Voting
Posted by Jules.
So…I voted today for Oklahoma’s presidential primary. It was so strange, though, because I was just sitting at my desk in Wilder. It felt so unofficial and unceremonial. I don’t know…I guess I’m just one of those people that likes getting the “I voted” sticker and talking to little old ladies that volunteer at the polling place. Maybe I’ll feel more official once I have my ballot notarized.
Another thing I thought was weird was that my vote had to be cast in pencil. In light of the past elections and their vote counting problems, I’m not sure that I’m totally comfortable with that. Who says someone couldn’t just erase my vote. hmmm…I guess I’ll just have to have faith in the good ol’ people at the Cleveland County Election Board.
Does anybody else think this is usual for absentee voting? I’m not really that worried, but I just thought it was very strange.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am Using
I had a number of interesting jobs as a child and one of them way to take absentee ballots and change votes. They gave us a giant eraser and paid us a wooden nickel for two ballots.
Since that story is completely made up though, I think your vote is pretty safe. There just must be something about scantron forms that they need graphite to make a measurement.
Being an astronomer, you can invoke the Copernican principle too. You have to assume that your particular ballot is special to get doctored, and anytime you assume something is special it gets proven that it isn’t.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:07 pm Using
So, I’m a little slow on this, but in light of voting in the Cali primary a couple days ago, I was recalling all the different voting machines I’ve used. My favorite was the punch-card style with a little pokey-tool used to make hanging chads. Good times.
Apparently nobody goes to the polls in Oregon anymore; everybody votes by mail, absentee-ballot style, which results in a much higher “turnout”. Kinda sad, really.