PHH: HOPE and CHANGE has come to your local Board of Education!

Hey you! VOTE!

Votey Vote Vote! Today! Who cares if it's an odd-numbered year and the only elections on the ballot are your local garbage collector, New York City Mayor For Life, South Carolinian Sex Ambassador to Argentina, President of Afghanistan, and American Idol Justice. That's OK. It's important to vote. After all, once the Brownshirts in power enact their terrible health care and net-neutrality, we will lose the right to vote (READ THE BILL!!!11 IT'S RITE AFTER DETH PANLEZ!), so this may be your last time. No matter how you vote, Fox News will declare this as *proof* of the American people's rejection of Obama's Socialist policies (a full year after wholeheartedly approving them!) All because you voted for Jim-Bob as your Village Comptroller and Ray-Ray as your township Ombudsman, so thanks a lot. And you never know what kind of crazy ballot initiatives some loons snuck on the ballot, like making it illegal for gay ferrets to share the same cage. Outrageous! (Spoiler Alert: there are no ballot initiatives) I voted, and I can assure you that there were no crowds, unlike last year...and they still had "I Voted" stickers, you guys!!! They'll give them to you, even if you aren't wearing your sexxxy costume from Slut-oween.

So congratulations, Patriot! DON'T TREAD ON ME, amiright?? You can even use your time in the voting booth to reenact your historic vote last year when your vote for Hopey McChange got torn to shreds by the optical scanner machine, but it didn't matter, because Connecticut,yo!!

Exit the Polling Place and proceed directly to PHH: Off-Year Election Edition, tonight. We will gather around and watch the returns come in for County Sheriffs around the nation. I'm sure CNN will have floating maps and holograms, and maybe holographic floating maps. Liberty Fries, Democracy pitchers, and those silly campaign straw hats for everybody! Red, White, and Blue Rock Tavern, 369 Capitol Ave. Hartford.

--Tim Russert's Ghost

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Hartford: Elections TODAY for Board of Education

With all the media attention surrounding the national elections, citizens may have not noticed that there is an extremely important election here in Hartford: that for the three available seats on the Board of Education. There have been several forums around the city to educate voters on their choices between the status quo of the Democratic ticket, the constantly changing Republican ticket, and the Working Families Party ticket consisting of two incumbents and a CREC teacher, Robert Cotto, Jr.* Two blogs that have been doing excellent jobs following the campaigns and forums are Real Hartford and Hartford Cityline (who has profiles of the individual nominees).

If there is to be any change that will truly effect our school system, then we must VOTE ROW C, Working Families Party candidates Elizabeth Brad Noel (a long time advocate for the students of Hartford Public Schools since her days at Weaver High School), Robert Cotto (a product of the Hartford Public School system, teaching its students at a magnet school in Bloomfield who knows what teachers need to educate the students), and Sharon Patterson Stallings (a parent and grandparent of students in the system and advocate for change).

The Board of Education consists of 8 members, 5 appointed by the mayor and 3 elected by the people. For such an important role, that is horrendously disproportionate. It offers very little debate between political powers and the voice of the people. As an unaffiliated voter, I take no comfort in knowing that one political party mandates the single most important entity that is responsible for educating the future of our city and nation. Children in Hartford have historically been underserved in the education system. While the 3 members for the people may seem small, the voices of the people will be carried by the Working Families Party to make certain the children of Hartford and their teachers will succeed.

*(Disclaimer: I've known Robert Cotto, Jr. for several years and consider him a friend.)

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