Chicago Election Rules: Vote Early and Often

I know this is supposed to be a sports blog, but on election day I figured I should put up some election news. What better election news than voting shenanigans in Chicago? Well the Chicagoist is reporting that just such shenanigans are occurring, and in true Chicago fashion:

It's barely 8:30 a.m. and already a report of a voting glitch down in Pilsen.
Reader Lindsay sent us a tip, saying:
I was in line by 6:05 and at 6:30 I opted to vote with the electronic booth. Then I noticed something fishy, it was only asking me about Federal races. I had stayed up last night figuring which of the 100 judges was good and deciding how I felt about Con-Con and now I had no say? I asked the election judge who said, that's just the way it is. I know my rights and caused a fuss, saying something was wrong. In what world do you get a smaller ballot if you vote electronically? I then asked another election judge and there was major confusion before that realized that for me and everyone before me they had been using the wrong code. And now they did not know how to spoil my ballot. So in true Chicago style they let me cast my ballot and gave me a new card.

That reminds me of All-Star voting in the NBA and MLB. I always grab like 20 ballots and fill them out with all Chicago starters. The only difference is this is a real election. God Bless Chicago.

Barack O'Balla Returns

In honor of the election Tuesday, I'm going to post this video I found of Barack Obama playing ball. Response to his last video was a bit lukewarm, though I felt he had excellent court vision. This video should convince you that you would pick him up in a playground game. He hits threes here, takes the ball to the hoop and finishes with some touch, makes some great passes and plays good defense. The only problem with this video is the nerdy kid who gives a play-by-play. Sorry about that. Enjoy:

The Obama/Madden Connection

I don't want to get too political here, but Chicago-Native and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has decided to use his campaign funds in an interesting manner. TheHill.com reports that the Obama Campaign will be running ads in the Madden '09 video game.

The Obama campaign has purchased space in the popular Xbox 360 game "Madden NFL 09″ and nine other titles by video game maker Electronic Arts, said Holly Rockwood, the company's director of corporate communications.

Only gamers playing online in 10 states can see the ads, which appear as stadium signage or billboards, Rockwood said. (The ads are downloaded when gamers log on to the Xbox Internet service.) Unsurprisingly, all 10 states are swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. President Bush won all of those states in 2004 except for Wisconsin.

This is pretty interesting for a couple reasons, the first is that it shows that impact that video games are having on mainstream society. The second interesting note is that the Obama campaign is willing to try some new techniques to get young voters.

Obama had my vote when he backed the White Sox over the Cubs.