I did my civic duty....

[poltr1]

Woke up late today. The weather here is yucky -- somewhat cold and rainy. Was feeling more tired than I usually do in the morning. So I slept in until about 8 am. Took a shower, dressed, and got out the door.

Voting was uneventful. The pollworkers guided me through the process as if I hadn't voted before. I guess they're trained to do that. I showed my driver's license as requested. (I thought it wasn't necessary to show ID. Did the law change on this in the past two years?) Then I selected my candidates with the stylus on the electronic system. (The hardest part was voting for the judges since there's no party affiliation listed for them.) I was sure to get a printout of my entire vote, just in case. Then it was off to breakfast at Tim Horton's before I headed into work.

I would have liked to have worked for Election Protection this year, like I did two years ago, but my schedule didn't allow for it.

For my colleages in the US: Do the right thing. Vote. I don't care how; just do it.

Comments

[zorya-thinks.livejournal.com]

The identification requirement is new this election. There was a big hoo-raw about it the last few months and for a while there was an injunction to prohibit the state from implementing it. A last minute appeals court decision put it back on line.

I'm glad you could get a read out. The paper in my machine jammed and the results were too squashed to read for the most part.

[ocean-star.livejournal.com]

I had to show ID as well. I didn't think anything of it, as I thought we had had to do that all along. I must be incorrect. It's not necessarily a bad thing, however. Makes sure you are who you say you are and all.

We have a "scantron" voting system in our county this year. It's kind of weird.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I"m of two minds on the topic of requiring ID to vote. You can construct a good case either way. On the one hand, we're now a society that requires ID for darn near everything else, from purchasing alcohol to opening a bank account. Your neighbors can't simply vouch for you any more. Requiring ID will likely cut down on vote fraud.

On the other hand, voting is a civil right, and you shouldn't need state-issued ID to exercise a civil right. You don't need ID on your person to be walking down the street, for instance.

[poltr1]

I'm with you on this. The ID ensures that people vote only once. The bad side of this is that requiring an ID disenfrancises the po'folks who don't have a car and therefore no driver's license. I have no idea if my state issues non-driver-license IDs.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I think all states issue non-driver IDs. They pretty much have to, considering the amount of stuff in today's world for which photo ID is required. The only reasonable alternative is a US passport, and that's considerably more expensive up-front than a nondriver ID.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Some states are requiring ID now. They all may be required to by 2008 by the "Help America Vote Act". It's a political calculation that more demographically-Democratic voters will be disenfranchised than demographically-Republican, sold to the public by playing on fears about vote fraud, particularly illegal immigrants voting. I don't believe there's any actual evidence of this kind of fraud occurring; the vote fraud people should be worried about is where the election officials are complicit.

Ohio's case is particularly special because the driver's license, the preferred form of ID, has a large, obvious number which is *not the driver's license number*; the number the voter is supposed to use for identification is in smaller print. So a whole lot of people filled out their absentee vote forms wrong. Last I heard, the injunction that waived the ID requirement for absentee votes is still in place.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

it appears that the predominant form of vote fraud today consists of keeping people away from the polls by intimidation, moving the polling place, or suggesting that they'll be arrested if they attempt to vote, rather than the casting of bogus votes by the dead, illegal immigrants, etc.

[poltr1]

There are two numbers on mine: the license number, and an unidentified number at the top of the picture. (There's room for a Social Security number, but mine is intentionally left blank.) I always wondered what that number is supposed to represent.