Thursday, October 21, 2010

I voted today














Whew! Even though I ignored the plethora of judicial races (I have no idea why Nevada has such a bewildering tangle of different courts), it took me about two hours sitting at my computer to look up and read about all the other candidates in the wide assortment of elections on this ballot. I always vote absentee, whether or not I technically qualify, because I prefer being able to do it all at once, rather than mark some sort of sample ballot at home then have to copy the results onto an official ballot at a polling place. The Review-Journal has a handy and reasonably neutral voter's guide here, which helped streamline the research process.

Because I didn't trek out to a poll, I didn't get one of those "Kiss Me, I Voted" stickers. But I feel that somebody should kiss me anyway. Volunteers?

4 comments:

Andy said...

The ballot would be a lot shorter if we had an official language.

Rakewell said...

It wouldn't take any less time to fill out, but yes, it would be physically shorter. I, for one, resent the expenditure of official funds for election materials in languages other than English. If I moved to some other country, I would not expect to be catered to by having my ballot drawn up in English.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I'll probably be voting for no more than 2 or 3 of the folks you voted for....but good luck:-)

Mark T said...

I can't help but notice in the scans that you do what I used to do - draw a thick line between the two arrow halves, by sort of "coloring it in" at the same thickness of the arrow.

Much to my astonishment, an official notice went out in my county last year that said we are *not* to draw thick lines between the two halves, and doing so risks non-tallying of the ballot. Instead we are to draw "a single, thin" line between the two halves. They went to the trouble of printing out a flyer with lots of "don't do this" pictures and one "this is correct" picture, and that flyer is now taped on the polling place stations. One of the "incorrect" pictures explicitly shows a thick, colored-in line clearly connecting the two halves, just like what you've done (and what I did for years).

Seeing that flyer gave me great pause, and I am now careful to draw only a single thin line.

I have no idea if my earlier ballots were tallied or not. It seems silly if they weren't, but then this entire paper ballot system is fairly silly.

I can only suggest you check with your local election authority to find out if you've been "doing it wrong" for years, as I was.