VOTE

Don’t forget to vote today if you live in California. Your polling place will almost certainly have changed, so you will want to look at your official sample ballot or visit http://www.lavote.net/.

The place I always vote had changed who could vote there. They had stationed all older adults who didn’t really speak English and one very young girl who did. They tried to coerce me into putting my vote in a “Provisional Ballot” which is a pink envelope that has a checkbox in it for Count or Don’t Count, so they can decide whether to count your vote. The explanation on the side of the envelope seems to indicate that, unless you moved or something, your vote will not count if you just happened to go to the wrong place. Another woman who was there told me that she had her polling place changed and told me the nearby street my new polling place probably was. The people working there tried to discourage me from going there. I went home to check where I was supposed to be and then went to the correct place to cast my vote so that it would be properly counted. I pressed hard and I made sure there were no hanging chads and I compared the numbers punched out with what I had pressed in the ballot.

I thought it was sort of weird how open the voting booths were for this election. I’m pretty sure we are supposed to have secret ballots. I don’t much care in this case, except on principle. I voted NO on the recall. I don’t think our governor should spend all his time running for office. We already have an election process to replace the guy if we don’t like him. Adding extra elections is just a waste of money when it is not like the guy is a genocidal baby raper.

I thought it was cool that I could vote against the recall and also vote for a candidate for governor if the recall did succeed. I voted for Larry Flynt. I voted against spending more money and I voted for prohibiting government classifying people according to race etc.

Whether you would vote the way I did or not, if you are a Californian and an American, you should hit the polls today because it is really important to our way of life. More so now than ever, with all the oddness we have had with recent elections. Exercise your rights and keep your rights.