How Not to Win My Vote

Anyone that has visited us from out of state in the last month has been shocked by the insane amounts of political commercials, door knocks, phone calls, and social media ads that happen on a daily hourly basis here in Colorado. I chalk it up to white noise most of the time - and the Frozen DVD doesn't have commercials - so our day-to-day routine isn't affected too much. However, a few incidents have managed to put me over the edge in the last week, so I've turned to you, my friends in the blogosphere, to rant about a few campaigning tactics that are wasting lots of time, money, paper, and certainly not winning my approval.

1) Do not, under any circumstances, ignore the brightly colored Post-It note on my door. 

This happened a few days ago, and I thought maybe the gentleman knocking was distracted or missed the note the first time he rang the doorbell. By the second time, however, when I came running down the stairs, I know he saw it and he really should have ran down the driveway and hidden his campaign hat instead of trying to engage me in conversation over the crying toddler that HE woke up.

2) If you care about the environment, (or you want me to think you do), please understand that burying my child in leaflets is not going to help your cause.

I forgot to get the mail one afternoon. By the next day, I could not even open the mailbox. There were so many leaflets shoved in there that I had to reach through the little letter slot and try to bend them down just so I could yank the door open. Once I finally gathered them up, I carried them inside, dumped them on the floor, and let my toddler jump in them like a leaf pile. If trees are going to be killed, at least put paint by number pictures or mazes on the back, because otherwise they will inevitably turn into paper airplanes. 

3) Your photoshopping is an insult to my intelligence. 

This lady is running in Colorado:

Her campaign photo looks like a sweet grandmother who might have been a teacher at some point and may or may not still volunteer part time as a librarian... but then this arrived in the mail: 

And, well, now I'm not sure if she is a librarian or a demented scientist with man hands and a hump back. I mean I'm so confused. But there is hope, because this pretty soccer Mom is also running: 

Oh wait, this just came: 

I can't cast my vote for a scary space cadet. And she's extremist? Man, now I'm really lost.

I know its someone's job to pick the most heinous photos of their opponent, but if these absurd images (and subpar photoshopping) are fooling people, I'd like some addresses, because I have some supplements they may be interested in:

My brother-in-law made the point that a lot of negative ad campaigns do not set out to change voters minds, but instead to keep people from voting at all. With that in mind, I am refusing to allow these people to annoy me to the point of apathy. And yet I can certainly see how it works. Everyone appears evil, corrupt and ugly - so why vote at all? I'm mailing in my ballot tomorrow, after looking over a few seemingly unbiased voting guides* (if you have others to share, please post them in the comments below)... Then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will take me off their lists and leave me alone for a few months before the presidential campaigning begins. 

*National Elections: http://www.campuselect.org/nonpartisan-voter-guides.html

*Colorado Amendments and Propositions: http://www.colorado.gov/bluebook