Election day rambles
from msilverstar's lj:
I voted two weeks ago, one quiet Wednesday evening after work. The early voting place was the local public library. I didn't have to wait in line. My sample ballot had a bar code that was scanned, a label with my name was printed for me to sign, and voila -- on to the voting machine. The whole process took less than ten minutes, and most of that was reviewing the paper printout of the ballot to make sure it was right. Besides the presidential election, there are a lot of hotly contested local elections and ballot questions, so yeah -- I had a lot to vote for.
Last night I heard on the news that out of the 238,000 registered voters in our little county, 101,000 had voted early. That's amazing. That's a higher percentage than for most general elections.
I also heard on the local news that our area's been hit with robo-calls telling Democrats that their voting place has changed, and giving a new location that doesn't exist. :/ Lovely. I composed a whole rant in my head based on something I read yesterday about stuff like this that disturbed me, but instead I'm just going to say this:
Dirty tricks in politics are nothing new, but they're still despicable. To say that it's no big deal because people shouldn't be that gullible is the same as saying the victim of any scam deserves what they get because they were stupid. It's blaming the victim, not the criminal, and that sucks. Things like this will continue until the people in the political party on whose behalf these dirty tricks are being done take a stand and say "enough!" You can be proud of your party but still be against the dirty tricks.
Apparently Orlando's getting some flack for this:
I don't understand why. Although only people in the U.S. can vote, the election has consequences beyond our borders. Everyone has a right to voice an opinion.
Anyway, under the cut is a video of Orlando getting out the vote for Obama. I'm sure you've heard it a hundred times, but if you're registered in the U.S., please vote. If the lines are long, take a good book to read or listen to your iPod. You have to stand in line at the bank and at the pharmacy. Sometimes you even have to stand in line at Starbucks. On this one day, stand in line to exercise your right to vote.
I voted two weeks ago, one quiet Wednesday evening after work. The early voting place was the local public library. I didn't have to wait in line. My sample ballot had a bar code that was scanned, a label with my name was printed for me to sign, and voila -- on to the voting machine. The whole process took less than ten minutes, and most of that was reviewing the paper printout of the ballot to make sure it was right. Besides the presidential election, there are a lot of hotly contested local elections and ballot questions, so yeah -- I had a lot to vote for.
Last night I heard on the news that out of the 238,000 registered voters in our little county, 101,000 had voted early. That's amazing. That's a higher percentage than for most general elections.
I also heard on the local news that our area's been hit with robo-calls telling Democrats that their voting place has changed, and giving a new location that doesn't exist. :/ Lovely. I composed a whole rant in my head based on something I read yesterday about stuff like this that disturbed me, but instead I'm just going to say this:
Dirty tricks in politics are nothing new, but they're still despicable. To say that it's no big deal because people shouldn't be that gullible is the same as saying the victim of any scam deserves what they get because they were stupid. It's blaming the victim, not the criminal, and that sucks. Things like this will continue until the people in the political party on whose behalf these dirty tricks are being done take a stand and say "enough!" You can be proud of your party but still be against the dirty tricks.
Apparently Orlando's getting some flack for this:
I don't understand why. Although only people in the U.S. can vote, the election has consequences beyond our borders. Everyone has a right to voice an opinion.
Anyway, under the cut is a video of Orlando getting out the vote for Obama. I'm sure you've heard it a hundred times, but if you're registered in the U.S., please vote. If the lines are long, take a good book to read or listen to your iPod. You have to stand in line at the bank and at the pharmacy. Sometimes you even have to stand in line at Starbucks. On this one day, stand in line to exercise your right to vote.
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