Election Day

So I'm generally a pretty cynical person. I prefer to be apathetic as well. But no matter what I think about the government, its existence, shape, and form are what allow me the freedoms that I have today. So I participate.

This election is a scary one for me. I've decided that I really can't deal with having Bush in office. Really. So my vote is one of compromise. 4 years ago I voted for Nader. I would not consider myself a green, but I don't consider myself a member of any party. But I agree with the greens on more things than with any other party. But I can't vote for him this time. I am not one of those people that thinks that Nader is screwing everything up and inappropriately stealing Gore votes. I'm very glad that he's running. But this time it's much more important to me for Bush to not be in office, which means Gore has to win.

So I went to vote. I felt a little weird taking pictures, I tried not to take pictures of people for the most part, at least not the people voting since voting and one's vote seems to be a very private thing for many. Outside the polling place a man was distributing fliers with all the liberal judges listed. A crib sheet since you are not given any indication on the ballot itself. As I pulled it and my visor out I felt like I was cheating. Strange. Of course I wasn't, this wasn't a test, but it feels a lot like taking the SAT or the GRE. Luckily I had as much time as I wanted...

We had a fairly simple ballot, though the language on it was pretty stupid. Choose Not More than One. Give me a break. There was also a lot of reading to do on this ballot. I can't imagine how hard this is for ESL people, or people that just don't read well. I didn't see any thing there for spanish speakers. I hope that there were some accommodations. In any case, here's the front side of my ballot. Draw a line to form the arrow. No butterfly ballot, but it was still not nearly as simple as it could be. This is the problem when one learns about design, ones always thinks about how to design things, and how to design them in a more useful or pleasing way.