(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Did my hard-fought for civic duty and Voted. I didn't want to vote - because I honestly don't care about any of the people running. But I did for two reasons - one - I get the day off to vote, and two - women fought for my right to vote, went to jail, got beaten up, lost families, some even died in order for me and other women everywhere to be able to vote. Also, women do not have the right to vote everywhere in the world, nor do a lot of other people. So, it's not a right I should take lightly.

Was relatively painless, as for that matter was getting a new DVD player. Got a fairly cheap one at Best Buy - Sony. They recommended I don't get the HD model until I'm ready to upgrade to Blue-Ray. While my TV is HD ready, it's not quite at Blue-Ray yet - doesn't have 1081i - because they weren't making those yet in 2004. Got it hooked up and everything - only took an hour. Go me.
As for voting? Ugh. I miss the levers. We used to have levers - you went into a curtained book, clicked the ones you wanted, double-checked, then pulled a lever. Fast and easy. Now...you get a computerized ballot where you color in the little circle next to the name, then carry it over to a scanning machine which scans your results in and tabulates them. The problem with this - is I'm dyslexic and have a tendency to skip down on those sheets. And not realize it. Now I double checked my ballot five times, before I handed it in...but still. The other problem? What if you screw up?
You have to go and get another one. (I didn't.) And what if the computer reads it wrong - which is what happened in Florida two times in a row. Curious to know who came up with this bright idea?

Comments

[kerry-220.livejournal.com]

Voting is compulsory in Australia. We have church hall, cardboard booth, paper ballots and little stumpy pencils.

Low tech...

Voting should be compulsory everywhere.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Eh, that's fairly problematic in a country like the US - with a population of well over 308 million. Plus lots of terrritory, and all the state rules that conflict with the federal ones.
Be a nightmare to make sure everyone voted. They have enough problems getting people to participate in the annual census - where they are counted. And let's not forget all the illegals immigrants.

Another example of what works in your neck of the woods, probably won't work in mine. Because, you know, we have completely different trees and hills, etc.

But even if they could do it? I don't think compulsory voting is a hot idea. People should have the right to abstain. It's always been part of the parliamentary process actually. And it is voting in a way - abstaining. You state by abstaining that you don't agree or like anyone on the ballot. I believe people should have that right. Luckily for me, I live in the US and do. ;-)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That may be 308 billion. I suck at remembering numbers. I got the number from the last Olympics. Can't google - at work.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

Well, some US states give the option of voting for "none of the above." In those that don't, you can just not vote in the races where you'd vote for nobody if you could (I usually do this in judicial races, because it's nearly impossible to find out any info about the candidates to base a vote on)--& you can do that even if that applies to all of them. On the old lever machines, you could pull the big lever back w/out pulling any of the small ones; in the new system, you can scan in a blank ballot. OK, I don't know for sure that the scanner would accept it, but from what I hear, it'll check w/you if you "undervote" & give you a chance to confirm that that's really how you want to vote. In either case, the "vote for nobody" would get counted, which it wouldn't if you just abstained (& then the media would talk about "voter apathy").