Monitor: All the News of the World American comment on the mid- term elections

DON'T VOTE. You don't have to. No one's going to make you. This isn't the Soviet Union in the Fifties. You won't be forced from your bed and dragged to the polls against your will. Things are pretty good the way they are, right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Besides, haven't the pollsters already told us who's going to win? Why beat your head against a wall? It's a done deal. It'd be totally different if it actually mattered. But it's not as if we have any real choice. If voting were effective, they would have made it illegal by now. Besides, what difference does it make? One lousy little vote. A spit in the ocean. Don't worry. Be happy. Stay home. This is still a free country.

The New York Times

AS THE mudslinging election season nears its end, it's no wonder pollsters are still registering a high percentage of undecided voters. No one knows what will sway these troubled souls one way or the other. It stands to reason that a single issue could make the difference. But which issue? That depends on the voter - Scrabble players tend to favor candidates with anagramable names, said John Williams of the National Scrabble Association. That makes the governor's race a toss up between George E Pataki (Pig ear to a geek) and Peter F Vallone (Plant free love). Of course, no candidate this year beats Spiro Agnew, whose name is anagramable to "Grow a penis", Williams said. That made him our most popular elected official ever.

New York Post

CYNICS HAVE suggested that it would be better for local, state, and national governments alike if ill-informed citizens were to avoid the polls.

For many years, groups have undertaken studies, or polls, not unlike that "petition" handed out in Baltimore many years ago, to determine what citizens know about what they should know. Inevitably, the results are chilling to those who, like Thomas Jefferson, believe a democracy can survive only with the aid of an enlightened electorate.

Boston Globe

CANDIDATES WILL go to bed wondering whether they've done enough to obtain, or stay in, public office. Time is up. We would like to ask them, did they really mean all those things that they said? A year from now, will they be accessible and responsive, as promised? The winners on Tuesday, will they go into public office with much candor, or a lot of deception? The candidates should ask themselves: "I said many things: did I mean them?" Answer yes, and soothe the public's cynicism.

Daily Herald