[Sca-cooks] Expression of Citizenship OT

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 9, 2006, at 12:18 AM, Sue Clemenger wrote:

> Wow! That's something! I was the 2000th something just in my  
> scanner machine
> (paper ballots that are slid into a scanner here), and there were  
> several at
> my polling station.  We actually hit record high voter turnout  
> yesterday.

Ah! The worst of both worlds ;-), from a security perspective...  
We're still using the clunky-but-largely-tamperproof flip-the- 
triggers-and-pull-the-big-red-lever booths, and I think it's pretty  
cool that they've got more of Thomas Edison's design than Dieboldt's.

I was looking for local voter turnout percentages, and haven't seen  
them yet, but I suspect they were higher than they'd been since most  
of the campaigning really seemed more aimed at getting people out to  
vote than at changing anybody's mind.

> People were still voting at midnight, apparently, because some  
> lines were so
> long.  Not mine, although I did have to walk in a rain so hard it was
> bouncing off the sidewalks, and it just doesn't *do* that here! I  
> think
> parts of me are still damp!
> Montanans had a lot to think about and vote on this year, so maybe  
> that's
> part of it?

Could be. Most of the NY elections seem to have been pretty decisive,  
and pretty clearly forecast, which is why all the campaigning seemed  
sort of dream-like: most of it was a formality. I actually never saw  
any campaign ads in any medium for the gubernatorial candidate I  
actually ended up voting for (the guy that won was probably the best  
all-around candidate, but he didn't need my vote to keep his party on  
the ballot for next time, and the other guy did).

And, of course, I can't guarantee that my little polling precinct,  
out of G-d knows how many, is characteristic of everybody's  
experience. It was just a little surprising. Maybe things were really  
busy in the evening.

Adamantius