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With all the bad stuff getting reported, I just wanted to let you all know about my good experience today voting in my second presidential election. I live in Astoria, New York, so I guess no one's trying to mess with the election here.
I work nights and get off around 3 AM. By the time I bike home, it's about 3:30 AM, so I figured I'd just stay up, get to my polling place early and vote when the polls opened. I left the house around 5:25 AM. I was pretty tired.
I got to the polling place and was disappointed to find about 10 people out front. I wanted to be first. So I waited about ten minutes until the school janitor came and opened the doors. We all walked into the gym and I watched as the voting machines were rolled into place and various set-up activities happened.
I stood with a group of people in the front of the gym, where a lady was checking some cards. They didn't look like my card and I was worried. I waited near the end of the line and the lady got to me. I realized that these were all poll workers and said I wasn't one. So I went and waited in the lobby.
Ten more minutes passed and at 6 AM the lady let those of us waiting (about 30 now) come in to vote. I walked up to my election district machine, showed my card, had some banter with the workers and a girl behind me, they filled out my card, put it in and I was the first person to vote.
I went in and, let me tell you, I don't know what kind of setup your state has, but New York doesn't have pansy-ass touch screens, punch cards or check boxes. We've got a Big Red Lever! You pull this monster to the right. Then you flip black switches next to your choice. Then, and this is fun because you get to touch the Big Red Lever again, you flip the Big Red Lever back to the left to finish voting.
That Big Red Lever made me feel secure. My vote was entered, I said thank you to the poll workers and headed back to my home at 6:15 AM with a spring in my step and a Big Red Lever in my heart. I'm pretty tired now, but I'm going to stay up tonight and watch the returns and dream tonight of a Big Red Lever.
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Vote Save Error #9
when I went down to vote for the next President of the Unites States in Santa Clara California. The screen says "Vote Save Error #9. Use the Backup Voting Procedure." A news crew was on hand to film Californians using the voting machines. I pointed to this particular screen and said "There's your story - right there. I just took a picture of the screen and plan to share it with 6.4 billion of my closest friends on the Internet tonight. I suggest you do the same." To my astonishment, the cameraman did shoot some footage of the screen, though I don't know what was shown later on television.
Now that I've told you the story behind the picture, I need not mention the maelstrom of thoughts that go through my head whenever I look at it - the picture is testament enough. The next revolution will not be televised. The next revolution will be blogged.