my big chance to vote. Of course, living in Massachusetts, there is almost no chance of John Kerry not winning here (right now he's up 73 to 18 over Edwards), so I could have not voted because no matter who I vote for, it won't change anything, right?
No! I won't do it. I must vote. It's important to have good voter turnout and I want to send the message: I'm a Gen X-er and I vote!
So here is my voting experience in my new voting location:
I enter and approach the table. The big list of register voters sits open while the people behind the table chit chat. Finally, they ask me my name and look me up and check me off. They do NOT ask me for identification. I could have said I was anyone who hadn't voted yet (which I very easily could see from the list just sitting on the table). Then they give me a big pink ballot (which means Democrat) - subtle! I go over to the voting booth, which has no curtain so anyone who comes up behind me can see who I'm voing for. The ballot looks like this:
John Edwards -----
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| Comments (4)
| issues/politics
Comments (4)
URL: http://www.badinfluence.com
Yikes!
Posted by Kenn | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.boston-online.com/common/
I miss the big ol' machines in Boston where you'd pull this heavy lever and the curtain would close with a "K-THUNK" and it was just you and the rows of candidates (I've lived in Brighton and Roslindale, and both had 'em). But fortunately, Boston was smart enough not to replace those with those "tamper-proof" (hah) electronic-only machines (hmm, at least in my neck of the woods). Instead, we have these mini-SAT sheets (with instructions that make it clear that you have to completely fill in the ovals), so if worst comes to worst, at least they still have these paper ballots. Now if they could just get better voting "booths" - the ones they have are like little bank-lobby counters, where anybody can peer over your shoulder.
Posted by adamg | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.livingreflections.com/blog
exactly! At my last voting place, we pulled levers, but you never actually saw your ballot. The place before that, we had cards that we stuck into a slot, then used this pointy device (which could cause physical harm if used on a person) to poke out holes for our selections - and that is just in the City of Boston. Before that I voted absentee from Syracuse. Why is it different in every location?
Posted by amy | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.blogdaddy.com/
When I turned 18 in 1989 and still living at home, the voting booths in my small town (here in MA) were semi-modern for the time. Lever-activated curtain and to vote you flipped little toggle switches. I've since voted in cities in this state and most recently, well-to-do towns. I've had those fill-in-the-arrow cards and the smushed magic marker in every place since voting when I was 18. WTF. It's like voting in 1950. Amazing.
Posted by dave | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15