Headed down the middle of the four-lane again. Climb on board at any of our three convenient stops.

• Drive-through executions. Not to be outdone by Texas or other states that may have more death row inmates, Georgia officials are moving quickly to execute ours first and fastest now that the U.S. Supreme Court says it's OK to use a lethal injection method for humans that most veterinarians won't use on dogs.

MIKE KING MY OPINION • E-mail King Recent columns: Co-op members have choice to make  Leaders misuse development tools  Make roads safe so that 'routine' deaths decline  'Maverick' Zell's cave of confusion  Cobb still leery of TADs  Pay close attention to these races  Fresh board provides opportunity to start anew

Georgia beat out all other states to restart the Capitol Punishment Derby on May 6, when it executed William Earl Lynd for the 1988 murder of his girlfriend. It plans another execution for tonight; Samuel David Crowe will be put to death for a murder he admitted to 20 years ago. On Monday, the state supreme court lifted the stays of execution for two other death row inmates, Jack Alderman and Curtis Osborne. They are scheduled to be put to death soon.

At this pace, the state needs to use a squawk box for defense attorneys filing last-minute appeals outside the Supreme Court building in downtown Atlanta. Perhaps it should just go ahead and set up a drive-through execution chamber in the parking lot. Or how about this? Next year, the Legislature could authorize carbon monoxide poisoning so the inmates don't have to leave the car.

Capital punishment — no matter how popular politicians think it is — does not deter crime. Because humans administer our justice system, mistakes happen. Innocent people will die. There is no uncruel and routine way to carry out the death penalty. At some point we will come to understand this, but as of now we seem willing to delude ourselves into thinking we are safer because of it. We aren't. We are only less humane.

• Election madness. On June 10, there will be a runoff election for Georgia House District 93, the post vacated when Rep. Ron Sailor (D-Lithonia) resigned after he pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering charges. Dee Hawkins-Haigler and Malik Douglas got the most votes (263, combined) during a special election that was held May 13. The turnout for the first election was 1.5 percent of the district's registered voters. The winner of the June 10 runoff will serve through Dec. 31.

Now, stay with me on this. On July 15, five weeks after the runoff, voters in the same district will go to the polls in the Democratic primary to select the District 93 representative for the next Legislature, which begins in January. Two of the candidates in that race are Dee Hawkins-Haigler and Malik Douglas. They are joined by four others in the primary. (There is no Republican candidate in the race, so whoever wins the Democratic primary will be unchallenged in November.)

Let's say, just for fun, that Hawkins-Haigler wins the runoff, but Douglas wins the primary. That means that for six months Hawkins-Haigler will be a state representative even though the Legislature isn't in session, only to give up the post to Douglas in January, when it actually convenes. Or the reverse could happen. Or the two could be in a runoff for the primary again and face each other for a fourth time in August. (If you are keeping track, that would be May 13, June 10, July 15 and Aug. 12.)

It doesn't get much more fun than that ... except maybe in Cobb County, where the following election-year scenario looms:

School Board member Teresa Plenge, who represents District 7 in the south-central part of the county, decided not to run this year. Qualifying for her school board seat ended on May 2. Alison Bartlett, a Democrat, and Ron Younker, a Republican, will face off in November to replace her. (Cobb has partisan school board elections.)

But last week Plenge decided she wants to resign her post effective in June. That means a special election, scheduled for Sept. 16, will be needed to find someone to finish Plenge's term through the end of the year. Will Younker and Bartlett be on the ballot in that election as well as the one six weeks later in November? Yes, they will. But other candidates could join them since special elections are considered nonpartisan. So the September election is really pretty meaningless. Whoever wins it will serve only three months. The November election between Bartlett and Younkers is the only one that counts.

You can't script a better story line for low voter turnout.

• The last word (hopefully) on the Marietta bar and Obama T-shirts. Enough.

• Mike King is a member of the editorial board. His column appears Thursdays.