Tuesday, February 5, 2008
THERE, I SAID IT!
I missed the old lever voting machine.I missed walking up to it...pulling the lever to close the curtain...taking a private, solitary moment to double check my choice...and then congratulating myself for getting off my butt to do my civic duty.
The new system made me feel like I was back in class, and someone might look over my shoulder to steal my answer (or the other way around).
And when I went to insert my ballot into the electronic machine, there was a very nice elderly lady standing next to it to offer help. (I rarely use the word elderly anymore, but this lady was, well, elderly.)
And as she stood there, looking down at the machine where she could SEE my ballot, I wanted to ask, “Could you turn away, please?”
I half expected her to scream, “You’re voting for….? Hey everybody, he’s voting for…!!!”
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I mean, she was…elderly.
And she clearly enjoyed handing out the “I Voted Today” sticker.
All part of the process.
Posted at 4:47 PM by Gerry
6 Comments:
And you said it so well!
Linda
I agree, the new system just seems so weird!!! You can't just flick a level to get a whole row anymore and the bubbles.... annoying!!
I mean lever, not level... oops, see if this was a ballot, I would have had to start all over from scratch!!!
It's the next day, and I'm still thinking about the nice lady.
Except now she has a horn growing out of her forehead and x-ray vision.
I agree! I also felt the elderly lady in my town (Enfield) was able to see my vote too, especially since my ballot had to go in a side slot - my voting location ran out of ballots and the photocopied versions did not have barcodes that could be read by the scanner...sure hope it got counted!
I was told I could insert my ballot face up OR down, so chose the latter - and the scanner fairly sucked the ballot from my grasp!
my favorite part of this, however, was the legal-sized manila file folder I was handed, upon which had been written "PRIVACY SLEEVE," and which contained the blank ballot.
I, too, miss the old voting machine!
Post a Comment
<< Home