Monroe County NY Democrats are dusting off one of the oldest political tricks on the books:

Monroe County Democrats have teamed up with High Falls Brewery to offer two free 2-ounce beers to those who register to vote at the festival.

Lots of tut-tutting from the usual suspects, who want to make fun illegal. Personally I have no trouble with it. After all, during the actual election liquor stores are closed to prevent larger units of alcohol from garnering more concrete results.

And two ounces isn't always two ounces. Ellen and I once went to a beer festival in downtown DC. The way the system worked, you got a stack of 10 "pogues" (wooden poker chips basically) with your admission. Each pogue was good for 2 ounces of beer.

Which is what I got when I went up to any of the dozens of beer booths, which were typically manned by big grinning guys who looked like they spent their days lifting kegs onto trucks. What Ellen got in her daisy-dukes, tight half-shirt, and sandals was, well, whatever she wanted. Ellen quickly became the "beer girl", and eventually we ended up sitting in a corner trying to sober up so we could drive home.

To this day she thinks they just weren't paying attention when they filled her glass.