VA Election: The End May Already Be Here

Voter Fraud Crackdown for Tuesday's Va. Election
[WTOP Radio]:

"Because the Virginia gubernatorial contest is so close, there are some concerns about problems at polling places, including voter fraud.
For the first time the U.S. Department of Justice will be monitoring for voter fraud in a statewide election in Virginia. The Election Day Program is designed to deter election fraud and discrimination at the polls."

I don't know how the VA Elections will turn out. I do know that the polling going in had Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore in a very tight race. Over this past weekend, just days and hours before the election day, I've also witnessed smear campaigns typical of my part of NoVa.

Today's Washington Post Today notes:

The State Board of Elections fined the Kilgore campaign $100 yesterday for sending a misleading mailing to Democratic voters. The mailing purports to be a "progressive, Democratic" voters guide comparing Potts and Kaine but actually was produced by the Kilgore camp. Last week, the board fined Kaine for producing a similar mailing that appeared to be from a conservative anti-tax group.

But this doesn't even make mention of the robocalling incident launched late over the weekend. (My wife and I received two different versions of the call on Sunday and Monday).

Daily Kos offers this diary entry:

So here's the deal -- the Republicans took statements Kaine has made and spliced them together to put together this out-of-context call. The horrible music in the background is there to mask the splicing.
This call is being played in liberal areas. A different spliced version of the call, talking about how liberal he is on choice and all those other hot-button social issues, is being played in conservative areas.

The text and MP3 of the robocall are available here.

Again, I don't know how the election will end. But I do know that I am sickened and appalled at how low and dirty local and state politics has become. And I am certain it has become so in part because of the increasing polarity played out with increasing hubris on the national level.

A modest proposal: For all the grassroots growing that my wife and I have entered into since May 2003 on behalf of many a progressive group, individuals of good will, and people of faith, we hope that we can "take back our country" not by running our wing against their wing. We hope instead to bring moderates of both sides together because the worst in each end is tearing us apart.

We believe in better angels. And we believe in a better end than just winning.