I’m just glad I didn’t need my voter registration card, which arrived in the mail on Friday, November 16.

Now, I can’t blame the Postal Service for late delivery, because the postage wasn’t printed on the card until November 15.  Take a look for yourself…

Except I hadn’t.

My wife did vote by absentee ballot and someone working for the court wrote the information for my wife, next to my name.

That’s when was sent to the corner to enter the World of the Provisional Ballot.

I had to give information dating back to where I was born (I was tempted to write “next to my mother”, but didn’t), when I was born, etc., then seal that in an envelope, and seal that envelope in another envelope before inserting my now, double-sealed ballot in a yellow cardboard box with a slit in the side.

But at least I did get a lot of personal attention and an “I Voted!” sticker.

A former Alabama gubernatorial candidate and staunch opponent of gay marriage has reportedly been donating sperm to women in New Zealand–some of whom were lesbian couples.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Bill Johnson, a conservative Republican who unsuccessfully campaigned for the governor’s spot in 2010, used an online alias, advertising his “services” to couples who were unable to conceive on their own.

Johnson allegedly met with at least 9 women who received sperm donations from him, 3 of whom are now pregnant. At least one of those couples were lesbian couples.

“When I married (my wife) I knew we couldn’t have any more children,” Johnson told the Herald, acknowledging that he donated sperm because “having children of my own was a need that I have.”

The Birmingham native has been in Christchurch, New Zealand since this spring, helping with earthquake relief efforts.

The newspaper says it spoke with Johnson while he was dining with one of the women he helped impregnate, saying “There is nothing my wife would want to give me more in the world than a child of my own.” The couple, who have been married 8 years, are unable to have their own children because Johnson’s wife, Kathy, has had a hysterectomy.

Kathy Johnson, a former two-time Miss Alabama and Miss America Finalist, was not as supportive of her husband’s decision, telling the paper “My heart is broken.”

“He assured me I was everything he wanted and my children would be his,” she told the paper.

Kathy Johnson has three children from a previous marriage.

“My heart is broken,” she said. “I have no idea what life holds for us in the coming days.”

When Johnson was asked whether his wife knew about the sperm donations, Johnson replied simple: “she does now.”

After the initial story broke, Johnson claims the paper used unethical and illegal tactics, including phone and internet hacking. The paper claims it received an “anonymous” tip via email.

The two Johnson’s both have long histories working in state government and charity organizations.

Bill was a former Birmingham City Councilman, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, and an education advocate for the company Ceres Environmental, who is helping rebuild Christchurch and Haiti after devastating quakes there.

His wife, along with her pageant career, has directed organizations including The Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen pregnancy, Children First Foundation and the Alabama Broadband Initiative, as well as working for the state finance department as a public affairs director.

One lesbian couple, who are now pregnant, said that Johnson gave them permission to come forward with their story. Johnson did not respond directly whether his feelings on gay marriage had changed or whether he felt same-sex couples should be allowed to raise children.

The paper also asserts Johnson could face trouble in New Zealand, as state law only allows one donor to provide sperm to no more than 4 families. It is also unclear whether Johnson followed that countries guidelines on private-party assisted pregnancy.

Dawn Quarles says there’s no way she could have gotten them mailed to the Supervisor of Elections office in time.

The Pace High School teacher may be the first person fined for violating Florida’s new election law. The old law gave third parties 10 days to turn in applications.

The Republican-sponsored law has drawn fire from critics who say it will suppress voting by minorities, young people and the elderly who often tend to vote Democratic.

Quarles agrees.

She called the new law “crazy” and said it’s an example of why the United States has the worst voter turnout among the Western democracies.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Lowell Krumnow, 54, who has been mayor of the Village of Elmore since 1992, is being challenged by his older brother, James “Jim” Krumnow, 58, in the city’s non-partisan election November 8.

According to village councilperson Rick Claar, Lowell Krumnow served on the village council from 1982 until 1992, ultimately becoming its chairman. In 1992, he was appointed Mayor after the incumbent resigned his seat to move to a neighboring town.

Lowell’s brother, Jim, was elected to the village council in 2002, essentially to “cancel out” what his brother was doing, Claar said.

“They are polar opposites, Jim and Lowell,” Claar said. “Jim hates politics, and the only reason he got into the council was to counteract what his brother was doing.”

According to Claar, Lowell has been a major supported of industry recruitment and infrastructure upgrades. Lowell has said he supports installing a new $1 million power substation to prevent outages and increase power output to help recruit industry. The town suffered a major power outage recently, and the subsystem is necessary to keep up with population and business growth, Lowell says.

The city is also facing an almost assuredly mandatory sewer and waste-water plant system upgrade, and Lowell’s plan is to join the city’s own 4 water wells with a nearby water system. The total cost of the regional water system upgrade would cost about $4 million–a plan to Jim is vehemently opposing.

“With Lowell’s push to get more business here, we have a problem with some of our water treatment as far as how we can serve some of the new businesses coming to the area,” Claar said. “Lowell really wants to get some new business in here, and Jim is saying we don’t need any of that stuff. If people want to keep our rural atmosphere then we don’t need water systems, we don’t need to spend the money on that substation.”

Lowell is also working with the council and neighboring city and county governments to develop a Joint Economic Development District, another proposal his brother is fighting tooth and nail.

“Jim doesn’t want anything to do with it because he things this whole area should stay as it is: lots of farm land,” Claar said.

While the two brothers have remained “mostly civil,” Claar said, it is clear that the gloves are off in this political street fight to govern a village of no more than 1,400.

“It’s been kind of fun, seeing all the attention going on about this rivalry,” Claar said. “They really haven’t gone at each other too much, they’ve been pretty civil.”

Even so, Claar and other media outlets report the relationship between the two brothers can be described as “distant.” Even though they live less than five doors down, the two communicate through others, and when in public together rarely speak to one another.

Lowell, who has served for almost 30 years in village government, seems confident about his chances of re-election. But Claar and others in town have warned him not to declare victory just yet.

“When you serve that long, you’re bound to end up making someone mad,” Claar said. “And from my standpoint, everybody is trying to embrace what Jim is wanting to do: expand.”

The two even differ on one of the town’s highlight events: motor casket racing. Each year near Halloween, village citizens attach caskets to motorized chassis and race them around the town. The tradition, started by Lowell some years ago, is unpopular with his older brother.

“Jim’s not really keen on it,” Claar said.

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Sources: The Blade, AP, Politico.com

Paige Parnell

Former Miss America first-runner-up, ventriloquist and inventor Paige Parnell has livened up an Alabama House of Representatives special election for a seat just outside of Birmingham.

The seat became available after the death of Owen Drake (R-Leeds), who was elected in 2006 and re-elected again in 2010. Drake died of cancer at the age of 75. Gov. Robert Bentley (R) called the special election to fill Drake’s seat.

Parnell, running as the only Democrat for the house district 45, is an unlikely candidate—and an even more unlikely winner. She’s an outspoken performer in an area that is generally known for its conservatism, in both politics and personality. But her campaign is picking up steam, thanks to her somewhat strange and delightful talent and even more so to her campaign’s strange and even more delightful tone.

“I have come to the conclusion that I will be great down there in Montgomery,” Parnell rcenetly said, “because I am good at working with a bunch of dummies.”

Parnell, who was crowned Miss Alabama in 1980 and selected as the next-in-line at that year’s Miss America pageant, is a self-declared “straight talker.”

“I speak my mind … and I’m also a very fair, balanced person,” she recently told a local newspaper.

Parnell’s opposition in the Nov. 29 general election is Leeds businessman Dickie Drake, Owen Drake’s brother. Dickie Drake defeated Irondale’s mayor Tommy Alexander in a run-off election Oct. 11. Drake and Alexander moved onto the run-off after a primary election Aug. 30 eliminated another Leeds businessman, Michael Sumners.

Part of what makes Parnell stand apart from her more straight-laced opponent is her humor, her candidness, and certainly her talent­—and she’s getting asked at nearly every campaign stop to demonstrate.

But Parnell wants to distance herself from her ventriloquism career, saying at a Democratic fundraising event that she “was really trying to get away from that.”

“I have to sort of accommodate these requests,” she said. “You can’t say no. That’s like saying ‘No, I don’t want to see a picture of your baby.’”

While there is no definitive public polling going into this race, campaign filings are the only litmus test for a candidate. And one thing’s for sure here: neither Parnell nor Drake is a dummy.

Drake has raised nearly $28,000, but his war chest has been depleted by the Republican primary and then a run-off election. To fight for his older brother’s former seat, Drake was left with only $755 in the bank as of his latest campaign finance filing.

The two have been flinging accusations about campaign finance reports, too, with Drake saying the House Democratic Caucus failed to disclose a contribution made to Parnell’s campaign. Parnell countered, asking to have Drake removed from the race because of $5,500 in unreported PAC contributions to his campaign.

While only slightly ahead in fundraising, Parnell has been able to hold on to much of her campaign contributions, spending only around half as much as Drake. She also was able to hold on to nearly $6,000 in contributions, according to her latest filing. In this race, Parnell’s bank account—and not her dummies—are doing the talking.

Parnell received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a law degree from Arizona State University. She clerked for the Arizona Supreme Court, and spent much of her life traveling as an entertainer and public speaker. Parnell owned a small advertising agency, which she sold in 2008.

Parnell also invented the Ventrilomask, a plastic face mask that turns anyone who wears it into a ventriloquism dummy.

For clips of Parnell performing and the Ventrilomask, visit her YouTube Page.

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Source: Leeds News, Alabama Secretary of State