Judging Me, Judging You*

Thankfully, we're inching ever closer to Election Day, and the most common question I've been asked, right after "is it over yet?" is "what's the deal with judicial elections? How do I know who to vote for?"

This is a hard question, because it is often challenging to figure out what a judge thinks about issues you care about. Sure, you can look at your past rulings, but those are not always readily available, and quite frankly, none of us have the time to make sense of legal transcripts and briefs. And how do you know what someone thinks if they're running to be a judge, and haven't ever served before?

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Another Primary?!

Until someone corrected me on Facebook, I thought the New York State primary election was Tuesday the 6th, instead of Tuesday the 13th of September, because I am only human. This was embarrassing to me, because for all I tout the importance of state and local elections, this is my second time getting confused by them.

Back in June, I tried to go vote for my Congressman (Representative Hakeem Jefferies, currently one of the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People, and a truly beautiful soul) only to find out he was running unopposed. I arrived at the school polling site to find it closed, and had to call 311 and the Board of Elections to find out that Congressman Jefferies didn't have a primary challenger!

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North Carolina Hate Bill #2

North Carolina recently signed a bill into law that prevents cities from passing LGBT non-discrimination ordinances. That's a problem because North Carolina doesn't have any specific statewide protections in place to prevent discrimination towards gay and transgender people. Seeing a gap in protection, the city of Charlotte passed a bill outlawing discrimination towards gay and transgender people.

Not willing to let city laws be out of step with the state, the North Carolina state government passed a bill that overturned the Charlotte non-discrimination law. The bill also mandated that students use bathrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, and prevented cities from raising their minimum wage, which had nothing to do with anything except that the state house does not appreciate when localities try to enact progressive provisions that are counter to state law.

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NYC Elections Guide

My number one fan, Elyse, suggested I write a post about the upcoming elections in New York, and create a comprehensive guide to when they are, and why they're important. Many of my readers are in New York, but if my New Mexican friends want a similar guide, or anyone else is confused about elections, you can let me know by putting your state in the comments of this post!

April 19th is the Presidential Primary in New York, but that isn't the only thing on the docket that day. The governor has also scheduled special elections for three Assembly districts and one state Senate district. So if you live on Long Island, you have a chance to potentially elect a Democrat to fill a Republican's old seat. The Assembly districts of lower Manhattan, Staten Island, and eastern Brooklyn. Only the Manhattan district is contested, the others are Republicans or Democrats running unopposed.

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It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's...Superdelegate! Faster than an electronic voting machine, more powerful than a group of Democrats in a caucus, able to leap over previous delegate counts in a single bound!

Much like Dear Abby, I answer the political questions that I am sent, and this week, I was sent the same question by three different people. After Hillary Clinton won enough superdelegates in New Hampshire to tie Bernie Sanders in the delegate count, people were abuzz, wondering what these superdelegates were and why they have so much power.

Let's clear up the biggest misconception first. Yes, superdelegates is one word, thank you very much spell check.

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Iowa and New Hampshire: Not That Important

New Hampshire has a rich history, beautiful natural scenery, and some of the best apple cider I have ever tasted. And I'm so incredibly lucky that I do not currently live there.

With primary season fast approaching, living in Iowa or New Hampshire must be like living inside of the CNN Situation Room. Candidates are ramping up their political ads, increasing the number of door-to-door canvassers who go out and try to convince voters, and probably calling every landline phone at all hours of the day. What makes these two states important enough to suck up the news cycle for months leading up to their primaries (or caucus, in the case of Iowa)?

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Your Top Six Primary Questions Answered!

"We all believe in the First Amendment, the guarantee of free speech, but we accept that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater. We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people."

As President Obama reminded everyone when he spoke about the executive actions he was taking on gun safety, he taught Constitutional law. His new executive orders on guns weren't created to eliminate the 2nd Amendment, but to regulate it, the way we regulate all the other Amendments (except the 3rd, I don't think anyone has ever brought a challenge to the 3rd Amendment).

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Death: Overridden

Today, legislators in Nebraska voted to repeal the death penalty, making them the first conservative state to do so in over 40 years. This marks the end of a long hiatus on the death penalty in Nebraska, with their most recent execution being in 1997.

There are still 30 states that allow the death penalty, even though many, like Nebraska, haven't executed a criminal in years. New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty in 2009, hadn't executed anyone since 2001, and the only reason the execution went through is that the criminal said he did not want to appeal anymore, and chose to die. He had been on death row since 1986.

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