Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of California in 2010, has an interesting explanation for the fact that she's hardly ever voted, and didn't even register until seven years ago, when she was 46: She was too dedicated to her family to vote.
"I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career, and we moved many, many times," she told reporters. "It is no excuse. My voting record, my registration record, is unacceptable."
As the Sacramento Bee reported, no record exists of Whitman registering to vote until she was 46, and had already had a very active career in business.
To get a better idea of what that number means, let's compare Whitman's political non-involvement to some other politicians, when they were at that age: Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for President at 46; Bill Clinton was elected President at 46; Joe Biden was a third-term Senator who had just run unsuccessfully for President. Finally, Sarah Palin ran for Vice President at a younger age than that, 44 years old.

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PeninsulaMatt
September 30, 2009 1:50 PM
Oh, so that's the problem with today's families; too many parents are voting!
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joevan
September 30, 2009 5:42 PM in reply to PeninsulaMatt
Right.
You rubes in the public: vote because you think civic life actually has to do with your family.
Me Meg Whitman: Couldn't give a shit about civic life until I was in a position to buy myself a governorship. But I care about you now. Honest.
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ManOutOfTime
October 1, 2009 11:15 AM in reply to PeninsulaMatt
Chris Kelly at HuffPo has done excellent, hilarious reporting on Meg. Here's a link to one of six or eight must-read posts he's done ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/meg-whitman-week---monday_b_201413.html
I don't know who our next governor will be, but I am confident it will not be Meg Whitman.
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psyclone
September 30, 2009 1:51 PM
"I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career, and we moved many, many times," she told reporters. "It is no excuse.
That's funny, Meg. If it's no excuse, then why did you just give all those excuses?
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johnmccsf
September 30, 2009 2:01 PM
Oh now I understand
That explains everything.
She’s a fine Mormon
Bet she looks HOT in her Temple Thong
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chard
September 30, 2009 11:49 PM in reply to johnmccsf
She's LDS?
that's it. She must be destroyed.
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ttarleton
September 30, 2009 2:05 PM
Meggins, you are so GONE!
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Steaming Pile
September 30, 2009 2:13 PM
Nobody hires you to be their CEO without a resume. Her career before eBay, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Following her work at Bain, Ms. Whitman held lower level executive positions at the Stride Rite Corporation and at the Walt Disney Company.
Not exactly the stay-at-home mom she's making herself out to be, huh?
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ohyeathatsright
September 30, 2009 2:57 PM in reply to Steaming Pile
Great point and thank you for the link. It seems like a terrible idea to use "family" as an excuse when you're the CEO of a major Silicon Valley player. Anyone in tech knows, family is (unfortunately) one of the last things you get to focus on.
That and you vote once every 2 years (although she's from California and we get all sorts of fun special elections to particpate in [insert eyeroll here]). To claim you didn't have time is ridiculous. Just admit it Whitman, you're a couch pundit (just like my Dad who didn't register to vote until last year).
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heraldsquare
September 30, 2009 2:15 PM
so there was no time at all in the 28 years from when she was 18 to when she was 46 for her to even register to vote once? Not once? Not even to vote in, say, a school board election or on a school district budget? Did her children go to private school or did she just not have an opinion on how they were educated?
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lousgirl84
September 30, 2009 6:53 PM in reply to heraldsquare
46?? that's all she is? She is not aging well at all. Must be all that bad blood in her (lol)
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lousgirl84
September 30, 2009 6:56 PM in reply to lousgirl84
I am corrected. She was 46 7 years ago so now she's 53 and she still looks crappy.
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CT Voter
September 30, 2009 2:16 PM
I can understand knowing about registration records, but why is it acceptable to be able to know whether someone voted in a particular election?
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johnmccsf
September 30, 2009 2:36 PM in reply to CT Voter
Why not?
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CT Voter
September 30, 2009 2:42 PM in reply to johnmccsf
I don't know why this always bothers me, but there's something creepy about people being able to find out about which elections you voted in. It's a couple of steps away from knowing how you voted, which is nobody's damn business unless you choose to tell them.
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phalamir
September 30, 2009 3:42 PM in reply to CT Voter
They can know how you voted. Every time I have voted, some bluehair has very slowly and dliberately wrote the serial number on the ballot next to my name on the voter roll. AS long as they either keep the ballot or a database that keeps the serial number and the choices of the ballot, they can tell exactly how I voted. And considering some of the local robber barons around where I live, I expect they get detailed lists of how people voted before the state does.
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Cal Gal
September 30, 2009 4:14 PM in reply to phalamir
Wow. Really? And does that serial number stay on the ballot, too, or come off with the stub?
I've never heard of such a thing.
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dndobson
September 30, 2009 7:44 PM in reply to Cal Gal
It's called a paper trail and it's a good thing.
I doubt anyone makes a list of names and serial numbers and how the ballot was cast though -- that would require an awful lot data entry. It's just there in case there is fraud in the counting process.
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hunter
October 1, 2009 9:47 AM in reply to dndobson
Um, no. That's called a violation of the secret ballot and that's a Bad Thing.
I don't know where this story about having your ballot identified came from, but I would lay very long odds that someone's mistaken. It's a well-established concept that there should never be identifying marks on the ballot itself. That's why absentee ballots have an inner "security envelope" separate from the outer one with the voter information/signature on it. They verify the voter using the outer one and then remove the inner one before counting, so as to preserve the secret nature of the ballot inside.
If there's a serial number on the ballot that's getting written down by your name, it's either on a part of the ballot that gets removed before counting, or it's totally and completely unconstitutional.
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Lizskin
September 30, 2009 4:14 PM in reply to phalamir
She's not just some ordinary bozo who can't be bothered to value their democracy. She's a corporate leader who wants to become a political leader, and therefore deserves every last increment of scrutiny directed at her!
I'd sure like to hear what her kids have to say about her all-engrossing devotion to them during those years...
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nanorich
September 30, 2009 5:21 PM in reply to CT Voter
Your registration information is public...which is why you receive political ads in the mail, as well as robo calls...
The real reason people like Whitman don't register to vote is because they don't want to do jury duty.
That has changed in California, because they now get your name from both the DMV and Voter Registration information.
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CT Voter
September 30, 2009 5:47 PM in reply to nanorich
I'm ok with the registration information being public, mostly. It's the information about individual instances of voting that troubles me.
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nanorich
September 30, 2009 7:53 PM in reply to CT Voter
Well, if you go to your polling place...you will note that it is public information posted every hour saying which people voted.
Let me tell you something. It is damn helpful for people getting out the vote to know who voted, so they can stop nagging their list of voters.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping track of who votes. It is public information and always has been, and I fail to understand why you would defend someone who doesn't bother to vote, but figures she can buy the job of California governor. Interesting set of priorities you have there.
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johnmccsf
September 30, 2009 2:39 PM in reply to CT Voter
No record of voting = a rich harvest for ACORN voter fraud that's for sure
U some kinda Nazi Obamunist???
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CT Voter
September 30, 2009 2:47 PM in reply to johnmccsf
Probably. See my answer above.
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SchrodingersCat
September 30, 2009 2:29 PM
Who would want a governor that's that bad at multi-tasking?
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benjoya
September 30, 2009 2:52 PM
"My voting record, my registration record, is unacceptable."
and yet we are being asked to accept it. unless she's dropped out of the race.
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benjoya
September 30, 2009 2:52 PM in reply to benjoya
ditto on "It is no excuse" -- it is nothing BUT an excuse.
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cheesenstein
September 30, 2009 2:52 PM
This is the "my dog ate my homework" of non-voting excuses.
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Jim H
September 30, 2009 2:52 PM
Hmmm. Funny, I was just reading this earlier.
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eve cairo
September 30, 2009 2:53 PM
I live in California and would love to vote for a woman for Governor but I'm afraid I'll just be too too busy with my family to get to the polls.
See how stupid that sounds Meg? She's just trying to pander to that deluded Orange County type right wing female. All of which are just as non mommy as she is.
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holyhandgrenaid
September 30, 2009 2:59 PM
Voting takes 5 minutes at my precinct, always has. When I did same- day registration when I was 18, it took a total of 20 minutes.
If you didn't have time Meg, its because you didn't care.
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Dave Bowman
September 30, 2009 3:04 PM
Orange County ain't what it used to be. Whitman will vote once, for herself, then, never again, as she withers like a hothouse flower outside of the right-wing echo chamber.
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Walter Mitty
September 30, 2009 3:11 PM
So everybody who did vote wasn't focused enough on their families?
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mdemploi
September 30, 2009 3:14 PM
Stick a fork in her, she's done....politically cooked!
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johnmccsf
September 30, 2009 3:18 PM
Pete Wilson's doing "Vote-for-me-I'm-rich-and-you-aren't" in 2010
Meg for Governatrix
Carly for Senate
It amazes me how a man who hold such sway over the electoral process in CA stays so far off the media radar out here in CA
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Lizskin
September 30, 2009 4:09 PM
She clearly shouldn't be voting, if she's too dim to push a stroller and punch a voting card at the same time. Or perhaps it was the hard work of reading the news and actually KNOWING something besides Goodnight, Moon that was beyond her.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, that level of willful ignorance is no bar to high office in this great state of ours!
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Cal Gal
September 30, 2009 4:21 PM
She wasn't too "busy with her family" to vote. The uber-rich BUY politicians, they don't vote for them.
I want someone to ask her WHY she wants to be Governor, and ask it over and over until she gives a believable answer.
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Cal Gal
September 30, 2009 4:23 PM
Plus which, I don't trust a woman with a hair cut that bad. Seriously, Meg, get some bangs for Chrissakes.
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Schmed
September 30, 2009 4:43 PM in reply to Cal Gal
Okay, maybe we can allow an exception to the hair rule from time to time.
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sandiewitch
September 30, 2009 4:38 PM
I voted to show my family what public responsibility was and be an example to them of a good citizen We all vote in every election now If you were never interested in the process you don't deserve to run it now She should go be a good grandma or whatever and get out of public service
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NitPicker1
September 30, 2009 5:16 PM in reply to sandiewitch
I hear you.
One of my earliest memories is my mom taking me with her to vote - someone gave me a sample ballot and I took it to the booth and proudly stamped in an "x" for... um, well, never mind, I'm too embarrassed to admit who got my vote. Sadly there's documentary evidence in the family scrap book so I can't pretend I had better political instincts as a five year old.
My child has been with me just about every time I've voted (since he's been born I mean; I voted plenty of times before he came along too!) and until he learned to read I let him drop my ballot in the box or push the "vote" button on the machine.
Once I was getting my ballot, just a couple of minutes before the early voting station closed - not a big election, some local city council run-off or something - and a woman rushed in, asking if she was too late - she was on her way to some family gathering, and as she told the poll workers as they assured her she had made it in in time, "If there's one thing my family does, it's VOTE!"
Meg's family apparently has a different set of values.
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XwordMan
September 30, 2009 5:39 PM
Her husband is Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV, a neurosurgeon, so it's not very likely that she was much involved in his career.
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rb6
September 30, 2009 5:49 PM in reply to XwordMan
Is that a joke? Geez, I hope there's no GRH V.
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Rockridge
September 30, 2009 5:42 PM
I'm moved by her demonstration of family values being too focused on family to vote and all. She's obviously the one to be our governor. The next step would be to privatize the state. So much for voting!
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rb6
September 30, 2009 5:47 PM
Since most polling places are located in local schools, I guess I can deduce that Meg sends her kids to private boarding school? That must be why she didn't know how little time it takes to vote, at least in most elections. If she was moving every six months, I could give her that. It is a bit tough to change registration so often -- but somehow, I bet, she always found the time to change her driver's license. Or maybe she's strictly limo? I guess she'll be a big supporter of motor voter registration?
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lousgirl84
September 30, 2009 6:53 PM
She ain't gettin elected here in Kalifornia you betcha!!! Not if I have anything to do with it.
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Winston Smith
September 30, 2009 7:55 PM
Well, I personally want to thank her for not voting and suggest she continue not voting in the future.
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dndobson
September 30, 2009 8:02 PM
In all fairness, not voting doesn't automatically mean someone would not be a good governor or legislator (or whatever). But making up a lame lie about it sure is indicative of the kind of public servant she'd be...I sincerely hope she stays in for the long haul - an ugly Republican Primary battle will be fun to watch.
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diana.witt
September 30, 2009 11:28 PM
So if she's so focused on her family, why is she running for office. This is what we need, another Palinesque conservative woman spouting family values, and then bailing on the people who supported her. We have many examples of women in public office who also take care of their families. This isn't one of them.
Dianaw
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DuaneW
October 1, 2009 12:04 AM
what a political neophyte!
Meg, if you wanted to be governor, you're supposed to shut up and let this issue die. Instead, not only do you continue to drag this out one more news cycle, you now opened yourself to a whole new, even worse problem. Your rationalization is so obviously bogus and so full of phony self-righteousness that you have now linked yourself with the very traits you should have been running against. You will now forever be regarded as just another power-hungry hack who will say anything to get elected.
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SantaCruz
October 1, 2009 1:10 AM
Ms. Whitman can join a long line of wealthy ex-ceo's who think because they ran a successful business, they are entitled to run California. She has absolutely no qualifications to hold public office. Face it, Ebay was the online equivalent of a garage sale. She basically made money by skimming the top off of other people's transactions. But her lack of participation in the basic right to vote is what will make her toast. If she could get the Republican nomination, which is highly doubtful, Jerry Brown will wipe the floor with her. As a life long Californian, I can say Whitman is a pathetic joke.
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bb_church
October 1, 2009 5:33 AM
My wife and I raised three kids, home schooled them for a few years, traded off working so we be with them and neither one of us missed an election. I took my kids to the polling site and talked to them about what I was doing and why I was doing it. Too busy with your family? C'mon.
And there is a very good reason that a person's voting history is a public record. It insures that Karl Rove can't vote in your name.
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ejg3
October 1, 2009 11:17 AM
This shows a total lack of civic responsibility and that this person is totally unqualified for public office.
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