted Quillen’s resignation via a 4-0 vote at an emergency meeting Friday morning.

I'm thinking about how these things happen. If stress, usually what happens is the resignation is simply submitted to the board and the board accepts it, because stress is usually related to something internal, not external. It creates health issues and the like. Yet they held an emergency board meeting on Friday morning and as a result of that board meeting, accepted Quillen's resignation.

Here's something else that happened at that emergency board meeting:

Also during the meeting, the board voted to terminate a temporary election employee, but Luring would not say if these two actions by board were related.

There appears to have been a significant delay in getting absentee ballots out in this county, too. Due to be mailed out on October 2nd, it seems that it took longer than it should. And then there's the weirdness surrounding orders from Secretary of State Jon Husted, ordering local officials not to contact voters by phone about issues with their absentee ballots. Instead, they must contact them by mail, which means a far longer delay in processing those ballots. Here's one story from Butler County, Ohio, via Democratic Underground:

My father had a stroke a few years ago, and he has trouble reading. He votes absentee, so my mother can help him with the ballot. Well, he sent in his ballot a couple weeks ago, and he did EVERYTHING as instructed. Everything was signed, documented, etc. Proper postage and everything.

Yesterday, he got a letter from the Butler County board of elections saying something was not up to snuff with his ballot, and he had to provide one of the following blah blah blah. One of the choices is his drivers license number, which he already included on the absentee ballot. It says he has to deliver it by hand to their office and his deadline is November 16th.

I can think of a couple of possibilities. One, that this Republican elections director had some shreds of integrity in him and defended an election worker who reached out directly to voters in his mostly rural district if there was an issue with their ballot. Or two, that he saw issues with the new voting machines in this county which were possibly raised by that election worker fired, and found himself being forced to resign after the worker was fired. Or, perhaps it was just a tawdry affair between a worker and her boss. Or his boss. Who knows?

Ohio just raises the hackles on the back of my neck in every general election, and this one is no exception. This story has more to it than just stress and a random firing of an election worker. I smell it, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe one of the crack investigative reporters out there like Lee Fang will be able to get a fix on what's going on.

According to a study done by the Brennan Center For Justice, as many as 5 million voters will be disenfranchised by Voter ID laws passed in Republican states.

These new restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election. Based on the Brennan Center’s analysis of the 19 laws and two executive actions that passed in 14 states, it is clear that:

• These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.
• The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012 – 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
• Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.

States have changed their laws so rapidly that no single analysis has assessed the overall impact of such moves. Although it is too early to quantify how the changes will impact voter turnout, they will be a hindrance to many voters at a time when the United States continues to turn out less than two thirds of its eligible citizens in presidential elections and less than half in midterm elections.

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Via JSOnline:

Details of the secret investigation are sketchy, but it is clear the Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating charges that Wisconsin Right to Life offered rewards for volunteers who signed up sympathetic voters in the recall races. Several people familiar with the investigation said subpoenas were being distributed "like candy."

Prosecutors had earlier acknowledged that they also were looking into complaints about get-out-the-vote block parties sponsored by a liberal group, Wisconsin Jobs Now.

There's a little false equivalence in this article, at least, that's how it appears to me. Yes, there are two investigations, but let's compare and contrast the specific voter rewards programs, which in some cases were a lot like the benefits you get for signing up for a new Visa card at the low, low interest rate of 23 percent per year.

Here's the Wisconsin Right to Life Voter Rewards program:

During the recall races, the group had sent an email that described the elections as putting "a pro-family, pro-life state Senate at stake."

It then offered "rewards for volunteers who make an impact over the weekend by educating and encouraging family and friends to vote by absentee ballot."

Those who signed up 15 "pro-life/pro-family voters" by July 5 would get a $25 gift or gas card as a reward. The person signing up the most people in each Senate district would win a $75 gift or gas card.

Awesome. Nothing says vote integrity like a $25 gift card. You might also recall this group as the one who sent out the phony absentee ballot notices to registered Democrats so they'd mail in their ballots a day late.

Here's the Wisconsin Jobs Now Voter Rewards program:

Landgraf also acknowledged in August that he was looking into a complaint by the state Republican Party and Media Trackers, a conservative advocacy group, over what has been dubbed the BBQ-for-votes scandal.

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Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.
-George Orwell, 1984

Evidently Koch Industries believes in stopping Thoughtcrime before it starts, by simply laying it down to their employees this way: You Will Vote This Way, Or Else.

Via The Nation:

The Nation obtained the Koch Industries election packet for Washington State—which included a cover letter from its president and COO, David Robertson; a list of Koch-endorsed state and federal candidates; and an issue of the company newsletter, Discovery, full of alarmist right-wing propaganda.

Legal experts interviewed for this story called the blatant corporate politicking highly unusual, although no longer skirting the edge of legality, thanks to last year’s Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which granted free speech rights to corporations.

Here's some of what they said in that "election packet":

As Koch company employees, we have a lot at stake in the upcoming election. Each of us is likely to be affected by the outcome on Nov. 2. That is why, for the first time ever, we are mailing our newest edition of Discovery and several other helpful items to the home address of every U.S. employee.

This Discovery features election-related information about how government decisions affect us, and about the proper role of business in society (creating value). Charles Koch's editorial reminds us why it is the policies and actions of politicians -- not their personalities or political parties -- that matter most. To help set the record straight, we've also included an informative reprint from the Washington Examiner.

[...]

For most of you, we've also enclosed a listing of candidates supported by Koch companies and KOCHPAC, the political action committee for Koch companies. Of course, deciding who to vote for is a decision that is yours and yours alone, based on the factors important to you. Koch and KOCHPAC support candidates we believe will best advance policies that create the economic conditions needed for employees and businesses such as ours to survive and prosper. [Emphasis added]

Well. I guess if I were walking in the shoes of a Koch employee I might be saying to myself, gosh...I guess I'd better vote the way they say or I won't have a job.

And then I'd burn their damn packet and vote the way my conscience dictated. But not all employees are that bold or that engaged, so I'm sure this little mailing had its intended effect.

You should really read the whole packet. It's fairly amazing. The voter card for Washington "recommended" votes for Dino Rossi and Jaime Herrera on the federal side of the ballot and a whole bunch of Republicans on the state side.

If you work for this Canton, Ohio McDonald's franchise, you'd better be voting Republican if you know what's good for you.

Via ThinkProgress:

Along with their recent paychecks, employees received a pamphlet from their employer on company letter head that stated “as the election season is here, we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future.” While pointing out that the vote is the employee’s “personal decision,” the pamphlet explicitly states, “if the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected we will not”:

The "right people" are John Kasich, Rob Portman, and Jim Renacci for this franchisee.

There's only one small problem with that handbill: It's illegal for employers in Ohio to include anything that will influence employees' electoral decisions with paychecks. There's a reason for that, of course. Employees who depend on the meager income they earn from a McDonald's job will take seriously the threat of not having a job if they don't elect the 'right people'.

Of course, McDonald's has a vested interest in repealing the Affordable Care Act (a promise Renacci and Portman have both run on): Their 'minimed' health plan won't qualify as an acceptable plan under the expanded definition of basic benefits, nor should it. The only people who really benefit from 'minimed' plans are the employers, who get to say they give low-paid employees health benefits, and the insurers, who get to collect 50% of what they are at risk to pay out.

I should also note that McDonald's restaurants are all individually franchised, so this mailer does not reflect the attitude of the McDonald's national franchise. This effort to intimidate employees into voting for Republicans appears to be the brain child of this one Canton, Ohio franchise owner.

But still, it's pretty nervy to actually include a threat in a paycheck that looks like this:

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In Houston, 10,000 voting machines and associated data spontaneously combusts, incinerating the machines and tapes, and leaving a right-wing Republican's allegations of voter fraud standing with nothing to prove or disprove them.

In South Carolina, ES&S voting machines are used to nominate an unknown and non-viable Democratic candidate to run against Jim DeMint.

In Alaska, tea party candidate Joe Miller alleges vote tampering by the Murkowski campaign.

These are only a few of the stories we're not seeing about voting machines and their role in shaping government and politics, particularly in areas with heavy Latino and African-American populations. It could almost be called a pattern -- one that threatens to undermine the fundamental pillar of our democracy: one person, one vote.

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Once again, Diebold/Sequoia voting machines rear their ugly heads. This time it's Arizona -- in Maricopa County. Sheriff Arpaio-land.

Truthout:

Six plaintiffs recently filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County (Phoenix) alleging recently relaxed ballot handling rules ensure a lax chain of control over ballot papers in direct violation of Arizona law. Coupled with unapproved software installed on multiple election department computers, and it creates what the citizen watchdog group AUDIT AZ calls an "interlock." "This makes manipulation of vote counting easy and thus leaves elections vulnerable to undetectable fraud."

In reading the lawsuit, the "unapproved software" is a real eye-opener:

Defendants have installed software on their secure vote processing electronic systems for the specific purpose of communicating critical vote totals over the Internet over cellular communication networks (“cellular modems” or a “tethered cellphone”), in violation of the state-standard procedures manual at section “Election Management System Security” on page 87, items 6 and 7.

This is worse than what I've seen in the past with other voting machines and systems. First, there is no requirement for poll worker certification of the tapes, then observers are ordered not to observe the central tabulator systems, and finally, they intend to transmit the results via unauthorized software on the Internet via tethered cell phones?

Finally, Maricopa County plans to report election totals without segregating mail-in, precinct and provisional totals so that there's no clear audit trail if the count is questioned or a recount is necessary.

Memory Lane: Ohio, 2004

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The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

And here you thought that The Manchurian Candidate was just a taut thriller with the odd casting of Angela Lansbury as Laurence Harvey's mother. Not so, says Greg Palast. It's looking very much like our political future:

I'm losing sleep over the millions — or billions — of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation's U.S. unit; or from the maker of "New Order" fashions, the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Or from Bin Laden Construction corporation. Or Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.

Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC's federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA.

But under today's Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by a corporate alias.

Candidate Barack Obama was one sharp speaker, but he would not have been heard, and certainly would not have won, without the astonishing outpouring of donations from two million Americans. It was an unprecedented uprising-by-PayPal, overwhelming the old fat-cat sources of funding.

Well, kiss that small-donor revolution goodbye. Under the Court's new rules, progressive list serves won't stand a chance against the resources of new "citizens" such as CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Maybe UBS (United Bank of Switzerland), which faces U.S. criminal prosecution and a billion-dollar fine for fraud, might be tempted to invest in a few Senate seats. As would XYZ Corporation, whose owners remain hidden by "street names."[..]

And once the Taliban incorporates in Delaware, they could ante up for the best democracy money can buy.

In July, the Chinese government, in preparation for President Obama's visit, held diplomatic discussions in which they skirted issues of human rights and Tibet. Notably, the Chinese, who hold a $2 trillion mortgage on our Treasury, raised concerns about the cost of Obama's health care reform bill. Would our nervous Chinese landlords have an interest in buying the White House for an opponent of government spending such as Gov. Palin? Ya betcha!

The potential for foreign infiltration of what remains of our democracy is an adjunct of the fact that the source and control money from corporate treasuries (unlike registered PACs), is necessarily hidden. Who the heck are the real stockholders? Or as Butch asked Sundance, "Who are these guys?"

We'll never know.

Scary thought. Richard Power evokes the great Sinclair Lewis cautionary tale of fascism disguised as "freedom", It Can't Happen Here and suggests that the satirical has become too close to the truth:

As craven as much of the leadership of the Democratic Party has become, there is a difference [between the Republican and Democratic Parties], even today, and those who deny that difference are culpable in all that has happened to us. Of course, in the weeks, months and years ahead, there will likely be no difference at all -- because of Citizens United v. [FEC]

As Larisa Alexandrovna points out, in SCOTUS ruling = Powell Memo goal = Fall of democracy..., the decision is not only an abomination in its own right, it is also the achievement of a goal set forth in the Powell Memo.

Now it is not a question of what we must do, but who we are. And the preliminary results on who we are do not bode well.

I actually voted a couple of weeks ago. I sat down with my husband and we dutifully marked our early voting ballots and made our voices heard. Today, I drove some seniors to their precinct to help make sure that their voices were heard as well. And on the drive, I talked with them about what a historic day it was. Almost to a one, these seniors talked about their impressions of the campaign season and how important it was to them to vote today, more so than any other time in their lives. It was almost a cathartic experience for us all. I realized how much weight and stress I've been carrying for the last eight years and what a relief I felt--almost a tangible sense of weight being lifted--to be able to come out and say I want this country to change.

The world is watching us and waiting just as anxiously. I communicate with a fantastic group of women writers from all over the world and our conversations of late have been all about the elections. One Canadian writer (still mourning the results of their own most recent elections) wrote this, and I think it sums up exactly why I support a progessive agenda:

When I vote, I vote for all the children in my country who need to go to school and who need to go to a hospital.

I vote for children who don't get to decide who their parents are -- they don't get to decide if they are born to a nice, caring family, they don't get to decide if they are born with Autism or Down's Syndrome or a learning or physical disability, they don't get to decide if their parents live near a factory with smoke stacks or if their parents are alcoholics or abuse drugs. There is no reason for a child not to have the same basic health and educational opportunities, regardless of who their parents are because I live in a country, like yours, that should be able to afford that.

I felt that way before I had children but when I did have them, it only reinforced it. My son has a disorder and because we were financially capable of me being home, of getting private speech and occupational therapy, of being able to learn the therapies ourselves, he's entered school in the best possible situation for him. We have that money and time, so many others don't... and while it was expensive now, I know he will turn into a productive, creative member of society instead of being limited and potentially a burden to the social safety net.

I don't understand people's narrow-minded view of taxes and being a little "socialistic". It's happening here in my country too so I'm pretty emotional about it. So much of what I read about those who have issues with Obama's ideas sound so much like greed and selfishness. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be rich! I am not against making money and I can't stop an adult from screwing up their lives, but I will always vote for a positive outlook and a government that is attempting to make all lives better.

That it exactly. After eight years of Bush, something I've apologized to my children for over and over, I am voting to make things better for my children and for your children, even the ones yet to be born. The positive changes in this country (the New Deal, civil rights, women's right to vote) have taken place when Democrats were in office and we need those positive changes now to undo the mess we're in.

The Politico has invited people to share their voting experiences. I think this one from Marian Wright Edelman is noteworthy:

A cartoon published in the early 1960s depicted a Black boy saying to a White boy: "I’ll sell you my chance to be President of the United States for a nickel." At the time the cartoon appeared, Barack Obama was a toddler. There were only five Black Members of Congress and about 300 Black elected officials nationwide. The Voting Rights Act hadn’t been passed and the overwhelming majority of Black Southerners were disenfranchised.

On the ballot this morning was a Black man for President of the United States, marking the culmination of a long evolutionary struggle for political empowerment among disenfranchised Americans. My fellow voters—of all races in every corner for America—will consider Obama’s presidential candidacy on the basis of his proposals, his vision and his intelligence.

This is a world-defining and nation-defining election. This morning as I stood in line to vote, I was moved by the realization that finally this is the day on which my fellow Americans are willing to do what Dr. King envisioned: vote for a President based on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.

So ask everyone you know, did you vote for Barack Obama today?