Crayola Voting

I have to admit I have been a bad American and never
voted before this year. I just didn't really ever pay
attention to politics, I didn't care. Well all the hoopla
of over the past year of the gay marriage debate here
in Boston really caught my attention for obvious reasons.
(I'm actually not obsessed with marriage whatever my blog
entries may lead you to believe.) I had never really thought
that anything that I could do would actually ever change
anything, a gift from my parents who are not the most
positive thinkers out there.

The gay marriage debate raged on and during the first
round of voting I was glued to my TV. For the second round
Kate and I went down to Beacon Hill and protested out in
front of the state house. It was an amazing feeling to be
standing out in front of that building knowing what was
transpiring inside and feeling that maybe, just maybe
the protest would make somebody think a little bit more
about what was being decided.

As we all know the gay marriage deadline came and
marriages took place even after the vote moving forward a
proposed amendment to the state constitution. Even though
the proposal went forward, I still felt like there was some
victory. Maybe it's because they couldn't stop the marriages
from happening, I still felt like it would work out.

Because of all of this fun, the fact that Bush
is full of shit, and I think from living in Boston
in general, I felt like I needed to do my civic duty
and register to vote. I got the card and mailed it
in. I was a REGISTERED VOTER! I felt very grown up.

Going into yesterday, part of me felt like Bush would
probably win but I was very hopeful that Kerry would pull it
off. I had never paid attention to campaign efforts but it
still seemed like there was such a huge push to get Bush
out of the White House. With all the get out the vote programs
it seemed like Kerry would have to win.

Election day began as the past few days have for me, crawling
out of bed, trying not to hack up a lung. Despite having the
plague I was still pretty excited to be voting. I remember
going along with my folks when I was a little kid. Our
neighbors always manned the tables and I would stay with
them while my parents voted. I remember one year my Mom
took me into the voting booth with her. You see in
Pennsylvania the voting is in those blue, curtained voting
booths you see on TV. We went in and she pulled the lever
that drew the curtains closed. I thought it was cool. I think
she might have picked me up and showed me all the levers
that were the actual voting mechanism.

Walking over to my polling station yesterday the blue thingy is
what I was picturing. I figured I'd have to wait in line a while due to
the whole huge voter turnout. I got there and there were maybe 5
people in line. They asked me my name and address and found me
in the register. The woman handed me an interoffice mail envelope
and the ballot. I thought this was kind of strange. She pointed me
in the direction of a table in the middle of the room. It was a long
table with cardboard dividers on it like I used during exams in grade
school. Where were the voting booths!! Where were the levers!!
There was a marker, excuse me, I mean a "ballot pen". What the hell
is that!!?? It was a frigging Crayola marker with no cap. I was
supposed to connect the two ends of the arrow by the candidate that
I was voting for. It was barely glorified connect the dots. This is how
I was supposed to vote?? I mean I didn't even get any of the infamous
chads, hanging or otherwise. The ballot only had two races that were
not uncontested. Make the arrow for the president and Somerville
general court. That's it. I DREW THE ARROWS (HOW IS THIS
OFFICIAL??) and put my ballot into the slot in the ballot bin.

I come to find out yesterday that Pennsylvania and New York are the
only states that even widely use the voting booths. Most states make
you fill in the damn scan bubbles like the SATs. I guess the arrows is
better than that, but still. I was somewhat disappointed by the
experience. The whole thing took maybe 5 minutes.

Now Ohio and the rest of the country have voted Mr. Bush back into
the White House for another 4 years. Last time I was hopeful that at
least since he had all kinds of experienced people on his staff that
things would be okay. Well after one invasion, over a thousand
casualties, and one frightened mother that is worried about a new
draft it looks like experienced people didn't really help. Now it is
worse. I have been informed about all the crap that Bush has pulled,
all the lies that he has made, and he says that the people have given
him a vote of approval. I think that the shady nature of the last
"election" maybe kept him in line somewhat. Now he has no
re-election to worry about, has won the popular vote and can move
his efforts forward with all the confidence that comes in that
situation. I hope that Mr. Bush learns from his mistakes in his last
term in office and actually does try to unite the country but I think
that isn't very likely.