Lick Bush in 2004

[plumtreeblossom]

Even though it took an hour and a half, it was worth it.

One might (mistakenly) imagine that a city like Somerville would, among it’s many options for investment, acquired for its citizens voting equipment and technology that isn’t 20 years older than its average resident.

After waiting said hour and a half in thankfully forgiving weather in a line snaking from Chiampa Manor to well past the far side of the Davis T station, I finally reached the polling building and found out what was causing the bottleneck. The voting process was dependant on awkward paper ballots and a single clunky scanning machine straight out of the 1970s. It looked downright populuxe, as a lady fed our ballots into its maw for it to oh so slowly swallow.

My concern is not for any inconvenience of my own – I would have walked on my hands through icy puddles to vote for anyone but Bush. What worried me was that people were seeing the line and giving up and leaving. I realize that Mass is not a swing state, but the votes are important nonetheless, and I hated seeing what were most likely would-be Kerry voters scared away from the poll because of the line. An elderly woman inside remarked that she’d never seen so many young people turning out to vote before, which was encouraging. But if you were one of those people who threw in the towel at seeing the line, go back! An hour or so out of your life won’t matter compared to four more years of Bush.

After figuring out how to use the antique paper ballots, I voted a straight Democratic ticket even though I’m a registered Independent, and went on my way to work.

Rock the vote, people.

Comments

[saturn939.livejournal.com]

I was a little surprised this morning when I went to vote because I'd heard all about the LOOOONG lines everywhere. But I parked, walked in, gave my ID, and went right to the voting booth, not even a line of two or three people. Maybe I just got there at the right time. :)

-Dej

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

I went at 7:30 this morning and was one of 2 people voting... weird

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Maybe there were a lot of Republicans in Quincy and they're all voting tomorrow. ;-)

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

you're probably registered unaffiliated. independent is actually a party. :)

anyway, this is why we should push for electronic voting or possibly even online voting. open source, not diebold.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I've heard several people say that their Kerry vote in Mass isn't important, that Kerry has Mass in the bag. If enough people thought that way, Bush would take Massachusetts.

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

true, but i'm still voting libertarian.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

From my point of view, the big delays came from them having to look up and mark every voter, twice. The machine moves along speedily enough, and I much prefer the paper trail to the debacle of electronic voting as it now stands.

[rdcf.livejournal.com]

I was shocked when I saw how long the line was this morning at Ciampa Manor, then when the line was just as long in the evening I literally got all choked up. I love democracy in action.