TRX [OP]
05/20/14
Arkansas party primaries were today. They're not well-advertised, and I'd missed them the last few times.
Of course the polling places are Victim Disarmament Zones. I decided to combine voting with a trip to the Post Office, which I usually only hit once a month now.
Due to the way the districts are gerrymandered, voting is usally a 3 to 4 hour miserable process; 1 to 2 hours if you do early voting. I'd missed the early voting this time, so I thought about bringing my crutches just in case. So, I went to the pollling area...
Voting doesn't start until 10, but the lines usually start forming around 9. I got there at 9:30. There were five or six cars in the lot; apparently all election workers'. I wandered in back to get in line, one of the ladies motioned me over and I handed her my ID. Apparently they figured if they were there, and I was there, there was no reason to make anyone wait. An attitude I wish some local restaurants shared...
Arkansas, being backward and racist, has this idea that, in order to vote on things like laws and taxes and the budget, that you ought to prove that you are actually a resident of the state. I guess I'm a horrible person, because I don't see any problem with that. I handed across my state Voter ID card (which they don't actually require, but send me one every now and then anyway) and my CHCL, which meets the requirement for a "state photo ID." The elderly lady didn't even bat an eye. She checked that my name was in the fanfold printout of voters and precincts, handed back my cards, and I signed the poll sheet.
Then, since this was a primary, I had to declare whether I was voting Democrat, Republican, or Independent. Depending on how you answer, you get a different color-in-the-dots paper ballot for that party's candidates. I never liked that setup much. Regular elections get the electronic voting machines; I was happy to see paper ballots had returned until I was instructed to "put it in the slot" on the way out. The machine looked like a big shredder; apparently it scanned the dots and then shredded the ballot. Besides the fact that, as a former security geek, I don't trust any "electronic" anything with regard to voting, the shredder neatly disposed of any possibility of a recount or verification. But, at least the voting was anonymous, which it is NOT in full elections. I don't feel any need to hide who I vote for, but I was still bothered when the secret ballot went away a few years back.