response 114 of 264:

Aug 13 21:39 UTC 2003

There was an article in the New York Times earlier this week on how 
crazy the California recall process is.  Basically, with hundreds of 
candidates on the ballot, it would be logical to list everybody running 
alpabetically by last name, so you'd know where to find your candidate 
on the ballot.  But thats not what they are doing.  They actually held 
a LOTTERY style drawing where they picked letters of the alphabet out 
of a hat or something randomly, and the first letter chosen determined 
the first person on the ballot.  So that if the first letter was "G" 
and alphabetically, somebody named George Gaaronson was the first 
person with the last name G whose name comes up, he'd get listed first 
on the ballot.  But then the second person who appears on the ballot 
WOULDN'T be the second name listed alphabetically under G, it would be 
the first person listed under the second letter of the alphabet that 
comes up in the drawing.  Or something like that.  Totally absurd.

So what you'll have is several hundred people on the ballot, with the 
names all scrambled and in no logical order, so you'll have to look 
long and hard to find your candidate's name.  This probably means LONG 
lines on election day.  

Also there are stories that there are right wing groups gearing up to 
go hard negative on Arnold.  Arnold is a Republican, but he is a 
moderate, and even worse for some conservatives, is pro-choice and an 
environmentalist.  Those folks would rather have a DEMOCRAT as governor 
than a pro-choice tree hugger!  One article said they may use in ads 
outtakes from Arnold's "Pumping Iron" movie, the documentary about 
Arnold's bodybuilding days in the seventies, which show a young Arnold 
smoking a marijuana joint, exhaling and laughing.  Yep, this campaign 
could get nasty!  I mean unlike Clinton, Arnold couldn't even at least 
deny he inhaled, because its on tape!  :)