Daily Meme: Voting Machinations

We're all about voting and elections today, starting with this Fox News poll showing a wide-open race for the 2016 GOP nomination. Chris Christie leads with 15 percent, followed by Jeb Bush and Rand Paul with 14 percent each, going all the way down to Bobby Jindal with room to move at 2 percent. Looks like it's time for some traffic problems in Des Moines.

New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill bringing the Empire State into the National Popular Vote Compact, which could effectively eliminate the electoral college if enough states join in. Rick Hertzberg explains, in case you need to be brought up to speed.

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' voter ID law. One of the lead plaintiffs is a 78-year-old man who has no birth certificate, and Republicans in the state argue that he suffers from no undue burden in voting. After all, he'll be allowed to vote if he can successfully recite Ronald Reagan's 1984 convention speech backward in Esperanto while performing a one-arm handstand, so what's the problem?

The Obama administration is apparently very taken with the relay race metaphor. When you ask Hillary Clinton about her accomplishments as Secretary of State, she'll reply: "I really see my role as secretary, and, in fact, leadership in general in a democracy, as a relay race." And when you ask Barack Obama whether the next Democratic nominee will be running for a third Obama term, he'll say: "We are all part of this relay race." So the election is the baton-passing zone, the American people are the baton, the tides of history are the track, the hopes and dreams of a nation are the shoes, and the administration's ideals are that sheet with your number on it that for some reason, in the twenty-first century, they still secure with safety pins. Got it.

More and more Republican candidates are auctioning off guns as a way to raise money and communicate to voters that they're serious, responsible lawmakers who plan to work hard to solve problems once they're in office.

Conservative analyst Sean Trende says it's possible-not likely, but possible-that Democrats could actually gain Senate seats this fall.

And finally, a hearty congratulations to election hobbyists Charles and David Koch, whose combined fortune now exceeds $100 billion. That's enough to max out to 19.23 million congressional candidates, at least until the Supreme Court gets around to removing those freedom-constraining contribution limits, or as much as a minimum-wage worker makes in 6,896,552 years. Keep flipping those burgers, Mom.