Got up a little early this morning to go vote in the primaries. The church where I vote is never packed especially for a primary so I thought I would be able to roll in around 8 a.m and roll out by 8:15 at the latest. Well the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, because nothing ever goes to plan I wasn't out of there as quickly as I thought.
Turns out the voting machines were not working, because a certain very important piece of plastic was missing. In order for the machines to work they have to place a plastic card in the machine. Guess what they forgot to deliver to the polling place? So, I and about a dozen other early morning voters had to fill out scan tron ballots this morning, otherwise known as provisional ballots. Now if this had been the general election I probably would have stood there and waited until the actual voting machines were working, because I know that no matter how good I am at filling in a circle with a number 2 pencil mistakes have been made and I will not take a chance that my ballot will be one of thousands being poured out over a table while people try and decipher my intentions.
When I started voting 15 years ago we had those old metal boxes with the curtains. You pulled a leaver when you entered the booth, clicked the little metal tab under who you wanted and then pulled the leaver to exit. You really felt like you were voting. Now its all scan tron forms and computer touch screens and has all the warmth and romance of going to an ATM or filling up at a gas station. In two months time we will all go to the polls as a nation and hopefully the foolishness of the last few General Elections will have dissipated, but if this morning is any indictation of the improvements made since 2000, well let's just say that there are still plently of people who still can't get their act together enough to drop off a little plastic card.
Don't let them turn you away people, get in there and vote, even if it means you must experience flashbacks to the SATs to do it.
2 comments:
you weren't the only one with problems it appears...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200535.html
it's weird... can they do that? delay an election? Doesn't that just scream voter fraud?
If this had been a General Election I would have been screaming bloody murder. But this is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy. We look like a joke when this stuff happen. And I think more and more of us are starting to see the system falling apart at its foundation, when we can't even vote anymore.
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