Just over 35 hours from now, the polls close here where I live.  And with that, God-willing, all of the political yammering will stop for a short while at least, until we start gearing up for the gubernatorial and Congressional races for 2014.

I don’t think the commercials can end soon enough for my taste.

Still – I’ve been fairly open about the fact that there’s multiple issues affecting how the wife and I going to vote tomorrow.  Insofar as this blog is concerned, I am only evaluating voting based on the candidate’s positions on Autism.  There are, obviously, other issues that I consider important and that affect my voting, but I wanted to make sure that there was, somewhere, a simple “Candidate A’s position on Autism research/treatment is better than Candidate B’s” kind of thing….

And I’m sorry, dear readers, but I don’t have that for you.

The truth of the matter is this – neither campaign has said anything meaningful about Autism during this go-round.  I cannot, in good faith, tell you that one or the other of the major party candidates is worth voting for on the basis of their position on Autism, and in fact, were I to have the option of “None of the Above”, in terms of their positions on Autism, I would have to select that option.

I sent out letters to both campaigns, asking pointed questions vis-a-vis federally guided research and federally mandated insurance coverage.  Only Governor Romney’s campaign took the time to respond, and that was with a form letter about their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  President Obama’s campaign absolutely ignored my letter.

In the debates, President Obama mentioned Autism once (‘autistic children’, if we really want to be specific) in the context of Medicaid coverage, which the Monster does not qualify – I make too much.  Governor Romney, in the same debate (the first one), mentioned altering how Title I funds are able to be used, which would allow low-income families and families with disabled children to move their kids to any school within the same state, but has never given specifics on how he intends to do that.

President Obama, as has been referenced several times in my blog, made three distinct pledges in his 2008 campaign regarding the federal response to Autism, and has not fulfilled any of them.  I know – some of you are going to point out that he could have sent a resolution to the Congress regarding the sky being blue and they would have rejected it on principle.  However… two facts to consider:

• he had a Democratic majority in both houses for the first two years of his term – he could have done it then, and
• he will not have a Democratic-controlled House if re-elected

Neither candidate, in fact, will have a Congress they can work with – it is almost guaranteed, barring a surprise tomorrow night, that the Senate will remain in Democratic control and the House in Republican hands.

Given the lack of any information on what either candidate would do regarding Autism if elected, and given that we cannot assume that the Congress would consider it a priority, I cannot, in good faith, recommend either candidate, based on the criteria I’ve established (namely, on Autism-issues alone).

That said… go vote.  Those who do not vote have no right to complain after the election.