Tuesday, November 04, 2008

We're taking bets that I was an American and I voted today...

Well it has been four years since my last vote post. I am in a different state now and it was a very different experience, but weirdly kind of the same. I was in a library instead of being with the masons. There was a strategically placed bake sale for an elementary school right outside. (I only spent three dollars, but they didn't give me a receipt so I could claim it on my taxes.)

So I walked into the library after a creepy guy complimented my Red Sox hat as he tried to give me a pamphlet. I refused because he wasn't being green and because at this point if I don't know who I am going to vote for then I should have never showed up. The place was crawling with old lady helpers, but there was one neat addition. There was a high school kid telling everyone that they need to hide or throw away the pamphlets in the voting room. He was vigilant and no one could get past him. I gave my information to the nice lady who looked me up and had a little problem finding my name. It might be because she didn't expect to see a Latino last name from me and living in Hamden, but I digress.

Once I got my ballot that was actually on an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper with simple instructions to fill in one circle in each column. I was then sent to a voting booth. The booths are not really booths, but tables with a three sided cardboard on it to block my votes. There also was a sharpie pen. It was pretty exciting since I was told this is a new system. WoW! Shiny new cardboard.

I filled out my ballot and got in line to put it in the fun counter machine like thing. Four people had actually screwed up their ballot and voted for too many people. There was only 6 people in line including me. This was a very easy thing. Fill in one circle in each column. There was six columns so you should have had six circles filled in. Holy crap we have a lot of dumb people in this world. I put my ballot in and another younger adult gave me an "I voted today" sticker. (It is nice to know that young people can be a part of the process but only in the sticker giving and pamphlet preventing.)

I then bought some baked goods. Went to Starbucks and paid for my coffee because I didn't need free coffee as an incentive to vote. Okay that is not entirely true; I did get the small coffee too, but only because the guy handed it to me because of my sticker. This has been a historic election and I hope my guy wins.

1 comment:

Maggie Moo said...

Being my first time ever voting in MA I was very surprised at how the process went. We didn't even have the 3 sided privacy guards-just a little triangle of wall which didn't conceal much. It didn't bother me much b/c I don't care who saw my vote but it didn't do much for the secret ballot.

I'm still sad I didn't get a sticker. I guess it wasn't in our budget. Which is so weird.

But anyway-YAY FOR OBAMA AND YAY FOR US!!