After all the discussion and debate, Earl and I naturally exercised our right to vote this evening. It was a heartwarming experience on many counts.
First of all, it is refreshing to use the tried and true mechanical voting machines that are so common here in New York State. You simply flip the lever over the candidates name and then you move the handle to let yourself out of the booth. No hanging chads. No computers with questionable and secret programming. No rebooting. It’s refreshingly simple and accurate. Other states should follow suit and dump these ridiculous touchscreen voting machines and go for the mechanical systems. In this case, screw technology.
Secondly, Earl’s change of address was not registered properly (apparently anyone that sent their change of address to Albany didn’t get registered properly, at least in this area), and the election officials in the Town of Marcy went out of their way to make sure that he was able to vote. They followed the rules to the letter, without question and without complaint.
And lastly, I was astounded at the number of new voters, young and old, that I observed in the fifteen minutes we were at the polling place. It was nice to see so many citizens caring about government for a change.
While Earl and I are really hoping for a Kerry win, we’re proud that we had the right to vote, regardless of the outcome.
