I received a sample ballot in the mail and thoughtfully pre-marked it for T. to use when we went to the polls. This morning, we got up - not so early as I had planned... but once we were dressed and had everything we needed, we headed out to vote. Doing our civic duty, don't you know.
We got to the polling place after 9:00a.m. We showed our picture and signature identifications and went into the elections office where we both signed the electronic machines and got our receipts. Stepping to the next window as instructed, we picked up our full size official ballot. We went to a vacant pair of side-by-side voting booths and opened out our ballots. T. asked me if we had to mark both sides? I nodded yes and whispered for him to take out his sample ballot and start voting. He did so and I got down to marking the little circles with the provided pen on my own ballot. So far, so good - until T. got to the end of the line on his sample ballot. It didn't correspond exactly to the official ballot and he'd lost his place. I glanced over and found the slot he needed to mark next and pointed to it. He said he didn't see it. I touched the space on the ballot. He couldn't find the same spot on the sample. I touched that space. He lined things up and proceeded to mark the next group.
We continued in this manner until the end of the ballot - I thought surely someone would come over and quietly ask me to stop interfering with the voting. I was as much up in T.'s voting booth as I was in mine, trying to guide him along. We still needed to flip the ballot and vote the back side.
Flip.
T: "Do we have to mark ALL of these, too?
ME: (Oh, dear - did anybody hear that? I'm sure they did. Pretty soon I expect to be dragged out of here in handcuffs!)
I raised my head and looked over the edge of the booth at T.'s ballot and told him, "Ok, just mark them the same way the back of your sample ballot shows". He started down the row, got to the end of the line and looked up at me - I put my finger on the next row and then on the spot on the sample ballot where that vote was cast. We continued to the end. There were three columns on the back. When we were done, T. wanted to know what to do with his sample ballot. I crumpled it into a ball and then, thinking better of it - I told him to just fold it back up and put it in his pocket. He smoothed it out and did so.
We put our official ballots in the privacy folder and went to the machine to cast our votes. T.'s ballot rolled into the opening. The lady gave him his "I VOTED" sticker and turned to me. I started to ask her for two stickers - but I held my tongue, smiled and took my one sticker and we exited the polling place. I felt better for having done my duty as a citizen. I was also grateful to have escaped censure for disrupting a polling place! I wonder what the fine would have been.
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3 comments:
Perhaps it might be time to utilize the absentee ballot. Less apprehension (in both senses of the word) to be expected. We do it that way. Then, when I go to the library (which is also an early voting precinct) and they try to buttonhole me at a distance from the entrance, I can say that I have already voted via absentee ballot.
Good plan. I may do that next time.
Mark and I voted last Saturday. The line had about sixteen people in front of us when we arrived. We proudly wore our stickers all day long. We decided to eat breakfast first so we would be full of energy just in case the line was around the corner. Several people in the room had conversations, but nobody told them to be quiet. I guess voting rules are like the Pirate's Code of Rules. Guidelines. One patron had her oxygen tank on her left side while holding her ID’s in her right hand. She was determined to vote in person. She wore her red, white, and blue colors and told everyone she was ninety-one. Wow. She seemed to be in a great state of mind. I’m sure somebody drove her there, but I didn’t see her driver.
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