You can go listen to this announcement at 1PM outside of City Hall tomorrow.
The City of Charlottesville is pleased to announce that Mayor Robin Gardner of Falls Church has accepted a formal challenge by Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris to compete for the highest voter turnout during the November 4th Presidential election. Earlier last month the City began the 2008 Get Out the Vote Drive to promote voter registration, civic engagement, public education, and ease of voting to all City residents. Since 2004 the City has added nearly 9,000 registered voters to the books with more still being added by the Office of the Registrar. As part of that effort Charlottesville’s Mayor issued a challenge to City residents during last Monday’s City Council meeting to exercise their right to vote and assist others who may need help getting to the polls.
In the 2004 Presidential Election Falls Church had the largest voter turnout of any city in Virginia with an impressive 81 percent of registered voters casting a ballot. The Charlottesville rate was 67 percent, less than the 71 percent statewide average. Although considered the underdog, a confident City of Charlottesville is putting up a souvenir bust of Thomas Jefferson from Monticello while Falls Church is offering a sapling of its 2008 Tree of the Year, the sassafras.
“We are both growing cities with wonderfully diverse populations. This friendly gesture is a unique way that we can add some fun to the seriousness of the campaign season,” said Mayor Norris. “We are impressed by the great showing of the good folks in Falls Church in elections past but we are already making some room for a sassafras tree downtown.”
In addition to this challenge, the City announced that all public transportation on the Charlottesville Transit System will be fare-free on Election Day. Polls will be open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m in the Commonwealth of Virginia and most registered voters unable to go to the polls on Election Day may vote by absentee ballot by mail or in person using the instructions below provided by the City’s Office of the Registrar:
Tagged as: voter
Wait, so let me get this straight… we get a fucking shrub and they get a bust of Jefferson? I can pull sassafras out of the ground near my house. LAME. Charlottesville, get with the program, get us some ice.
@1: I had the exact same reaction. I’d rather have the bust of Jefferson than the stupid tree I could grow myself.
Let me amend your incomprehensible title:
“Oh no, he din’nt!”- Charlottesville bitch-slaps Falls Church, telling their Voter turn-out to “Suck it!”.
That is to assume, the bust of Jefferson is worth more than a sassafras sapling. I would think that most Charlottesville residents would be fine with this wager as long as the bronze mold of TJ’s ass is still here in town. You know, the one that everyone is always kissing.
Punctuation’s a hell of a thing, aint it?
Some little known facts about the Sassafras:
Dried sassafras bark, when steamed, creates an oil that is used in ecstasy.
Sassafras was a commodity prized in Euope as a cure for Gonorrhea.
Well, I’m glad to see Falls Church trying to help us out…
so Falls church is saying we are a bunch of hippy trippy liberals with STDs?
@6
and the frayed root was used by pioneers and indigenous peoples as a rudimentary tootbrush.
and there is a weird product at Kroger, a concentrated liquid called Sassafras Tea that tastes like cat’s ass.
And what kind of lame-o city has a TREE OF THE YEAR anyhow?
And isn’t sassafras a sort of shrub, low to the ground and rarely exceeding a yard or so in height?
If we lose, are Charlottesville tax dollars going to be spent purchasing said bust, or is Dave Norris going to pay out of pocket?
@9… next thing ya know, the carpetbagger will make them a sister city.
The mayor of Falls Church will probably send an ambassador to calm things down … or at least to get the receipe for turning sassafras into ecstasy. Good luck ladies.
http://blueweeds.typepad.com/blue_weeds/2008/10/charlottesvil-1.html
BLOG WAR POST WILL BEGIN TOMORROW
perhaps it has already begun!
it’s only tuesday and i can already tell that this is going to be the dumbest thing i participate in all week.
No one beats Falls Church at any kind of contest! We always win. Start getting your sassafras recipes together. We’re gonna win again! I guess I won’t be the ambassador sent to calm things down?
Voter turn out in Charlottesville - Never had it, never will. Go FCVA!
@3 I’m still so very lost and shaming my fellow English majors. I can’t see the problem!
/Feels like she’s staring at one of those “spot the differences” picture games on the 25 cent games that sit on the bartop. And you’re staring at some generic ripped naked construction dude whose tool is covered with a tool in one picture but is missing in the other and it’s so obvious you just can’t comprehend that that’s the piece that’s missing.
@17: He changed it after I posted that
@18 Well, that makes me feel a little better but does nothing for a Chuesday night-induced hangover.
/Isn’t a little strange that people thought we were one and the same on here?